John Reuben

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John Reuben (born 14 January 1979 in Columbus, Ohio) is a Christian rapper.

1 Background
2 Discography
3 Contributions
4 Trivia
5 External links

[edit] Background

John Reuben (full name John Reuben Zappin) has contributed to Christian and secular albums alike, and has been frequently releasing albums as of 2000, as has fellow Christian rap artist KJ-52 and the group Ill Harmonics. Much like KJ, as well as Ill Harmonics, Playdough and other names in the world of gospel rap, John Reuben uses a rap flow similar to mainstream artists, but has a slower pace and gives the lyrics more focus. As some may find the album title Professional Rapper to suggest, his lyrics are arguably the most refined of all Christian hip hop to date, generally excluding all but one slice of urban slang (the laughter, often used to retain an appealing flow), although Reuben often uses less sophisticated dialogue while appearing on a "street" rapper's album, his appearance on Black Sheep inspired "The Choice is Yours", available on KJ-52 Presents Collaborations.

Zappin is a good friend of Toby Mac, who executive produced his 2005 album The Boy vs. The Cynic and provided vocals for Are We There Yet's final track, "God is Love". Also appearing in John Reuben's songs are Matt Thiessen of the band Relient K, Othello and Adrienne Camp of the now dissolved The Benjamin Gate, and Tim Skipper of the band House of Heroes. In addition to John Reuben's surprisingly sophisticated style in lyrics, most every song of his (not counting the duets) takes advantage of "traditional" musical instruments, typically the guitar, though John Reuben experiments with many different instruments and musical styles.

Reuben is currenty working on a reality show detailing his "rise" to stardom while poking fun at many of the conventions of reality television. The pilot of the show can be viewed at youtube.com.[1]

He is also recording his fifth full-length studio project, to be titled "Word of Mouth" . The expected release date is February 6th, 2007.

[edit] Discography

Are We There Yet? (Gotee Records) (2000)
Hindsight (Gotee Records) (2002)
Professional Rapper (Gotee Records) (2003)
So In Hindsight the Professional Rapper Isn't There Yet (Remix) (Gotee Records) (2004)
The Boy vs. The Cynic (Gotee Records) (2005)
Word of Mouth (Gotee Records) (Releases February 6, 2007)

[edit] Contributions

Extreme Days (Compilation, 2001)
Collaborations (KJ-52, 2002)
Ring Leader: Mixtape 3 (DJ Maj, 2003)
Roots (The Katinas, 2003)
Just Ragga (Compilation, 2003)
X 2004: 17 Christian Rock Hits (Compilation, 2004)
X 2005: 17 Christian Rock Hits (Compilation, 2005)
Sens (The Evan Anthem, 2005)
Hip Hope Hits 2006 (Compilation, 2005)
Freaked! A Gotee Tribute to dc Talk's "Jesus Freak." (Cover Compilation, 2006)

John Reuben was also mentioned in Toby Mac's song "Gotta Go", of Welcome to Diverse City. In it Toby's fan Cupid holds a conversation with him via telephone and finds that the rapper is "hanging with John Reuben". In response, Cupid asks Toby Mac to tell him that he says hey, which leads the fan to mention a demo he sent him, of which Toby Mac was not intent on listening to.

[edit] Trivia

In the CD booklet for Relient K's album Mmhmm, it lists "John Zappin" then says "(NOT John Reuben)". Reuben is John's middle name.
In the song "Re-record", the website referred to is played backwards. When reversed, it says "Fill in the blank" .com.
John Reuben's music is featured in the Christian video game Dance Praise. The song included with the game is "Life is Short". The Dance Praise expansion pack, Dance Praise Expansion Pack Volume 2: Rap/Hip-Hop, adds the following John Reuben songs to the game: "Out of Control", "Treats", "Doin'", "Divine Inspiration", and "Do Not".