The album remained at the #1 spot on the Top Gospel Albums chart for a second week before being replaced by Marvin Sapp's Thirsty, becoming the first Christian rap album to accomplish this feat. Rebel also debuted at #1 on the Top Gospel Albums chart, outperforming his previous album, After the Music Stops, which only managed to peak at #5 throughout its 100 week run on the chart. The album debuted at #60 on the Billboard 200 albums chart and is the first Lecrae album to do so. Rebel has been a commercial success, having sold over 15,000 copies shortly after its release (9,800 copies in its first week and 5,600 copies in its second week of release, excluding digital downloads) and debuting on eight Billboard music charts. Rapzilla called the album "a verbal onslaught against the world's view on life in modern day culture." Lecrae has stated that the title of the album is both a noun and a verb. Rebel is titled after Lecrae's encouragement to rebel against modern pop culture, also pointing out that Jesus Christ himself was a rebel. The album was nominated in the best Rap/Hip-Hop Album category at the 40th Annual GMA Dove Awards but lost to Group 1 Crew's Ordinary Dreamers. The album was released by Reach Records on September 30, 2008. Rebel is the third studio album by Christian rap artist, Lecrae.