There’s both a 90s pop classic and a romantic comedy by the same name but don’t be confused – gospel sensation Deon Kipping wasn’t feeling nostalgic when he named his second national release, SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT.
A love offering to his heavenly Father, the singer’s inspiration actually came from a story in the Bible in which Jesus healed a blind boy.
“Before he healed him people were asking, well, what did he do to be blind?” recalls the award-winning singer songwriter of the memorable passage in John 9. “And basically Jesus said, He’s blind so that I can be glorified—so that you can see a miracle,” explains Kipping. “What I took away from this is that everything you do and everything you are provides something to talk about in order to give God the glory.”
And that’s just what the Bridgeport, Connecticut native does all throughout the 15-track, Holy Spirit-filled disc, the follow-up to his highly acclaimed 2012 Billboard charting album “I Just Want to Hear You.” After four years of extreme highs and lows Kipping says he has a lot to be grateful for.
There’s both a 90s pop classic and a romantic comedy by the same name but don’t be confused – gospel sensation Deon Kipping wasn’t feeling nostalgic when he named his second national release, SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT.
A love offering to his heavenly Father, the singer’s inspiration actually came from a story in the Bible in which Jesus healed a blind boy.
“Before he healed him people were asking, well, what did he do to be blind?” recalls the award-winning singer songwriter of the memorable passage in John 9. “And basically Jesus said, He’s blind so that I can be glorified—so that you can see a miracle,” explains Kipping. “What I took away from this is that everything you do and everything you are provides something to talk about in order to give God the glory.”
And that’s just what the Bridgeport, Connecticut native does all throughout the 15-track, Holy Spirit-filled disc, the follow-up to his highly acclaimed 2012 Billboard charting album “I Just Want to Hear You.” After four years of extreme highs and lows Kipping says he has a lot to be grateful for.
“A lot of things happened between this album and my last one,” the Lincoln University grad confides. “First, I became a father, which changed my entire life and my perspective on it. On the other side I had some really difficult moments with my grandmother – the woman who raised me and is my anchor in everything I do – due to her health. Between learning how to be a dad when I wasn’t raised by mine, and trying to take care of my grandmother and be a rock of support for my entire family, I have learned to lean on God and music in ways I never had before.”
This is apparent on “By Myself,” a tender, come-to-Jesus, altar call moment that finds Kipping admitting, “By myself it won’t work / Lord, I need your help.”
The singer, who got his start working on music for secular and gospel stars such as Mary J. Blige and JJ Hairston when he was in college, is similarly transparent in his need for God’s guiding hand in the gracious and gratified “Follow You Thank You Jesus,” a spiritual shout-out to the Most High who “loves me as I am and covers me.”
Kipping – who counts touring with mentor Kirk Franklin as one of his career highlights — brings the congregation to its feet with the choir-chanting call-and-response “It’s Over Now,” a surging testimonial to God’s ability to give man the victory over any obstacle, large or small. The joyous jubilee continues on the infectious “Oh Victory Song,” a hand-clapping, foot-stomping acknowledgment of God’s everyday miracles in our lives.
The singer-songwriter pledges his eternal devotion to the Lord and Savior on the triumphant, synthesizer-soaring “No Matter What” and will have the masses on their feet for “A Place Called Victory,” a divine, stadium-worthy anthem that climbed to the top 10 spot on the Mediabase Gospel chart.
The vocalist turns his sights next to the troubling times we live in, illustrated in strife from Ferguson to Baltimore, in “Pray for the World.” On it he asks, “Where are the Malcolms? / And where are the Martins? / Where are the Marvins, singing songs like ‘What’s Going On’?” he sings earnestly.
The title track, “Something to Talk About,” is indeed discussion-worthy — a haunting, hip-hop-influenced narrative about life’s contradictions. On it Kipping confesses he sometimes wilts under the weight of public pressure. “I feel like a billboard / because the Lord has so many eyes on me / they speak of all my victories / and they speak of all my defeats,” he shares.
Believers will have no trouble co-signing Kipping’s earnest testimonial, “The Blessing is Yours,” an uplifting musical salve guaranteed to beguile even the most skeptical. While, eternal salvation can only be found in “The Light” that is God, as Kipping reminds us, that He is sufficient to all of man’s needs.
The singer brings a message of faith and redemption on home with the contemporary hallelujah hymn “Where He Found Me,” a song that goes hand in hand with the album’s main takeaway –it doesn’t matter what happens to us out there in the world, as long as we have God.
“I feel as if I truly have something to talk about on this album,” Kipping concludes of his experience recording about the varying textures and complexities of life. “I had some songs that God gave to me that I wanted to share with the world with all my heart. So I took a little time to get focused on what I wanted to say but now I’m ready.”
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