They are the same kinds of questions Tiger Beat should have asked of DC Talk a couple years back, when Nu Thang bum rushed musical Christendom's consciousness with solid pop hip-hop that still sounds vital two years later. It was also a time when it was easier to pin the teen heart throb tag on the trio. Now DC Talk ain't having it.
"To be honest, we want to appeal to our peers. We want to appeal to college audiences," said group rapper McKeehan. The rest of the group knows equally well the perception of being a "kids" act.
While McKeehan has seen a two-year old rapping the lyrics to DC Talk's breakthrough video hit, "Heavenbound," such devotion on the part of the younger crowds still dumbfounds Smith. "Entering into this group, I never knew how young kids would be coming to our show," he said in amazed gratitude.
Tait's thankfulness for an avid fan base meets the group's desire to be taken seriously has pop artists when he says, "God bless the young girls, but we want to reach everybody. We don't want to be looked at as New Kids."
Hoo! Hoo! Hoo!
Most New Kids On The Block fans probably can't stay up late enough to watch Arsenio Hall's show. It is there where DC Talk has made its biggest splash into the mainstream yet. "{Being on} Arsenio Hall was like throwing a rock into a pond and seeing the ripples," McKeehan said of the exposure they gave gospel rap to the comedian's large audience.
Says Michael, "When we were on Arsenio Hall, it was {just} another rap group. They had The College Boyz on the night before. But it was DC Talk--and they were doing Christian stuff. That was something we were thankful to claim....that's the edge of it."
"When you're talking about hip-hop music, I'm a firm believer that you can be as explicit as you need to be, as explicit as you want to be," adds Toby. "{If} you can talk about a woman's butt for 64 bars, surely you can talk about our God. I truly believe there's room for a gospel hip-hop group, and I think people will accept it with open arms."
He's also happy to see God use other posses on Yo! MTV Raps if need be. "It might not be us. It might need to be Chris {Cooper} and S.F.C., P.I.D., or one of the other hardcore groups."
Ah the appeal of the hardcore. Not that DC Talk is clamoring for the
approval of the Public Enemy fan club (which this popcrit admits to thinking
they should have at one time), but like some guy named Paul, they see the
value in being as many things to as many people as they can. Maybe it works.
"We've been in some pretty hardcore places when we started out. We did a lot of public high schools and parks in the inner city, and I've never seen any kind of backlash or anything," Kevin observed.
The first time on stage in such rough settings caused some head wagging on some folks' part. "Everybody thought I rapped!," said Michael in some amusement over the stereotype of a black guy having to be an M.C.
Smith, with a musical background that encompasses both pop/rock and soul/R&B, addresses the racial conundrum as a musical one. Copping the title of their best-selling video profile, he said, "It kind of goes back to what the group is about with rap, rock, and soul {and} three different, individual people."
Getting a handle, then, on what exactly is their "blackest" musical element becomes moot. Asking the question leads to a spirited debate among Kevin, Michael, and Toby not over racial and ethnic quality, but musical passion. The best answer comes, perhaps, when Michael deadpans simply, "Me"--and then appends it with a jovial "Just kidding."
Caucatalk Days
The next, more easily answered question is: exactly how did a white kid from Washington, D.C.'s Virginia suburbs get into rapping?
True DC Talk fans already know the guys came together at Liberty University and haven't parted since. But it goes deeper than that.
McKeehan began his hip-hop testimony.... "I went to a party with a guy named George Small. I'll never forget it, man. He introduced me to the stuff. {Sugarhill Gang's} "Rapper's Delight" had been out a while, It was a real party....all these brothers and sisters were out there dancing....I was just amazed by the funk. From there on, I was just in love with hip-hop and dance music in general."
It wasn't long before McKeehan devised his first rapping alter ego, Sir Caucatalk. Don't embarrass him about it when you see him after a concert!
It took a stint at Rev. Jerry Falwell's Liberty College and the meeting of minds between McKeehan, Tait, and Smith to bring Caucatalk to becoming a Decent Christian Talker.
