Stephen the Levite is a Philadelphia based artist who is a part of Lamp Mode Recordings. He released his new album Can I Be Honest? on November 18.
JTH: Who is Stephen the Levite as a musical artist?
Stephen: I grew up listening to Underground Hip-Hop, East Coast Hip-Hop, and Underground West Coast Hip-Hop as well. I gravitated towards more of the East Coast stuff and with that, God brought me to the East Coast. I have a lot of influences, and I’m kind of the product of that and my own particular tastes. It’s not a simple package. I’m all of that. I like old school soulful stuff, and I like lyricism, music that sounds good.
JTH: What do you want to communicate with your new album Can I Be Honest?
Stephen: Can I Be Honest? is really about the personal relationship that takes place in marriage and how God kind of requires us to reveal ourselves to that other person and bring stuff out of you that you wouldn’t know about unless you were with that person. I’m hoping to communicate truths that are beneficial for marriages and good for anybody to hear, even if they’re not married yet, so that they can get a glimpse of what marriage is so that they’re not confused when they step into that door. They’ll have to deal with their own sin and the sin of this other person. I’m trying to encourage people to make the most of their marriages and deal with their stuff in a healthy way, letting them know that they’re not the only ones dealing with it. There’s not a lot of Christian content out there, specifically in Christian Hip-Hop, that deals with these kinds of struggles. You might find one or two songs that have a little bit to do with, but most of the stuff that I wrote for this album, I’ve never heard anybody else talk about. I’m trying to help married couples have something that they can identify with.
