DC Talk's message
chilled by some stations

By Frank "Buzz" Trexler
for The (Maryville, TN) Daily Times, Jan. 18, 1994

They sing hip-hop and they sometimes fail to convince Top 40 stations it’s safe to put them on the air.

In fact, two songs from their most recent album are remakes from the ’70s that soared on the pop charts. But catching the tunes on local airwaves would be like trying to catch lightning in a jar.

DC Talk’s bringing their hip-hop, rock and soul music with a message to Knoxville in February. But right now, Toby McKeehan, Michael Tait and Kevin Maxwell are in a spiritual molding pattern at The Family Center in Adrian, Mich.

"Last time I played Knoxville, I remember I was real sick," McKeehan recalled in a telephone interview from Adrian earlier this week. "Actually, I had a virus and we almost had to cancel the show. I just did the show and … walked off stage and went to Nashville."

McKeehan lives in the Nashville suburb of Brentwood with his wife Amanda and attends Bethel Chapel there.

Art form for 'our generation'

McKeehan said his entry into the rap style was largely because it was "something we grew up in, just like (today’s youth are) growing up in it.

"It’s an art form that our generation is known for and I think it evidently had its effect on me," McKeehan said. "But at the same time I don’t picture us as just a rap group."

For instance, he says, their latest album, "Free At Last," contains a lot more singing than rap. "But it sill has a hip-hop feel to it even when the singing’s going on."

That’s evident in the group’s rendition of the 1970s Dobbie Brothers’ classic "Jesus is Just Alright" and Bill Withers’ "Lean on Me." Both songs offer a sample of original lyrics and arrangements, but also a great deal of DC Talk’s own hip-hop style and trademark gospel lyrics.

"We love those songs. They’re classics," McKeehan said. Still, he notes, there’s an irony in that during the ’70s – a decade in which much of the music was permeated with references to sex and drugs – the original songs had little or no trouble getting air play. Today, some rap music even has the added mix of violence. Nonetheless, DC Talk often hits a wall at some Top 40 stations.

"It seems like now we seem to be discriminated against because we use the word ‘Jesus’ too much from the Top 40 standpoint," McKeehan said. "I mean, we’ve gotten some (Top 40) air play in some cities," he said, but it has sometimes been the result of a "grass roots" effort where after the "Jesus is Just Alright" single has been sent to the stations, listeners have phoned in requesting the song.

The bottom line: "Certain stations will play it and certain stations will say, ‘No, not a chance,’ because it’s too explicit when it comes to its religious connotations or whatever," McKeehan explained. "To us, we’re just sharing our faith through out music, you know, something we believe in."

Influenced by Keith Green

McKeehan, Tait and Maxwell met at Liberty University while students at the Lynchburg, Va., college associated with the Rev. Jerry Falwell. Today, the trio remain solidly committed to their faith in an uncompromising manner reminiscent of the late Keith Green, a Contemporary Christian music pioneer known for his hard-hitting gospel message.

"We’ve been listening to Keith (Green) the last couple of days here in Adrian," McKeehan said. "We come up here for two weeks every year and rehearse at this place called The Family Center … and just focus our attention on God and also work on the show and kind of knit together spiritually."

While standing steadfastly on their faith in Jesus Christ, McKeehan said each has had their own human influences to help them carry on: Kevin Smith cites C.S. Lewis; Tait’s father is an inner-city pastor in Washington, D.C.; and McKeehan’s is Oswald Chambers, whose "My Utmost for His Highest" has served as a popular devotional guide for many Christians.

"I can really relate to him," McKeehan said, explaining that Chambers seems to have faced the dilemma of having a knowledge of God but desiring to "give up on the whole knowledge thing and really let God work through him.

"I went to a Baptist high school and I went to Falwell’s college and I have a degree from there. And I mean it’s like I have this knowledge, but sometimes it’s just difficult to apply in my day-to-day life," he said.

"We’re guys that mess up every day," McKeehan said. "We don’t have a platform for singing and things because we deserve it, because we don’t, you know. We mess up. But God’s always there to pick up the pieces."

Utmost for God's highest

What does McKeehan do daily to give his utmost for God’s highest?

"I think more than anything else I really probably try my best to put others in front of myself," he said, noting that Jesus Christ had a platform. "He spoke and people listened, but he was always humble."

What can youths do daily to achieve the same?

"Well, I think our society and I think our generation seems to be a very selfish generation," he said. "We’re concerned with how much money we can make, how nice a house we can have, how nice a car we can drive."

The solution, he said, is Scriptural: "I just think that, you know, the way we can do that is to try and put others first, try to love people.

"That was God’s first commandment, you know, love one another, and love the Lord with all your heart."

The Rev. Frank "Buzz" Trexler is managing editor at The Daily Times and pastor of Green Meadow United Methodist Church, www.themeadow.org. You can e-mail him at PastorBuzz@nxs.net.