Lecrae’s ‘All Things Work Together’ An Emotional Culmination Of Past Experiences

By Mark Braboy

While Lecrae Moore was physically amid the hustle and bustle of promoting his new album, All Things Work Together with a listening session and a press run throughout New York City, his heart was elsewhere. Like many around the U.S., he was watching much of his hometown of Houston, Texas fall from Hurricane Harvey, despite maintaining his naturally pleasant and positive disposition.

“Most of the time, I’m say ‘I’m good’ but really when the city of your birth and your family is underwater, it’s tough. I ain’t going to lie to you,” he explained when asked about his current state of mind.

Thankfully, the Houston rapper and co-founder of Reach Records can truly count his “Blessings” knowing that his family is alive and well today. Keeping this in mind, his heart remained heavy knowing that many others across the Southeast Texas area, and now across Florida, the Caribbean islands, and Puerto Rico, cannot say the same.

“The good news is that everybody’s alive, everybody’s safe,” said Lecrae when asked about the well-being of his family. “I guess on the downside it’s just that people are displaced. There’s some other circumstances where people are just trying to figure out what’s next. Some people’s jobs are underwater so that whole situation is real complicated.

Considering the tumultuous climate we’re living in, it seems highly appropriate that Lecrae’s All Things Work Together (from the book of Romans 8:28) would come right in the midst one of the country’s worst hurricane seasons in history, ongoing dog whistle bigotry and police brutality, and of course, an inept, white supremacist presidential administration (which Lecrae leaves no stones unturned about at all).

This album, unlike his work in Anomaly, is a more emotional view into what Lecrae’s personal life has been throughout much of 2016, which he describes as “hell.” All Things Work Together is both a cathartic and inspirational album that shows how adversity, depression and suffering, matched with faith can eventually lead to something magical.

“Obviously, my faith is a central part of who I am and I felt like that verse, 8:28 just communicates that all things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose and realizing that there’s a purpose for everything that happens to you. You take the negative, the bitter, the pain, the suffering, the depression, and all of those are ingredients for something far more purposeful than you can imagine,” explained Lecrae.

While the “Blessings” rapper readied the release of his album Anomaly and his mixtape Church Clothes 3, Lecrae endured a very rough time in his personal life. One of them being the passing of his longtime friend DJ Official (affectionately named “Fish”), from bone marrow cancer. The time between 2016 and 2017 was one of the darkest periods of his life, where he eventually found light at the end of the tunnel, a theme that lends to the tone and structure of All Things Work Together.

“For me, 2016-17 was hell and there’s no way around it for me. I went through pain, depression, fear, doubt and all of that was a journey that I was able to write through and then I wrote when I was coming out of that dark place as well. You can see the journey happen and when it was all said and done, we were all like, ‘man, I found hope in chaos. So, let’s write an album about finding hope in chaos.”

In a recent interview with VIBE, Lecrae talked about his new album, the passing of DJ Official, Hurricane Harvey, the internal conflict with organized Christianity, his visit to Egypt and much more.

All Things Work Together available on iTunes now.

This post Lecrae’s ‘All Things Work Together’ An Emotional Culmination Of Past Experiences first appeared on Vibe.