When DC Talk Ruled The World And My Walkman

I love music. And during these blogs I would love to share some great music stories starting with this one. The year was 1995. I had just recently started work at a local Christian bookstore in Greenwood, SC. I wanted to work in the music section since I had a great love all kinds of music especially Gospel music. I had been slowly introduced to Contemporary Christian music at the time via a local FM radio station WLFJ in Greenville, SC. At that time most of the music was still rather dated and not relative to the styles of music that were exploding on mainstream radio. You gotta remember too that this was before Itunes and even the infamous Napster initiation so there were no early outlets to get music until singles were released if they were available or the actual street date of release. So while working at the store we were getting the buzz of a new DC Talk album releasing in August. And this was a big deal. A very big deal.

First of all DC talk had released an album in 1992 called Free At Last which was a landmark album in itself featuring an infusion of hip hop to the Christian music scene with a underground mainstream push. To this day I know all the raps from member Toby Mac and can remember the infusion of Kevin Max and Michael Tait killing some vocals. It was a must have as a teenager who attended church and needed an alternative to the standard hymns and worship collection. They even made an appearance on the popular Arsenio Hall Show during his late night run. There was a documentary/concert video released as well that showed some of the reality and celebrations during that time of the group's success. So DC Talk having the momentum as a group with that album had many waiting the next chapter. Little did we know the chapter would have some different feel to it. That was briefly revealed at the end of the Free At Last movie with a preview of the next step.

If you didn't know who Nirvana was in the early 90s when the Seattle based grunge sound hit you were under a rock somewhere. They were huge and they ushered a new darker and even harder sound at that time. Again most Christian music rock bands at that time were still stuck in the late 80s with the hair band stylings that gained a lot of rep. The last thing the CCM industry was expecting and the followers of DC Talk were expecting was a new direction of sound for the popular ground that may have been a roll of the dice. But obviously with the talent and artistic vibe they shared in their live shows especially something was gonna be magical.  As I was working at the store we kept getting local college students in asking when is the new album coming from DC Talk. The first single off the album was the self titled track Jesus Freak. The name itself yelled of curiosity and some controversy. The song was amazing. It was different than anything CCM had seen at the time and for me it was like YES somebody has figured it out. The sounds of current day now had a Christian alternative ironically. Not to mention that before Fred Durst was a public figure there was rap infused into a rock song which later would be labeled rapcore. Credit Toby Mac for pushing that envelope. The buzz was at a fever pitch and I told my manager you better have plenty ordered cause this thing is gonna be big. Also at this time we still had cassettes as CDs had established themselves as the main purchase. So you were talking a lot of units combined to get in. And in November of 95 the album dropped to a crazy response of purchases. It flew off the shelf. We sold out in less than a week after getting an initial order of 60 copies which was tapes and CDs combined. We would go on to sell over a thousand copies by the start of 1996 which was not the norm for regular releases. It debuted at number 16 on the Billboard 200 selling over 85,000 copies in the first week. That was the highest debut at that time for any Christian music album. It also went gold selling over 500,000 units in the first month. Again not the normal standard. It was a phenomenon. Truly a historic and cultural revolution. DC Talk would gain mainstream access to radio as well as the Virgin record label which expanded the buzz. The success and introduction of the Jesus Freak album would open the door for Christian music to take a massive makeover into all genres of music to counter culture the world's message. His message would now have the platform to reach so many new believers thanks to new groups like Jars Of Clay, Audio Adrenaline, Big Tent Revival, Third Day, and others. 

The album was truly one of those that you had to listen to every song and there was literally nothing that you wanted to skip. That's hard to pull off. The songs are still relevant for today and it is on a regular shuffle mix that I have to listen to during the week. From struggles to grace to witness to celebration.

So on behalf of my generation of Christian music lovers as well as music fans in general I want to say thank you to Toby Mac, Kevin Max, and Michael Tait. Thank you for investing yourselves in a project that still speaks life and challenge to this guy and so many others. They may not read this but here's hoping it gets to their eyes. We don't know for sure if the guys will ever do a reunion tour or project but we do know that they created and left a musical masterpiece for us to share in. 

Sincerely,
Jesus Freak For Life.