I have long been a fan of Lecrae. He’s an inspiration to me as someone who grew up around a lot of rap/hip-hop the genre needs a voice with gospel implications. I feel as though Lecrae is a voice that raises up Jesus again and again.
I was browsing reading plans on YouVersion the other day and came across one that had Lecrae as the author. I was excited about the possibility of what he might be offering for young people.
The devotion is called Overflow, meant to give you some devotional material alongside albums that you might listen to. The reading plan comes with devotional content in written form but also has a short video element as well.
I point him out because with all of the voices vying for the attention of your student, you need to have plenty that are speaking the same language as you. Lecrae is one of them.
His lyrics are a little old for preteens, not because of profanity, but because of the life stories that he is sharing through his music.
Lecrae is awesome and his newest album, Gravity, was recently number 1 on iTunes
#1 on iTunes!
So not only does he talk about Jesus and the implications of living a life for him, he’s also good at it! Plus he challenges Christians as well.
I wish that there were a few more bands targeting preteens that actually had a message and a story to go along with some good tunes, or some more that had better music that I could play at my preteen ministry 
But as a parent I know that I need to be looking for supporting voices in the life of my child. Here is one that I highly recommend.
Leverage does have se pretty legit stuff. Other artist at his level that I’m sure you might have heard of are Trip Lee (“Twisted” -favorite song) and Tedashii (“Make War” and “Dumdum” -favorite songs). Another great artist that is similar them is Steven Cooper. I play his music often and the students love it. Heck, I love it so much that it often stays on repeat (“Bigger” and “Louder” -favorites).
I often hear and read about ministries playing secular music while students hang out. Reasonings are; it attracts kids, it keeps ministry at their level, etc. What are your thoughts on that?
A lot of thoughts here too much for a comment, maybe a post later on.
We play secular music beforehand:
Comfort for students who are new
Lyrics are clean: profanity, suggestive, older themes etc.
A lot more thoughts and my way is my way not dogma or the “right” way, just my way.
Leverage. Haha! Lecrae* Darn autocorrect.