Lakita

Item: Lakita
Author: Steven S. Baldwin

(1998)

Reviewed by Steven S. Baldwin

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Label N*Soul RecordsThe Phantom Tollbooth1998

dance pop hip hop r&b

We really have come a long way, baby! Back in the early Eighties there was virtually no such thing as Christian dance music--those terms were considered mutually exclusive, an oxymoron like fresh frozen or military intelligence. Then along came a few brave souls, like Kim Boyce, Amy Grant and even new wave poster-boys, Daniel Amos, who experimented with coupling distinctively Christian messages with big, fat dance beats. Those risky early efforts gratefully paved the way for the acts that would follow, even allowing a label entirely dedicated to Christian dance music to be born and flourish: N-Soul Records.

Enter Lakita. Her credentials for the job of Christian Dance Diva are practically peerless. For starters, she is a stunningly beautiful woman with a mile-wide smile, a fact which helped her garner the Miss Black America California award in 1995 and runner-up to Miss Black America the same year. Her work as a model has graced major publications. As a professional entertainer in Los Angeles, she has appeared in countless commercials and TV shows. More importantly, she is one of the principal spokespersons for Athletes for Abstinence and the True Love Waits Campaign. As an accomplished speaker on various urgent issues such as anti-racism, abortion, AIDS and abstinence, she has a national reputation having spoken to tens of thousands even from the steps of our nation's capitol.

The youth of America would do well to substitute Lakita's disc or tape for the more sexually explicit, and even outright blasphemous ditties being penned and performed by her dance music peers. If you're looking for ten songs of hope and healing, encouragement and faith-filled admonishments, you'll find a whole busload here, including the number one single, "Speak to the Hand" and the massive groove-fest "Make it Right:"

You feel so empty inside.
The loneliness you cannot deny.
Searching every day, trying every way
To find the answers for your life
Friend, there's hope for you.
All you have to do is to put your life in His hands
He'll make it alright. Oh yeah! Alright!
He can heal the deaf and give the blind their sight
Want to be set free from sin tonight?
Just give it up to him, and He'll make it alright.

Curiously, most of the lead vocal work on the album isn't performed by Lakita herself, but by Tonyona Holloway, with Lakita concentrated on the rap vocals, dialogue bits and BGVs. This raises the question, did the producers feel that Lakita was not much of a singer in her own right, or merely just a figurehead for this project? The one song which she is clearly credited for lead vocals, "Ladies Anthem," shows that she does have the talent when she chooses to use it. To both her and Tonyona's credit, both are pleasant but somewhat generic singers for this genre.

Fitting neatly and completely in an already well-established musical style, Lakita's soulful R&B/Hip Hop sound conjures many other artists like Expose, TLC, Salt N Pepa, The Winans, Brandy, Janet Jackson and even a smidgen of Anita Baker. If you're looking for a sanctified version of those sounds, you'll find a comfortable earphone full here. The emphasis is on dance-able beats, slick vocals and chipper raps, and the production is crisp. Christian music has rarely been as hip to the Hip Hop scene as this. Regrettably, there is also very little variation from already well-established sounds. We can be grateful that Lakita has not adopted the sexually explicit content of the Prince's and Janet Jackson's of the world, but we could've hoped for more of their creativity. A real cutting-edge Hip-Hop album that pushed the edges of this genre into new territory could have made more of a lasting impact. However, Lakita's mission to use solid dance music to spread a message of purity and virtue to our culture awash in a decadent sea of sexual images, violence and substance abuse, is more than admirable, it is an example that more should follow. Oh yeah! Alright!

3 tocks