Welcome to Diverse City: A Review

In a fifteen year career that has had few "glitches," I've come to expect several things from rapper Toby McKeehan, the visionary leader of the now-dormant dcTalk. Among them: insightful lyrics, clever rhymes, vivid metaphors, superior musicianship, exciting arrangements, and a passionate commitment to Jesus Christ that also leads him to commend racial justice and wholesome family living.

Welcome to Diverse City, released on October 5, is TobyMac's second solo release. Sequels, whether in literature, films, or music, can be like the second seasons of rookie sensations in major league baseball. Sophomore players may exert pressure on themselves to replicate their rookie feats and so, play "outside themselves." Or, they may feel so overconfident and lazy that they lose their edge.

Similarly, artists and conoisseurs alike can bring unrealistic expectations to second projects. Success can cower artists into aping themselves, playing it safe and losing their creative edges. Or, they can decide to follow some ill-advised creative muse that turns their previously accessible artistic endeavors into self-indulgent schlock.

McKeehan knows that this follow-up to his 2001 release, Momentum, a popular and artistic triumph, will inevitably be regarded as a sequel. He acknowledges as much with the CD's opening sounds. A vocal riff from the earlier release is recast and soon, Toby raps, "Right now it's been a long time comin' but I'm serving up the sequel."

What follows is a CD which is not as auditorally-stunning as the dcTalk Jesus Freak CD or Toby's Momentum were, but a strong second solo release. Musically, McKeehan plows some old territory, but not enough to make you say, Ronald Reagan-style, "There you go again."

And, in what has become characteristic of a TobyMac record, there are lots of intriguing sound hooks and good humor to keep you listening.

McKeehan has always loved to collaborate with other musicians. One of the reasons I was so won over to dcTalk in the 1990s (and I suspect others will identify with this) is that Kevin Max Smith, Michael Tait, and McKeehan represented not only an uncompromising commitment to Jesus Christ, but also such a strange and satisfying mix of sounds and influences. McKeehan was clearly the most gifted and musically ambitious of the trio; but he was willing to share the stage. Even after the towering success of Jesus Freak, a release that pretty much emanated from McKeehan's fertile imagination alone and that received the overwhelming approval of critics and public alike, he consented to allowing Tait and Smith to write much more of the follow-up disc, Supernatural, a good, but far from great CD. So, it comes as no surprise that here, TobyMac collaborates with a number of artists. This penchant for collaboration says wonderful things about an artist who could easily get lost on his own ego trip.

Hey Now, the CD's somewhat non-descript opening cut, had me wondering whether what followed would be satisfying or not. But the second cut, Catchafire (Whoopsi-Daisy), is outstanding in spite of the dumb parenthetical title, a silly phrase repeated throughout the song. It's a call for getting passionate about the God Who is passionate for us.

The Slam is TobyMac at his best, at least as far as I'm concerned. I've always felt that McKeehan is most compelling when over petal-to-the-metal, wall-of-sound guitars, he raps with all the passion he can muster. The Slam is great rock-n-rap song! It's McKeehan's declaration that he's on a full-tilt mission to share Christ with the world. Crank it up and sing along with the hook!

Atmosphere is a more subdued cut--and a good one. It deals with the consolation and comfort we all need when life brings us pain, a theme to which the CD will return.

Gone is probably McKeehan's bid for a crossover single on this, an EMI release. (He was formerly the exclusive property of Christian label, ForeFront Records.) Lyrically, this is sort of a She Loves You-revisited, a guy telling another guy how important it is for him to treat his woman right. But it also tells the tale of a woman empowered by God to forgive and expecting respect from her man, willing to revive a relationship gone sour.

No one is a more passionate or eloquent advocate of racial justice and the acceptance of diversity than McKeehan. A product of the white middle class, he and dcTalk-mate Tait, an African-American, have been incessant spokespeople for these values, all from a Christian perspective. The next cut on the CD, Diverse City, finds McKeehan returning to this theme.

Stories (Down to the Bottom) talks about how, on reaching the end of ourselves and our personal resources during our times of grief and pain, we can be reached by the God Who has gone through grief and pain on the cross of Jesus Christ. In the hook, McKeehan's song says, "We've been down to the bottom/ Stories we got 'em, when we hit rock bottom/ If you been there put your hands in the air/ To let the lost know that someone cares..." Good stuff!

Getaway Car is an imaginative casting of what happens when God frees us from slavery to selfish sin. We're in a "getaway car" as God delivers us from temptation and helps us to become our truest, best selves...our God-selves, the people we were made to be! The getaway car motif may have been suggested by the twenty-year-old semi-rap song of rocker Steve Taylor, Drive, He Said.

Burn for You is a passionate love song to God. I believe that all love songs are really cries for God, because nobody but God can possibly deliver the passion, forgiveness, and hope usually associated with lovers in love songs. That's why I love this love song, a cry to only One worthy of being the love of our lives.

There are three more major cuts on the CD. I like them all.

My grade for Welcome to Diverse City: a solid A.