John Reuben

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John Reuben
Background information
Birth name	John Reuben Zappin
Born	January 14, 1979
Origin	Pataskala, Ohio, USA
Genre(s)	Christian hip hop
Occupation(s)	Rapper
Years active	1990's-present
Label(s)	Gotee Records
Website	http://www.johnreuben.com

John Reuben (born John Reuben Zappin on 14 January 1979 in Columbus, Ohio) is a Christian artist signed to Gotee Records. Reuben has sold over 200,000 copies of his first four albums.^[1]^[2]^[3] He released his sixth album, Word of Mouth on February 6, 2007.

Reuben has toured extensively, opening for popular Christian music artists Relient K, Five Iron Frenzy, and TobyMac.^[1]

1 Background
2 Discography
- 2.1 Contributions
3 Trivia
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Background

Raised in Pataskala, Ohio, a suburb of Columbus, Reuben got his start in rapping by taking the bus into the city to rap on open mic nights and participate in rap battles^[1] at the age of fifteen.^[4] Reuben later released Monuments, an independent EP, which caught the attention of Gotee Records. They took a chance, signing him to the label and releasing his first project, Are We There Yet?, in 2000.^[1] TobyMac provided vocals for the album's final track, "God is Love".

Reuben's next release, Hindsight (2002), continues his use of a wide variety of musical genres and thoughtful, often funny lyrics. The album was praised as a "truly eclectic and creative hip-hop album that blends old-school sounds with progressive production."^[1] Once thoguht to be a Christian version of Eminem,^[4] Reuben's first two releases established him as an original, witty, sarcastic musician, as well as Gotee's top-selling solo rap artist.^[5]

Professional Rapper (2003) marked Reuben's debut as a self-producing artist. The album is noticeably different from his previous efforts, using more instruments and less DJ sampling for the tracks. Along with these differences, the album is noticeably darker in both lyrics and feel. It includes several somber tracks which allow a glimpse into Reuben's struggles and self-doubt. Adrienne Camp of The Benjamin Gate contributes vocals to two tracks on the album.^[5]

The following year Reuben released So In Hindsight the Professional Rapper Isn't There Yet (2004), an album of remixed versions of songs from his first three albums.^[6]

The Boy vs. The Cynic (2005) continued Reuben's trek from the silly, egotistical songs which characterized his earlier work to music that's far more somber and meditative. Albeit, the silly tracks are still around. Reportedly, when the time came for him to submit his work for the album, Reuben turned in enough tracks for two albums, one light hearted, the other more serious. Rather than releasing a two disc release, the label decided to splice them together into The Boy vs. The Cynic. Relient K's Matt Thiessen contributes to the album's second track, "Nuisance". Tim Skipper of the band House of Heroes appears on the track "So Glad".^[2] Most of Reuben's songs use "traditional" musical instruments, typically the guitar, though he experiments with many different instruments and musical styles.

Reuben is currently 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 on YouTube.

His sixth album, Word of Mouth, was released on February 6, 2007. Allmusic.com called Word of Mouth an "unqualified triumph" and said that "You won't find a truer, more honest, or more celebratory album this year."^[7]

[edit] Discography

Album Cover	Year	Title	Label(s)
	2000	Are We There Yet?	Gotee
	2002	Hindsight	Gotee
	2003	Professional Rapper	Gotee
Image:Reuben john remix	2004	So In Hindsight the Professional Rapper Isn't There Yet	Gotee
	2005	The Boy vs. The Cynic	Gotee
	2007	Word of Mouth	Gotee

[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)

Reuben was also mentioned in Toby Mac's song "Gotta Go", on 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 "Thank yous" of the CD booklet for Relient K's album Mmhmm, it lists "John Zappin" then says "(but 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".