WARREN & wesley

GENESEO -- Two Geneseo High School seniors can't keep their love of Jesus under wraps.

So they freely rap their praises, instead.

John Wesley Flatt and Beau Warren Neece recently finished writing and recording a CD of Christian rap and hip-hop music titled "The Demonstration."

Song lyrics are designed "to show everybody, whether atheist, agnostic, and even Christians, who the real Jesus Christ is," Mr. Flatt said.

"Being a Christian is not about being religious," he said. "It's not about going to church, but rather, it is about having a relationship with Jesus. What you need to do is believe and receive -- believe in Christ and accept Him.

"People think going to church and throwing some money into the offering plate is going to save them, but God doesn't want bribes," Mr. Flatt said. "People think they can do enough good works to get to heaven, but they can't. It's not about any of that. He wants a relationship with us to work through us. People need to focus on the Jesus of the Bible."

Mr. Flatt and Mr. Neece refer to themselves as "john wesley" and "beau warren," respectively.

They've been writing music and poetry since befriending each other in the first grade.

They started writing Christian rap lyrics in October 2004, and "thought we were really good, at the age of 16," Mr. Flatt said. "Actually, we were really bad at it. It's like starting out at anything; you don't start out good, and you have to continue to work on it and progress. You have to have a passion for anything to work in life, and it was our passion to get better at our music."

It took about a month to complete their recent release, starting in January.

"We could only find time on Sunday afternoons to work on it for a few hours at a time," Mr. Flatt said.

Their pastor, the Rev. Robert Freeman of First United Methodist Church in Geneseo let them use his house and computer to record it.

A music program and a mic/headset Mr. Flatt's sister got him from EBay for Christmas played a big part, too.

"On our recording, `beau warren,' or `bwars' as I like to call him, raps his heart out to Christ, sharing his love for him and all God has done for him," Mr. Flatt said.

"He gets inspiration from Jesus Christ, his family life past and present," he said.

"As for me, I talk tongue-in-cheek and sarcastically to make listeners think about some things that we do that we call `normal,' " Mr. Flatt said. "I ask a lot of rhetorical questions and I speak in a very spiritual way,"

For information or to get a CD, contact them online at www.myspace.com/warrenwesley.

"On the Web site, there are four downloadable songs from our CD," Mr. Flatt said. ""We encourage duplication of the album. We just want people to hear it."

That's a rap or a wrap.
- By Claudia Loucks, correspondent@qconline.com