A House Divided
Racism in Christian music? Say it isn't so! Best-selling hip-hop duo GRITS candidly discusses the dichotomy of remaining true to their calling and their culture.
by Andree Farias | posted 7/12/2004
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They may be Christian music's top-selling hip-hop duo, but don't ask GRITS how they got there. From the moment they traded their acrobatics as dc Talk dancers for microphones, the Tennessee boys have had their fair share of rejection, and not from people far removed from their reality; it was from their own brothers and sisters. The tandem of Bonafide and Coffee gets real with Christian Music Today about their rise to fame, the plight of racism, and how paying their dues has helped them solidify their calling, regardless of the culture they're trying to reach.
Coffee (left) + Bonafide = GRITS
There's a lot of commercial sounds on both The Art of Translation and Dichotomy A. Why that direction? Aren't you afraid of alienating older fans?
CoffeeThat's where the market is going. On our end the thing is growth. It's not like we're trying to make music that's going to reach a pop audience. If it happens to do that, great. We're just being challenged in the area of songwriting. If we're artists, this is our career, our love, our passion. We need to make music people are going to like, that people can get into. The way we write our hooks, our approach, we're just trying to evolve. We do want to be that next huge group. Not just the flavor of the month. Just look at OutKast. They're all over the place.
BonafideWe always have been current with what's already out. That's where we challenge ourselves. We don't want to be old school all the time. We never want to put a date on GRITS. Any artist who longs for longevity has to stay current. You can't find an artist who sounds remotely like A Tribe Called Quest right now. There are groups that still have that feel and flow, like Blackalicious. But we were called to reach people through music that is reachable, that people can grab onto.
Now with the Dichotomy albums—why two albums to begin with? This is not your own spin on Outkast's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, I presume.
Bone(laughs) They're not the first ones to do the double-album deal!
CofWe did a whole bunch of songs, like we normally do, and we played them for the label. And they had the idea to split them up on two discs—one project, but released at two different times. They didn't really want to hold anything back. They wanted to go all out, and we just rolled with it.
But there aren't really thematic differences between the two.
BoneNot really. It's not like you can say, "This album is really serious, while this other one is a party album." It's more for people who really love GRITS. It also shows our diversity and our growth as a duo. And from an industry perspective, we're doing something nobody has ever done, much less in hip-hop. We pretty much want to flood the market with GRITS.
Despite all the flooding you've already done, all the units sold, and the positive press, GRITS is still not a household name. You've never had a #1 hit. Is it an image thing? Is it a beat thing? Is it a lyric thing? Why doesn't radio give you any love?
CofI think people fear what they don't understand. I don't think it's the music, the lyrics, or anything like that. We're urban artists, and we're working with people who don't have any knowledge of our music.
I don't know if this is necessarily true in your case, but some people have suggested to me that some of it has to do with racism. Does this apply to you guys?
CofDefinitely. The black face scares them. Stacie Orrico, whom they've embraced, she's doing her version of urban music. Her beats are very urban-driven. That's why I don't think it's the music itself. They feel safer with a white face promoting that kind of music than with a black face.
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