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.

In 2001, dc Talk frontman tobyMac released his first solo project, Momentum. For the artist, also known as Toby McKeehan, the album marked a return to his musical roots, with a blending of hip-hop, rock, rap, pop, and R&B styles. In an interview with his label, ForeFront Records, tobyMac said that the album began "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," tobyMac continued. "Once I felt I was supposed to do this, then we began praying for creativity. All of a sudden, there was this outpouring.basically a blank canvas with limitless colors." Fresh and innovative, the project leaves no room for mediocrity. Each track stands on its own, with no two tracks merging, but remaining clearly distinct while still managing to contribute to the album's unified whole. Accessible to a variety of musical tastes, the songs range from the intense, guitar-beat-rhythm-fused "Let's Get This Party Started" to the R&B-influenced "Irene," which opens with the sounds of Latin guitars and quickly shifts to rap. Momentum, an album reminiscent of dc Talk's early work, sets itself apart as a project highly deserving of the title "much anticipated." It is intricately detailed with layers of musical depth, combined with strong social messages such as racial reconciliation. And so it is with this release that tobyMac continues to reveal that he is indeed a modern day Renaissance man. ~ Ashleigh Kittle

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