Reviewed by Mike Rimmer

The return of The Bone! It's been too long since we heard our boy's madd skillz and in the four years' silence, he may not have been recording but he's been moving on musically and spiritually! He'd taken a sabbatical to get involved in mission work and to take some time out from the recording industry. His come back album is a straight forward demonstration that Christian rap has an exponent who is technically as skilled in rhythm 'n' rhyme as anyone out there! Spiritually he's fully committed to ministry and judging from "Up On Game" he hasn't got much time for entertaining, preferring to get down to the business of reaching out to the unsaved. Teaming up with Eric Dawkins has added a stronger R&B flavour to all of this since he's got plenty of soulful vocalising happening. There's plenty here to grab the attention and plenty of variety in styles so that this is clearly T-Bone's most accomplished album so far. My favourite track has to be "Wipe Your Tears" which has huge hit written all over it and a sweet soul feel, high speed rapping (in English and Spanish) and heart touching message. It hits like an Exocet missile erupting from the speakers into the heart! There's still a bit of his obsession with being a demon killa hanging in here and there from previous releases which is a shame. There's also always the feeling that where this is musically thoroughly contemporary in style, T-Bone still borrows the sound and feel of what's already cutting edge in hip hop music rather than creating something thoroughly original. Having said that though, I'm glad gospel rap has an ambassador who can hold his own with all comers.

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