Christopher Baltz: “Maverick Wav” – a solid identity and cohesiveness

Christopher Baltz is a Christ centered hip hop artist based in Easton, Maryland. His new album “Maverick Wav” is about growing and building faith to what he calls “big wave” status. The album was released June 07, 2019 and is available on all major digital music platforms. Baltz is a stand-out artist who writes, raps, and sings with excellence and passion. He has everything it takes to be one of the best in his field of scope, but few have probably heard of him. This album showcases his originality and his voice. He’s got an uncanny ability to be raw, real, and musically superb. Moreover his Christian infused music is a far cry from the usual bible-punching rappers, simply throwing out the name of Jesus Christ on every line.

Christopher Baltz is just an amazing artist; he uses his experiences to relate to others and glorify God, completely eschewing the clichéd name-dropping. It’s a blessing we have someone like him in this industry. Christians need this music, people need this music. Life isn’t always rainbows and butterflies, people deal with some real things.

Oftentimes preaching won’t be enough to convince people, as they need to hear about real life experiences, in a language they can identify with. So right from the opening track, “Thank God for the Real Ones (A Real Tribe)”, this is what Baltz brings to the table on “Maverick Wav”.

On “#Maverickwav (No One)”, Baltz unwraps both his lyrical flow and singing voice, excelling at both. The song is melodic in the choruses and straight up fire on the verses. I love the emotion and passion that he puts into his music. I’m not Christian (or even religious at all) but I can relate to what he’s saying on the smooth and introspective “Faith & Flow”, and what he’s trying to achieve.

The emotion goes even deeper on “He Will Never Forsake Me”. I don’t think it’s possible to listen to the song and not feel everything bundled into the verses. It’s such a powerful song, and works well with the interlude “Hit ‘Em with the Flow”, which are sonically similar.

As you move through the remainder of the album I think Christopher Baltz does an excellent job of mixing slower songs with more of his fast-paced tracks confirming his skill and his place in the music industry. The album as a whole feels like riding waves up and down through Baltz emotions, issues, questions, and thoughts.

As you move through the back to back standouts, “Believe for More”, “I Got News (#Pro Life)” and “Raise Our Faith”, you’ll notice the album has a solid identity and cohesiveness. A lot of that is established by Baltz’s ability to seamlessly switch flows song after song, and the production which maintains a series captivating sonic elements throughout all of the songs.

Christopher Baltz says things like they are. Yes he is a Christian, and yes he will show his faith. But that doesn’t mean that all of his songs are about God. Christians struggle with regular things as well, and Baltz works his way through those topics, as he does on “I Got News (#Pro Life)”, which ties in nicely with the following track, “Raise Our Faith”.

There is a lot of debate on how the music has changed. On one hand, the artist has gained more control and can freely release music at a faster rate with less regulation from major labels. Of course one major drawback to that lack of label involvement has been a question of quality control. Front-to-back, quality-filled albums with zero filler are a rarity these days. That’s where “Maverick Wav” comes in.

As we shift through the final highlights “Who Am I… (So Much Love)” and “Came to the Cross Roads”, it’s clear that Christopher Baltz rapping is rock solid, his singing voice sounds strong, the songs themselves are more memorable, the production quality is top notch, and there isn’t a weak track to be found here. Only ones you’ll personally like better than others. I’ve listened through this album quite a few times so far, and it’s great from start to finish. Let me rephrase that: Christopher Baltz is an amazing artist, and this album is phenomenal.

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