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Official Biography - tobyMac, Momentum
"When you've spent over a dozen years as one-third of an entity," says tobyMac,
"then a part of you starts to wonder how much of what the band does is
really you. So I guess the short answer to "why do a solo album?"
is because I needed to find out who I was as a solo artist."
The 'entity' to which tobyMac refers to is multi-platinum recording group
dc talk, which he and friends Michael
Tait and Kevin Max formed in the late
1980's. After a decade of trend-setting musical development, award-winning
album releases and exhaustive touring, each man is now taking time to
express himself through solo musical works. "I don't want to describe
dc talk in restrictive terms," tobyMac continues. "But when you collaborate,
by necessity, a little personal vision is lost in the translation. And
when you achieve success at the level that God has blessed dc talk with,
expectations sometimes run contrary to what your natural instincts as
an artist might be."
Momentum really started with
my wife and I sitting down and praying, seeing if I was supposed to make
a record on my own. I wasn't feeling all that creative at the end of dc
talk's Supernatural tour, so we prayed a real specific prayer. Once I
felt I was supposed to do this, then we began praying for creativity.
All of a sudden, there was this outpouring. With Momentum, I blinked
and suddenly had 25 or 30 song ideas. Basically a blank canvas with limitless
colors."
The first fruit of tobyMac's solo work,
the title song from the motion picture
Extreme Days,
spent a record ten weeks at the top of the CCM Update Rock charts. However,
the track wasn't the hip-hop opus many were expecting to be tobyMac's
initial single. Instead it was a slamming, rap core track, which he says
shouldn't surprise long time fans. "A lot of times people forget that
we have had dirty, distorted guitars on all of dc talk's records. A couple
other songs on Momentum that fall in that vein are "Let's
Get This Party Started" and "Yours."
tobyMac adds, "I've been merging guitars, beats and rhymes since 1989.
Combining those things is like a slice of heaven to me."
A full palette of hip-hop, rap, rock, pop and R&B influences are brought
together on Momentum. tobyMac explains. "I felt a desire to get
back to a hip-hop base: call and response, crowd and artist interaction,
the community feeling that hip-hop engenders. There are R&B based songs
like "Wondering Why" and "Somebody's
Watching." There's a couple of hip-hop, 'chanty' kind of songs and
some funk-based songs like "J Train"
as well as some laid back, acoustic rap like "Do
You Know." On "J Train," tobyMac finally got to work with longtime
friend, Kirk Franklin. "Kirk and I have been trying to get together on
a song for several years now," states tobyMac. "Finally, it happened.
We share a love for crushing walls and stereotypes that keep gospel music
from interfacing with contemporary Christian music, black from white,
God music from the mainstream."
For Momentum, tobyMac says he wanted his lyrics to be less introspective
and more community oriented. "Hip-hop is always about community. In my
case, it's about my family, the family of God—just different associations
I'm expressing a love for. I'm looking at society and reflecting it in
my songs whether it's a song about my faith in God and how I find strength
in that, or a very personal lyric directed at my son. I've always written
from the perspective of moving people to the next level of thought, feeling,
soul consciousness and God consciousness. Connecting with people, causing
people to think."
As a youth growing up in the northern Virginia suburbs adjacent to DC, tobyMac
recalls immediately being attracted to the beats, rhymes and production
of early rap music. "I remember hearing a Kurtis Blow/Trouble Funk song
on the radio and going to a local record, and they didn't have it. Since
I couldn't drive yet, I took the Metrorail into downtown DC and found
a store that had that song; I bought the Sugarhill Gang's Rappers Delight
that day as well. From there, it just caught fire. I fell in love with
hip-hop music."
Whether it's as a husband who just celebrated his eighth anniversary,
father of a three-year-old son, performer, song-writer and producer, businessman
or President of Gotee Records,
tobyMac has always been a man driven and committed in every area of his
life. There is no doubt that he has what it takes to be a successful solo
artist in today's music market—make no mistake—tobyMac's up
for the challenge and ready to take the industry by storm.
[ Below Information © Release Magazine - July/August 1995 ]
Full name: Tobias Kevin Michael McKeehan
Born where and when: Fairfax, VA, October 22, 1964
Family stats: 1 lovely wife, Amanda [and one son, Truett Foster]
Pets: Weimaraners-Kingston, Montego and Manchester (RIP)
First job: Janitor (but I was crew chief)
Hidden talent: Singing
Favorite toy from childhood: Stretch Armstrong
Guilty pleasure: Hearing DC Talk on the radio
Favorite hangout: Tait's jacuzzi, Tower Records, House of Insomnia (studio)
Best way to make you laugh: Obnoxious shock humor which gets us in trouble
Most annoying habit: 1. Mid-sentence subject changes unbeknownst to the listening party
(the sign of a wondering mind) and 2. Trying on every t-shirt in the stack (although they're identical
size and color) because I'm convinced they're each cut differently.
Thing you can't do to save your life: Tame the blond chaos on my head
First album you remember buying: Steve Miller Band, "The Greatest Hits" and
Kool & the Gang, "Ladies Night"
If they made a movie of your life, who should play you?: Steve McQueen
What would you like to be when you grow up: Sade's bassist
Best advice you've ever been given: Give up your right to yourself- Oswald tells
me daily
You've been made President of the United States for a day. What are you going
to do?: Have a national day of repentance and forgiveness. White Americans confess
the racial sins of our past and African Americans find it in their hearts to
forgive us.
Word or phrase you most overuse: Ya know what I'm sayin'.
Write your own epitaph: Here lies Toby Mac and he won't be back, for fact.
Barbara Walters Tribute Question - If you could be any kind of tree, what kind
of tree would you be?: The dogwood outside my window, because it makes Amanda
smile.
Book: Oswald Chambers' "My Utmost for His Highest"
Movie: "No Way Out"
Albums: Sade, "Stronger than Pride" and Larry Norman, "Only Visiting This
Planet"
Hymn: "It is Well"
Food: Tabouli
TV Show: Fat Albert
Color: Tattoo Green
Cities: Interlocken, Switzerland; Capetown, South Africa; Capri, Italy
Breakfast Cereal: Cold - Honeycomb; Warm - Cream of Wheat (thanks, mom)
Bible Verse: Isaiah 43:19
Miscellaneous Facts...
Toby got his name from his older brother saying he was going to be born in the month of, "Tober" (October).
Toby once served detention for writing graffiti and had to clean every locker.
He once went to the state championship for basketball and won.
Between 1980 and 1990 - Toby received over 200 stitches from various activities.
Toby first heard rap music on the radio in 1979, and had to take the metro to downtown DC to buy rap, 'cause they didn't sell it in the suburb where he lived.
Toby took classes during the Fall semester of 1988 at Liberty University toward
a MBA degree. This is after he graduated in May of 1988, with a bachelor's degree in Political Science from same University.
Toby married his wife, Amanda, in 1993. Amanda surprised Toby on his birthday by flying to Europe to see him in 1996.
Toby and Amanda became proud parents of son Truett Foster on September 5, 1998.
Toby is one of three owners of Christian record label, Gotee Records.
Toby and Bill Gaither have officially founded a praise-and-worship record label called, 40 Records.
Toby is one third of the Gotee Brother's rap group.
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