Recently Sho Baraka tweeted of his departure of Reach Records.

This came as a surprise to many fans and media alike, seeing as how he has had a considerable amount of success with the label in recent years. And with label mates such as Lecrae, Trip Lee, Tedashii and two up and coming artists with PRo and KB. It would seem like he’d be in the perfect situation right? Well… not exactly. At least not in his eyes. On his latest podcast  ‘UNtamed’ Sho Baraka was asked about why the decision to leave Reach Records…  Here’s some of what he said.

“I’ve always felt that if you believe in something that God has called you to do, but you have something that is successful that you can always lay back on. That can always provide a comfort for you. Then you’ll never ever try to excel in life. And for me to some degree, Reach Records was a comfort that I had, and that as long as I stuck with it.. I mean obviously I knew I could be somewhat successful in the christian market. But that’s never been my desire to be successful in the christian market. My desire was always to communicate to people that I felt were broken outside of the church. Or even people in the church, who felt like christian music didn’t communicate to them. So I felt like I would never ever excel, unless I left the nest. And it can be comfortable in that nest, to be at that point where you never wanna leave, because you know that there’s resources and comfort there. And it can be scary too especially when you leave an entity like Reach.. that is at this point right now, the best that it has ever been. And it’s probably gonna get even bigger, and I could tell some people are looking at me and thinking.. what in the world?? But I think it’s the smartest decision I’ve ever made….”

When challenged about his decision to leave Reach Records. On asked about what else could he possibly do since he is already going into all the world, making disciples. Why would he walk away from all that?  Sho says..

“I wanna become the C.S. Lewis of urban music, I wanna become the U2. Basically for me, one of the things I’ve been struggling with in the last maybe 3 years. Is there’s always been philosophies and things I have adopted just because.. like I never really challenged them. So there’s always been a part of  me that thought of why do I do the things that I do? Why am I not communicating certain things? Why am I not engaging certain audiences? Why am I just content with performing in churches? Like what’s the situation?? And I believe it’s because it’s a philosophy people have adopted from artists and other groups. Which is good.. like I always feel it’s encouraging for people to minister to the church, to find themselves engaging in the church. Cause we need those artists that are focusing on serving the church. But I feel also like there needs to be people who are engaging outside the church…”

And when asked about how does he balance not compromising with the worldview, and staying focused on reaching people that may not know Christ?   Sho states..

“Well ultimately I think the fear is that anybody who works outside christian vocation, the fear is that they are sinning. Like if they’re not doing something as unto The Lord, it’s like, well the real people and the real Christian’s do christian work. It’s like how can we get those sinners to stop doing what they’re doing. Cause the reality of it is, is there is people who are just as righteous who are doing work for The Lord. Who do not work vocationally in ministry….                                                                                             When you look at history, you look at Rembrandt(A famous 17th century Dutch painter) you look at Bach(A famous 18th century musical composer). You look at the people who influenced culture in the past. Their art and their music just communicated a worldview. Rembrandt didn’t always paint christian things, you know he just painted beauty. But he painted from a perspective that wasn’t exaggerated, that wasn’t ridiculous. So that people knew he believed in something greater than just the art. And so for us what we’re trying to do is, we’re trying to influence a culture. We’re trying to get into an industry, that we know exaggerates all the things God has said is good. But they make it an ultimate thing. And so how do we come into this worldview and say,  look what you’re doing..  wonderful. The things that you enjoy.. good. But how do we see through the lens which God has communicated it. How do we make music, and the way we just make sure we reach out is this.. with fellowship with one another. We still gonna be connected to our churches, we’re still believing in the scriptures. We’re still Christian’s, we’re still being led by the spirit. But we’re just going about our job as if art, is not necessarily needing to be hijacked for evangelistic purposes. Art is just art, and we’re responsible to communicate truth in our art. But that truth is not exclusive to being theological and didactic.”

It’s obvious Sho Baraka has some strong convictions about why he’s parting ways with Reach Records. We here at JamTheHype.com wish him all the best and can’t wait for some new music in the future from Sho.  To listen to the entire interview check out the ‘UNtamed’ podcast. https://lionsandliars.podbean.com/2011/05/11/untamed-podcast-11/

-Paul Sessions