While spending just over a decade in prison for arson, Lyfe Jennings picked up a guitar and found his love for music. Now a platinum-selling R&B singer/songwriter, his fourth studio album, Augusts I Still Believe, is the one he claims will be his lasta sacrifice made in order to spend more time with his children. Thats why he delayed its release to put more effort into its creation, and thats why his complexity and honest voice seem their most mastered. In a hip-hop culture obsessed with hypermasculinity and criminal behavior, its a pleasant surprise to hear a felon who lived the narrative respond with such positivity. With Dice. NICK FELDMAN
Tue., Sept. 21, 8 p.m., 2010