Naturally, their alma mater became a testing ground for their talents. At a party held by his son, Rev. Falwell even got in on the rhyme-busting act. "He took the mic from me once and said, like 'I'm a rapper/ doo doo doo.' I have a photo of us rapping in Falwell's backyard," Toby said. Predating their appearances on the Yo! Ho! Ho! Christmas compilation a couple of years back, the trio cracked some Yuletide carols door-to-door at the college.
After Kevin and Michael jumped from Liberty's only contemporary Christian pop/rock group, The Connection Band, to become the rest of DC Talk, it was Toby's growing maturity in faith and dissatisfaction with mainstream rap that forged the way for their current direction.
"I guess I was growing closer to the Lord," emphasized McKeehan. As for the growing filthiness of his favorite music, he added, "It didn't really build me up as a person or as a Christian especially. I felt there came a time in my life, as I was growing up, rap was growing in the opposite direction. I also saw at Liberty that there was a way where people could have fun and be entertained while you're talking about the Lord."
A scant few years later, after all the festival dates, three tours with DeGarmo & Key and one with Michael W. Smith, the big youth conferences, the TV appearances and music that defines all that's good about pop/rap, Tait can say with assurance, "It's providing a positive alternative to the Ice Cubes, the 2 Live Crews, or whatever. Beyond that, to give something for them to be proud of in Christian music. They can pop in Jazzy Jeff or Heavy D & the Boyz and pop in DC Talk and never lose quality in my opinion. We strive for that."
Says Toby, "The hip-hop generation, 1992, is a culture that has a chip on its shoulder. I think that there are a lot of underground rap records selling millions that are sowing seeds of anger. The M.C.'s out there cry, 'This is reality!' You know what? I believe it's reality. I've been downtown. I've hung out in the inner cities....with Mike near his house {in Washington, D.C.}. I believe that's reality, but is this going to have a positive effect on our generation, or is it going to create all kinds of animosity?"
If Nu Thang and the forthcoming Free At Last prove that DC Talk got the music end down, it's only the beginning. "I would like to see the group make a cameo appearance in a film," said Kevin for his cinematic ambitions for DC Talk. Tait would be content to make "a nice concert film." McKeehan, the wiseacre, wants to mess with the star-making machinery altogether.
"I'd like to make a Rattle and Hum....Our manager has a goal for us to do a real documentary and just be real vulnerable and not always have to look like those pretty little boys you see on the video cover or on the tape." Smith takes it further, so that the audience would see the group "argue a little, maybe see us weep a little."
Keeping In Check
For school chums who have either lived in the same dormitory, apartment, or, at least, town for over five years, they have argued, wept, laughed, etc. more than a little together.
"We're not like a camaraderie of college buddies anymore. We're like brothers, we've been together for so long. I can say one sentence that will tick Mike and Toby off like that {snap!}, and they can say one sentence that will tick me off," Kevin said of the bond they share. "We know how to get to each other quite well," summarized McKeehan.
To keep each other in check and humble, the venerable old tradition of band meetings are still the best way to handle it. Like three brothers who can finish one another's thoughts, Toby starts out to say, "We had a long heart-to-heart...." "Meeting of sorts," adds Michael.... "A little bit feisty, a little bit laid back," concludes McKeehan, before elaborating. "We have a long talk about where we are. Kevin where are you? Mike, where are you? Have you changed since the DC Talk debut record? Have we changed? Obviously we've changed, but has success gotten to us? Have we lost our heads?
"Prayer and accountability to one another," prescribed McKeehan as the spiritual medicine that keeps him and his partners from tearing at each other's throats. What works for DC Talk works for the rest of the body of believers, it appears.
"We all bring something to the table, and we all kind of flesh it out. If it's not what we want, then we veto it. It's like a little democracy: three guys that see three different ways. But we can come together and provide something that we can say is ours, three guys putting out one thing," Smith analyzed.
McKeehan got to the heart of their mission is saying, "We think that at this time, right now, we're better together than we are apart. We're called to be together, and we're more useful to God together. It's not to say Kevin can't do a book of poetry, or I can't sing on Steven Curtis Chapman's record, or Mike can't sing on Russ Taff's record."
Where moving to Music City has given McKeehan and Tait more work in the fields they know best, for Smith it has meant an expansion into another, more arcane art.
