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In an exclusive interview with Aaron Duff and Victor Claye from Australian Christian Records for The Daily Declaration, Lecrae shares insights on his new album, thoughts on the future of the US after Charlie Kirk’s assassination, as well as his excitement to return to Australia and tour for possibly the last time.

Since releasing his first album in 2004, Lecrae has helped transform what Christian music can be. The Atlanta-based artist is the first rapper to win a Dove award, and while keeping his faith-fuelled lyrics alive, he’s also successfully crossed over into mainstream, reaching number one on the Billboard albums chart and collaborating with artists like John Legend, Tori Kelly and more.

His long and successful career also includes his roles as the founder of Reach Records, and host of ‘The Deep End with Lecrae’ podcast that talks about faith, society and culture, and earlier this month, notably featured Will Smith as a guest.

Aaron Duff (AD) and Victor Claye (VC) from Australian Christian Records caught up with Lecrae in advance of the Australian leg of his Reconstruction World Tour.

AD: Welcome, Lecrae!  You are a 4-time Grammy Award winner, a platinum artist, and you will be coming to Australia at the end of this year. We’re so excited.

Yes, an honour to be here with you fellas, man. It’s truly an honour. Thank you.

VC: So the Reconstruction World Tour is happening and you have got four stops here in Australia with Launceston, Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane to support your new album — which I’ve been listening to and love! Tell us a little bit of the story behind the album. 

I went through a period of time where I felt like, my faith was deconstructing and it was broken. But God just restored me and put me in a healthy place, in a healthy position. And I think that being restored and being reconstructed, so to speak, changed my life so much (that) I wanted other people to find that same kind of reconstruction.

The foundation is firm; it’s Jesus. It’s always been Jesus, but some of the walls had to get torn down, some of the bad processing and understanding had to be torn down in order to rebuild something more significant. And so that’s the heartbeat of the album.

VC: I definitely hear that. So you’ve been to Australia before? How many times? 

I think this will be my third time, if I’m not mistaken.

Is there anything you remember from the last times or anything you’re looking forward to? 

Yeah, I’m looking forward to the kangaroos, cause I saw some of those — even though they threw some on the barbie last time I was out there. So we had to eat a little kangaroo. That was different for me. I’m looking forward to the food. I’m not looking forward to any Vegemite. You guys can keep all of that to yourselves. And the people, man, this will be a great time.

AD: We’ll have to get you a new kangaroo to try! Sometimes crocodiles as well. We eat crocodiles, we eat camels… but we don’t eat koalas. 

I’m open to crocodile. I’m open to you if you wanna put it on a barbie, if you wanna skewer it on a barbie, I wanna try it. Let’s go!

AD: That’s right! ‘The barbie’ — that’s real Australian talk. I’m sure you’re familiar with Australian hip hop, but we’ve got our own English language here with words like ‘barbie’ and others. Is there any other Australian lingo that you might be able to use in freestyling at your shows?

I’ll do my best, you know what I mean? I have to hang out a little bit and pick up some more of the lingo. When I’m out there, I pick it up more, and things have changed since the last time I’ve been there. So I have to pick up some more of the lingo, to see if I can throw it into the rhymes.

AD: So 20 years of Reach Records. You’ve helped a whole lot of artists go forward with their careers and touch a whole lot of people, and it’s a huge achievement. You also have a Reach artist in Limoblaze coming to Australia in November. Could you share some reflections on Reach Records and any plans to build upon what has already been established?

I think you have to continue to change and to grow and add resources and add tools. The next season of Reach Records for me is to be more of an executive, to have a bigger role in the lives of the artist. A lot of times, my time is stretched from being an artist and an executive. And I wanna just give the artist more time, especially the next generation. I wanna look for new artists, I wanna do more recruiting, I wanna do more producing, I wanna do more guidance. And so that’s, kind of gonna be the next season of Reach Records for me.

AD: Any plans to set up Reach Records Australia or have some presence over here? 

It’s an expansion team. We’re always expanding. We found Limo (Limblaze), he’s in the UK and was in Nigeria. We’ve got my young guy, Alexander, who came out of Puerto Rico. So, you never know, man. If somebody in Australia loves the Lord, has great character and skill set, then let’s go, let’s make it happen.

VC: I saw a reel the other day that you were talking about this tour, and that the fact that it might maybe be your last tour. So what would you have to say to anyone who’s considering coming along?

Yeah, what would you have to say to them? Yeah, get there, cause you may never see me again.

If you don’t, it doesn’t mean I won’t do any shows anymore or festivals or events. But it just means as far as putting the tour together and going through my whole catalogue in the way that I’m doing (and) some people have been following me since the beginning…

(So) if you wanna hear those songs plus the new songs from Reconstruction, this will be the time to do it, ’cause it’s not coming back around again. It’s time for me to invest in younger artists. It’s time to pass the torch as far as the touring is concerned.

With shows across Africa, America, New Zealand & Australia, Lecrae’s 2025 Reconstruction Tour may well be his last.

AD: One last thing. You’re a Christian man of influence, and you reach many people through your podcast ‘The Deep End’. 

Today you’ve put out a new episode about Charlie Kirk, and you’ve got two mates — one a Democrat and one a Republican talking it through with you. Here in Australia, of course, we don’t have Democrats nor Republicans, but Charlie’s death has touched us a lot as well. 

We’ve seen it in our churches, in our young people, and I think at the funeral yesterday, we saw thousands of people worshipping God, which is just mind-blowing here. So I think there’s a lot still to come. 

This is something that’s come from your country in America, and while we are in Australia with our own culture, we would appreciate your insight.

When tragedy strikes, I think there are two opportunities there. There’s an opportunity for evil to create disunity, and an opportunity for evil to create division and war and chaos. And there’s (also) an opportunity for unity.

There’s an opportunity for us to lean into the Spirit to love one another, to be sobered up, to understand that life is precious and that, even if you have the right intentions, and you’re doing the work of God, that tomorrow is not guaranteed.

And so, I would hope that these moments would draw us together and not divide us. I would hope that we would all be sober and realise that man, you get one life and it will pass, and only what you do for Christ will last. And so, I would hope that this would be one of those moments for people. That’s my prayer.

AD: Hundred percent, we’re with you, brother. It’s good to be united. God’s in control in the end of this.

Lecrae, it’s been absolutely a pleasure talking with you. I heard last time you were here in Australia, you worked yourself so hard on tour. You’re going to be away from family for two months or even more, travelling all around the world, and we just honour you. It’s a lot of work for you and your team to be coming out here. Keep well, keep safe, and may God bless you.

Absolutely. Thank you so much, man. I appreciate you all. I’m excited to be out there, man. Excited to hit Australia. It’s one of my favourite places on the planet. So, let’s have some fun.

Reconstruction World Tour

Shows:

• Launceston   December 9
• Melbourne   December 11
• Sydney   December 12
• Brisbane   December 13

Tickets: https://lecrae.com/tour

Instagram: @lecrae

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This interview transcript has been edited for the sake of clarity and readibility. 

Images courtesy of Lecrae

Interview Date: 24 September 2025