Momentum (CD - 2001)

Personnel includes: Toby Mac (vocals, keyboards, programming); Kirk Franklin (vocals); Pete Stewart (guitar, bass, programming, background vocals); Glenn Galaxy, Rafter (guitar, programming); Michael Ripol, Micah Wilshire, Barry Graul (guitar); John Painter (horns, bass); Jeff Savage (piano, Hammond B-3 organ, keyboards, programming, turntables, background vocals); Todd Collins (keyboards, programming); Dave Wyatt, Eric "Big E" Lautenbach (keyboards); Tony Lucido, Otto Price (bass); Brian Haley, Rick "Mayday" May, Jon Knox (drums); Scott Savage (percussion); DJ Form, DJ Maj (turntables); Mooki (keyboards, programming, background vocals); Joanna Valencia, Adrienne Liesching, Jason Eskridge, Chad Chapin, Randy Crawford (background vocals).

Producers include: Toby Mac, Michael-Anthony Taylor, Pete Stewart, Jeff Savage, Randy Crawford.

Engineers include: Pete Stewart, Dan Shike, Marcello Pennell.

MOMEMTUM was nominated for the 2003 Grammy Awards for Best Rock Gospel Album.

After over a decade as one-third of Christian rock/rappers DC Talk, tobyMac accomplishes the difficult leap to solo artist status with MOMENTUM. It's a mix of, obviously, Christian rapping and contemporary R&B stylings with more creative approaches, such as the computerized voice rapping on "Toby's Mac." Mac is from the Washington suburbs in Viginia, immortalized in Funkadelic's "Chocolate City" as DC's "vanilla suburbs," so it's to his credit that he's adapted the rap format, not only to Christianity, but to white-boy Christianity.

TobyMac never lets up on his proselytizing, even during the funky, acoustic "Do You Know," in which he frets about how to put his message over. He needn't--with cuts such as "What's Goin' Down" and "Love Is in the House" MOMENTUM is a testament to his ability to seamlessly intertwine his religion with his music in uniquely creative and subtly nuanced ways. minimize