"I've been working on a book of poetry with Jimmy A {who will paint illustrations to Smith's verses}. A lot of things have been happening like that. I'm around a lot of different artists downtown....painters, poets, all the beatnik-type people, so it's interesting."
Freed Up
As DC Talk's extracurricular horizons have expanded, so has the breadth and depth of their music itself.
"I'm liking the fact that there's more singing on this album," Tait remarked of the new Free At Last set. You heard that right, Smith and Tait can be heard 'a wailing all the more these days. McKeehan joins them in the harmonizing much of the time, too. Already you might have heard him vocalizing alongside his mates in concert during the cover of Bill Withers' "Lean On Me," (the song's inclusion on the new album was as yet undetermined at the time of this interview). At the same show, you likely were treated to the already notorious "Two Honks and A Negro (Serving the Lord.)"
Where there is vocal experimentation on Free At Last, likewise the subject matter.
When the subject of their love lives and what they look for in a sanctified female came up (OK, so it was hard to resist a few Tiger Beat-level questions), without batting an eye the guys broke into the newjack swing of "That Kind of Girl" before giving me the straight-up scoop (consensus was that she must be "a trooper" and bear with the crazy lifestyle of touring and recording).
The theme of a faith-active lifestyle is carried through "Socially Acceptable," pre-album fave "Love Is A Verb," and the sinewy, downtempo bassheavy funk of "The Hard Way." With the view from Liberty U growing further from the rear-view mirror and the distinct possibility of blowing up in a BIG way not far ahead, the new songs are valid attempts to be "tackling real issues with real answers. I think the real answers come from the Bible, God's Word, so I'm going to point them there." Or so McKeehan said to clarify the balance of what he sees as DC Talk's twin goals.
"We can't continue to simply entertain Christians. We want to challenge them to take the Great Commission seriously. {Secondly}, we've got to reach a dying, lost world. The only way we're going to do that is not to go 'Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!,' pointing a finger down their throats. There's got to be a way to get in there."
With all that's gone on already to help them "get in there,"
temptation can raise its vile little head in a flash. Foremost regarding the
Talk'ers art is the temptation to compromise. The guys know it and seem
prepared to combat it.
McKeehan again: "The temptation for compromise is definitely valid. To me, it's scary. Is this God's will, or am I doing this for the world so I can get secular airplay? It's a matter of a personal walk. It comes down to lyrics. Someone has to write those lyrics. If that individual is walking with the Lord he's in His will already. The only way we can deal with compromise is a personal relationship, a day-to-day, getting-fed personal relationship."
Kevin took his partner's thoughts to a tangent of outlining God's touch in their music and its effect on audiences. "Someone once said music can't change the world. We, as mouthpieces, can't change it. God can change it."
Though they may be "free at last," they know the strain of commercial pressure. Nu Thang's success would put pressure on anyone who made it.
"I think most of the pressure comes from ourselves," Smith said with a modicum of diplomacy. "You know, we want this thing to be light years ahead of Nu Thang. We want to progress on every album."
McKeehan, who is one of Free At Last's producers and hence a feeler of perhaps a bit more heat of the pressure drop, was positively gracious. "The great thing about ForeFront is...the freedom they give me. As far as I'm concerned, there's no pressure from them. There's pressure for a delivery date, but they trust my talent. I take that as a compliment."
Yow, a producer, a poet, and....a weightlifter. Yeah, that's Michael's hobby, along with socializing. The rest of the DCT answered a couple of teen 'zine-styled queries, too.
McKeehan likes to play basketball, eat swordfish, and the colors green, gray, and maroon. Kevin warms up to green, yellow, black, maroon, and white, writing his poetry and riding his Harley and Italian cuisine. Tait would rather chow down on chicken and croissants and is keen on olive green, black, and dark blue. No, you just can't nail them to one color.
And though a "trooper" is what they all want in a lifelong soul mate, Smith admitted to a crush on Winona Ryder, through stressing that she must be "equally yoked" in order for the romance to work.
The three of them can take it easy enough to answer questions that silly. They can be serious enough to know what they want to do with their ascending celebrity and influence. McKeehan can wrap it all up for DC Talk in the same way countless rappers have before him and put it in a whole new light.
"We feel we have a mission."