Rapper Lecrae Moore left a life of drugs and crime for religion.

ATLANTA--Lecrae Moore is not just a rapper; he’s a reformer.

A former drug dealer from the inner city, Moore has transformed his life, becoming a Grammy-nominated Christian rapper and activist. Through his music and his not-for-profit ministry, Moore is reaching out to inner-city youths.

His newly-released album, Rehab: The Overdose, is a testament to the life he left behind and the new one he has gained.

As a child, Moore and his single mother moved between the inner cities of San Diego, Denver, and Dallas.

“I wrestled with a sense of self-worth, and [wondered] am I even valuable, because my dad decided drugs was better than hanging out with his own son,” Moore says of his absent father.

Like many other kids, he developed a fervent love of hip-hop. He idolized rappers like Tupac Shakur, and was inspired to start rapping himself.

“I just [rapped] about what I esteemed to be, what I wanted to be like,” he says. “Most of that was gangsterism, false sense of masculinity, money, women.

“My uncles were young and wrapped up in the streets and gangs and drugs, and [were] just promiscuous. I idolized it. I wanted to be the gang member my uncle was. I wanted every tattoo he had.

“I saw my first gun and all these different things, and was like, ‘man, this must be what it means to be a man.’ And I’m just sitting on their laps, soaking all this stuff in...Read More