Yearning for Diversity
tobyMac has preached diversity for years, and he longs to see it in Christian music. He's doing his part, and it's working. So why is the rest of the industry so slow to catch on?
by Andree Farias | posted 10/25/2004
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Ever wondered what makes tobyMac tick? It's diversity. Race. Hip-hop. Cultural acceptance. Broach those subjects with him, and you'll get him going. Whether he's fulfilling his role as Gotee Records CEO or traveling with his posse-slash-melting pot of performers, tobyMac—one-third of dcTalk—is always looking for ways to see beauty in the multiple colors that make up our culture. His newest, Welcome to Diverse City(Forefront/EMI), is no exception, bringing together everyone from Coffee (of GRITS) to pop-punk favorites Superchic[k]. In a conversation with Christian Music Today, tobyMac shares his passion for the subject of diversity, and ways to ignite a similar passion in his industry peers.
You're touring with Third Day. How does that work? It's two completely different audiences.
tobyMac I already did a spring leg of the tour with them. Their crowd is into rock and a lot of praise and worship, so you bring my stuff into it, it ends up stretching a certain percentage of the crowd. Some are just not ready for it. Our stuff gets kind of intense; it's not exactly like "God of Wonders." We're worshipping too, in a lot of ways. But it's a slightly different musical culture. I mean, they're a rock 'n' roll band, so they naturally appeal to a pop audience. And I'm definitely a hip-hop-meets-everything artist, so that's pop, too. That's our common ground.
Your debut album (Momentum) came out in 2001, and your newest just came out. Didn't it feel weird to tour with an album that's three years old?
tobyMac Actually, Third Day was hoping this new album would be out during the spring leg of the tour, but it just came out. Touring off of the first album was cool, but you could feel people were anxious to hear a new project. We were doing the same songs for a while, and we'd mixed them up and remixed them and made them louder in as many ways as you can, but we needed something new. Now with the new record out, it certainly injects the tour with extra spice.
Like you said, Momentum was reworked a thousand different ways. Everybody was Momentumed-out. Didn't it feel old after a while? You never got tired?
tobyMac Some of the songs definitely got old. But my band is just so good. We tend to sit around and come up with different ways to express those songs. We've come close to mastering the art of mixing and remixing song in different ways. Keeping the freshness as performers. Of course, it can get mundane, but when we keep flipping it up, it stays exciting.
The first song on Diverse City goes, "It's been a long time coming now we're serving up the sequel." What has taken so long for that sequel to appear?
tobyMac I haven't stopped! This album was done differently from records past. If you look at the stuff I did with dcTalk and Momentum itself, I would take this one-year break and focus on the record. Not do shows or anything like that. But this record was literally made in pockets of time when I was off the road. I did the dcTalk Solo Tour, the Momentum Tour with John Reuben and Out of Eden, then I did Festival con Dios, then I did the I Have a Dream Tour with Kirk Franklin and Souljahz, and now the Third Day Tour. So it's been constant touring.
You describe Diverse City as an album that blurs racial lines and brings everybody together, regardless of social differences. That sounds good on paper, but how does one accomplish that with an album?
tobyMac I think the album is just an invitation. I don't think I can accomplish it by any means. But I can invite people to commune together. To hold hands together. When you see multiple races on a stage, coming together, it's an invitation to this diverse city. Then after that, it's truly up to the people, up to their hearts, consciousness, and state of mind, to begin to open up to their neighbors, even if they have a different color skin or they're from different cultural backgrounds or denominations.
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