DC TALK
Little known fun fact. In the mid 90's I became friends with Kevin Max and Toby. One surreal night in Atlanta I was walking around downtown with just Toby, Kevin and little old me looking for donuts. Go figure. Life is random.
"DC Talk" was a nickname that Toby Michael McKeehan, later "TobyMac", (1964- ), who was born in Falls Church, Virginia, was given for being from theWashington D.C., area. While attending Liberty University, McKeehan met Michael DeWayne Tait (1966- ), and the two began to perform together. Tait had been featured singing on Jerry Falwell’s The Old Time Gospel Hour and recorded with the Falwell Singers. He also performed solo, what TobyMac later described his "kind of an R&B / church-oriented music."
The two joined forces to record a song that McKeehan had written, "Heavenbound". They performed the song before an audience of 8,000 Liberty students with McKeehan rapping and Tait singing the chorus. The song was well received, selling out the approximately 3,000 copies of their demo tape, Christian Rhymes to a Rhythm. The tape included "Heavenbound" and was distributed by the group in the Washington D.C. area. The group’s demo tape eventually led to a recording contract with Forefront Records in 1988. Kevin Max Smith, later "Kevin Max", (1967- ) came from a campus rock band to join the group,and the trio called themselves "DC Talk and the One Way Crew". The name was later simplified to "DC Talk", which came to stand for "decent Christian talk".
The group's musical style evolved significantly throughout their career. Their first two releases, DC Talk and Nu Thang, were of the hip hop genre. DC Talk's third album, Free at Last, also mainly took influence from the hip hop style, although their music began taking on a rock sound. The trio's last two albums, Jesus Freak and Supernatural, were predominantly pop rock.
In 2002, theEncyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music called DC Talk "the most popular overtly Christian act of all time."
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