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But races, even within Christianity, are still not together. We don't worship together. Why do you think that is?

tobyMac I think it's just heritage. And that's the one thing I want to say. I want to protect certain heritages. To want people to come into a "diverse city" is a wonderful thought. But at the same time, does that mean somebody has to toss aside their roots of black gospel to be in this fold? No. 'Cause I think black people have some of the best styles of music in the world. So I don't want to kick to the curb anyone's heritage. To bring these heritages together and enjoy our differences and delight in diversity, that's what it's all about-not to be intimidated by those differences or put people in a box or stereotype them.

So how come that idea isn't working in Christian music? It's not very diverse. There's no love for people of color at radio, retail, or the consumer end. Why?

tobyMac That's an industry problem, not a consumer problem. If you make it available, if labels begin signing it, and you begin putting it through the system, then radio will begin playing it. I believe retail will feature it. Magazines will cover it. We just have to be willing to step up and sign it. Then ultimately, after all of that has happened, people will begin to buy it. We need to step out of our comfort zone and embrace other cultures and styles of music that we don't understand, that we didn't grow up with.

Not treat them as novelty, you mean?

tobyMac There's some incredible musicians out there that are making hip-hop and R&B music, who love God and want to serve him. But they're novelty artists to our industry. In the general market, they're not novelty, but to us they are. We need to get to the point where they're not novelty. Take Out of Eden or GRITS. They're both incredible and passionate at what they're do. But in our industry, they're this unique thing. The non-urban-to-urban ratio of music in our industry is way out of proportion.

But not in the mainstream, where urban music is all over the map. But Christian music is mostly a mixture of pop/rock and worship. What's going on?

tobyMac If you take the Billboard charts in the mainstream, they're serving the same people. They're serving middle America. Christian music, I think, should be serving middle America. But we're missing section. And I think that's the labels' responsibility. But things are looking up. This is the first time in history that I look around and see that other labels are talking to the same hip-hop acts I'm talking to. From a Gotee perspective, if I sign a hip-hop group, I find myself competing with two or three other labels, whereas before, I'd be the only one sniffing.

I find it interesting that Christian music has been so slow to jump on the urban bandwagon, seeing as how the genre is renowned for closely mimicking trends.

tobyMac We're not only missing a business opportunity. We're missing an opportunity to reflect what a city on a hill should look like.

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