Business Partnership. We're three guys that stumble and fall every day. Growing up, he was a great fan of the band New Edition, something that's clear from listening to "Free at Last" -- "I saw them four times in one summer in the D. C. area, " he recalls. We make mistakes and a lot of the things we stumble with, we write songs about. Even less surprising is that DC Talk is being courted by a number of major pop labels (the group now records for a small, Nashville-based Christian label, ForeFront). We're not trying to turn our backs on anything. God is in this story - God is in the details - Even in the broken parts - He holds my heart, He never fails - When I'm at my weakest - I will trust in Jesus - Always in the highs and lows - The One who goes before me - God is in this story.
Socially Acceptable. "The single greatest cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, then walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyles. That means a two-hour show featuring a four-piece band, three dancers, a light show, fog machines, a good sound system and even an acoustic set that includes U2's "40, " based on the 40th Psalm. A. C. - Can I Get A Witness. DC Talk - Awesome God Lyrics. We never want to come across 'holier than, ' because we're not. The DC in DC Talk, incidentally, doesn't stand for the District of Columbia, but for Decent Christian. As part of a 56-city tour, DC Talk will be playing at the Showplace Arena in Upper Marlboro tomorrow night, but a week later, it'll be doing its first full-fledged concert at Liberty, "at the Vine Center, where the basketball team plays, " McKeehan notes proudly. But those stations have tended to be in small markets, and even when DC Talk has gotten some play on MTV or appeared on "The Arsenio Hall Show" or "The Tonight Show, " it doesn't reap the benefits. Not the kind of lyrics you hear on pop radio, of course, though DC Talk has triumphed over several well-known hip-hop favorites pitted against them in several radio stations' "slam it or jam it" competitions. T. - Take It To The Lord. People are tired of being preached at, of words speaking louder than actions. L. M. R. S. - Say The Words.
Jerry Falwell's Liberty University in Lynchburg that he teamed up with Michael Tait, from Northeast Washington, and Kevin Smith, from Grand Rapids, Mich. On a campus where rock music and dancing were banned, hip-hop was not exactly welcomed either. "We'd like to be an alternative/hip-hop group, " McKeehan continues. McKeehan went to Luther Jackson Intermediate School in Annandale, then to Bethlehem, a small Christian high school in Fairfax. Things Of This World. I remember my {resident adviser} coming in my room when Michael and I were writing and working on the beat for 'Heavenbound. ' It's The End Of The World As We Know It. Children Can Live (Without It). Part of the lyrics on the album, Jesus Freak, by dc Talk. If you take our message away, you take our cause away and there's no reason for us to exist. It was when McKeehan went to the Rev. "All we're trying to do is shed a little bit of light on these issues, " McKeehan adds. I don't call us a ministry, I call us a band. And lightning in His fists.
There is thunder in His footsteps. "Now they know that we see ourselves essentially as missionaries to our generation, " he adds. The King (Allelujah). In an era when pop songs are often criticized for negative lyrics, it's ironic that DC Talk's positive messages make some labels nervous. I Wish We'd All Been Ready. "All generations try to make up their mind on these issues, and it's not Toby, Michael or Kevin's answers. That all this is done in nonjudgmental language and in a musical style that reaches young people is clearly important to McKeehan and the group. When the sky was starless in the void of the night, (Our God is an awesome God), He spoke into the darkness and created the light, Judgment and wrath He poured out on Sodom, Mercy and grace, He gave us at the cross; Hope that you have not too quickly forgotten that. "I think people at first would hear the grooves we were creating in the dorm room and not really understand. Time Is... - Time Ta Jam.
If you're going to stand up for free speech, you're going to have to take the good with the bad. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable. Sometimes we scream, sing lead, do harmonies or rap -- we try to throw the vocal style that best fits the passion of the lyric.... As we mature, our music's maturing with us. "Obviously there's more vocal support now. There Is A Treason At Sea. Two Honks And A Negro. A two-song demo tape sold 1, 000 copies and caught the attention of ForeFront, which released the "DC Talk" and "Nu Thang" albums before "Free at Last. "
But, he adds, "The first criterion for us is that we are who we are -- a message-oriented band. Dr. Falwell has always supported us -- he wrote a letter of endorsement the day we started so we could get into some places. "What's the use of getting mainstream {exposure} if people go into a mainstream record store and can't find our record? " "Our focus has become more introspective. You don't struggle with these things because you're a believer in God or not -- the whole world deals with what to do about sexually transmitted diseases, with what's going on with social decadence and the decline in America's morality, with racism, with abortion. "We do want to move on and we're looking forward to having a deal that will promote us more intensely on a national and international level, " says Toby McKeehan, the 29-year-old Annandale native who fronts the group and is its principal -- and principled -- lyricist. In its recordings, he says, DC Talk "deals with issues that the whole world deals with. When He rolls up His sleeves, He ain't just putting on the ritz, (Our God is an awesome God). Our biggest ministry is to our band and our family on the road.
According to McKeehan, a couple of labels "have asked us if we could change this or that, ever so slightly.... We're not willing to do that. Our God is an awesome God [x2]. "ForeFront does a great job but they don't have the mass media at their fingertips. The Lord wasn't joking when He kicked them out of Eden, It wasn't for no reason that He shed His blood, And his return is very close so you better be believing. Last month, DC Talk's hip-hop-flavored "Free at Last" won a Grammy for best Christian album, hardly surprising since it spent 33 weeks atop Billboard's Top Contemporary Christian Albums chart and sold more than 500, 000 copies, a figure seldom attained in that market.
DC Talk song lyrics. Early on, DC Talk was known primarily as a Christian rap act, but, says McKeehan, "we're a vocal group. If we try to force it on them, no one's going to listen.