John Reuben

Born in Columbus, Ohio, on January 14, 1979, as John Reuben Zappin, the Christian hip-hop artist John Reuben crafts rhymes that echo the pioneering work of De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, and the Pharcyde from the 1980s, while his productions range across old-school beats and alternative pop textures. His parents operated a Christian outreach center and drug-rehab facility in Columbus, where he spent his childhood on the property and formed close ties with troubled young people arriving from the East Coast; those encounters deepened his attraction to hip-hop. After enrolling at Ohio State University he began performing at open-mic nights and issued several recordings on his own imprint. At nineteen he relocated to California in hopes of advancing his career, taking a series of odd jobs and appearing as an extra in films and television programs, including brief, uncredited moments in Clueless and Melrose Place. A contract with the Christian label Gotee Records, founded by Toby Mac of dc Talk, brought him back to Ohio after the label heard his independent EP Monuments. His debut Gotee album, Are We There Yet?, appeared in 2000 and prompted critics to brand him the CCM counterpart to Eminem on account of his witty, insouciant delivery. With his third full-length, 2003’s Professional Rapper—which he co-produced—he moved toward greater reliance on live instrumentation and away from samples and loops. Reuben and his brother also borrowed the album title for a brief mock-documentary comedy that follows an aspiring rapper from Ohio chronicling his imagined ascent. On the subsequent releases The Boy vs. the Cynic (2005) and Word of Mouth (2007) he explored increasingly personal subject matter and a wider stylistic palette, earning praise from both Christian and mainstream outlets.