Lecrae on Leadership, Faith, and the Art of Reconstruction
written by
CLINT PORTE
Lecrae moves like a man who’s lived through hardship and accomplishment. The platinum plaques, the Grammys, the headlines — they tell one story, but the truth runs deeper. Over the past few years, Lecrae has been rebuilding not his brand, not his image, but his core.
“People connect with me in a lot of different ways now,” he says, sitting back between takes on set. “Music is just one part of how I communicate to the world. Now they’re hearing me through the podcast, through my writing… the music just adds another layer to it. It’s like different sides of a diamond — they can see me from different angles.”
That layered metaphor sums up the man perfectly: artist, thinker, father, leader, believer. Each facet reflecting the others, never separate, never still.
On tour, Lecrae’s energy carries like a sermon with a bass-line, both fierce and grounded. But when asked what it means to take the stage “as an ALPHA,” he laughs softly before leaning in. “The idea of alpha gets twisted,” he says. “For me, leadership isn’t about barking orders. It’s about being in the trenches with people. You listen, you guide, you serve. When I’m on stage, it’s not me versus the crowd — it’s all of us together. I might be standing in front of them, but I’m one of them. I’m just speaking on behalf of a collective voice.”
The word “Alpha” has been claimed and redefined across different generations, cultures, groups —
—sometimes as bravado, sometimes as balance. For Lecrae, it’s about interdependence, not dominance.
“People talk about the alpha wolf, but they forget that wolves survive by depending on each other,” he explains. “It’s not about who’s strongest or smartest — it’s about who can move together. Real leadership is walking with people, not just telling them where to go.”
He elucidates, “I’ve just been on a journey,” he says, his tone softening. “The music is influenced by the journey of the man.”
He pauses for a second, thinking back. “A sixty-five-year-old man once told me, ‘I’ve been your age before, but you’ve never been mine.’ That hit me. It made me realize — I’m at a place some people haven’t been, but I’ve been where they are. So how can I share that? And God… God’s been everywhere I’ve never been. So I’m always trying to hear from Him, to lean on Him when I’m figuring out what’s next.”
Faith, for Lecrae, is more about process than it is about perfection. It’s the tension between self-doubt and surrender, the space where his most personal music lives.
A quiet confidence, the kind that comes from knowing who he is, threads through everything Lecrae does. It’s in the way he talks about God, the way he moves through the world, and even the way he fashions himself on stage. There’s no divide between the sacred and the stylish for him; it’s all part of the same self-expression. Faith informs the art, and the art informs the image.
“I want what I wear to reflect who I am — thoughtful, creative — but never loud for the sake of attention.”
He admits that how he dresses can even influence how he performs. “People look at me and see an elevated version of where they want to go,” he says. “The fashion plays into that. It’s not so far out that they can’t relate, but it’s still sharp enough to feel aspirational. It feels authentic — like it belongs to me.”
Fighting to remain his relatability has become his
“Reconstruction is about the need to rebuild,” he says. “It’s the idea that we’re not wasted material. No matter what our past looks like, we’re not thrown away.” He stops, searching for the right image, then smiles. “It’s what Michelangelo did with the statue of David. He took discarded marble — stone that other artists said wasn’t worth anything — and turned it into something the world still marvels at. That’s what Reconstruction is.”
The depth in his words lingers.
“I hope my music is a soundtrack to people’s lives…something cathartic; something that expresses what they’re feeling but maybe can’t say out loud. My journey with God gives me answers on how to navigate life. Some people listen and think, ‘Man, that’s my story too.’ Others might hear it and say, ‘If you made it there, maybe God can help me make it there too.’ Whether it’s relationships, health, or healing — that’s the goal.”
For Lecrae, faith and artistry aren’t separate pursuits, but rather, they’re different languages in which he is fluent, showing the proof that broken, incomplete things can still be beautiful, and that pain can be raw material for something redemptive.
“I hope people see me as a bridge from the church to the world,” he says, his voice steady but low. “Some people like to burn bridges. Me, I’m okay with being one, even if it means people throw trash over it, even if it gets tagged with graffiti. Because at the end of the day, if someone needed to cross and I helped them get there, then it was worth it.”
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