A Christian hip-hop artist whose rhymes recommend the impact of pioneering ’80s artists like De La Spirit, A Tribe Known as Quest, as well as the Pharcyde while his music embraces from old-school is better than to alternative pop, John Reuben (created John Reuben Zappin) was created in Columbus, OH, about January 14, 1979. Reuben’s family members went a Christian outreach middle and medication rehab service in Columbus, and he was raised on the lands, spending a whole lot of his period with troubled youngsters through the East Coastline who helped energy his fascination with hip-hop. By enough time Reuben got enrolled at Ohio Condition University, he’d used his fascination with rap music to the level, performing at open up mic evenings and releasing many recordings by himself label. At 19, Reuben drawn up stakes and shifted to California, wishing the modification of location would help him consider his musical profession to another level. Reuben worked well odd careers and was a supplementary in films and tv shows (he says he is able to be noticed in Clueless and Melrose Place, amongst others), but came back to Ohio when he got a cope with Gotee Information, a Christian label founded by Toby Mac pc of dc Chat, on the effectiveness of his self-employed EP Monuments. In 2000, Reuben released his first recording for Gotee, Are We There However?, and his witty, insouciant attitude led many critics to label him because the CCM response to Eminem. Nevertheless, Reuben started to enter into his personal as an designer along with his third LP, 2003’s Professional Rapper, which he helped create, incorporating a larger usage of live instrumentation instead of examples and loops. (Reuben and his sibling also utilized the name “Professional Rapper” for a brief mock-documentary comedy where an aspiring rapper from Ohio paperwork what he imagines is going to be his rise to popularity.) Reuben continuing to tackle even more personal designs and an extremely eclectic musical view on his following two albums, 2005’s The Guy vs. the Cynic and 2007’s Person to person, both which gained him enthusiastic testimonials in the Christian along with the secular music press.