Free At Last?
30 years, Two Honks, and a Yo, Ho, Ho
I migrated my newsletter to Substack this week, because with Twitter being what it is, I’m finding the Substack App to be a really great way of keeping up with people without overloading my inbox, and I love the commenting feature in it.
November 1992
30 years ago this month, the Christian music industry was covering The 77s, Ray Boltz, CCM-TV, acoustic guitarists, a new artist Eric Champion, and fan favorites DC Talk who released their album “Free at Last” on November 18th. (This 1992 video press release is a pretty fun look back at them.)
November 1992 had a lot of pop culture events going on! Carol Moseley-Braun was elected the first African-American woman in the U.S. Senate, Whitney Houston’s cover of Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You” was released, Bill Clinton was elected for the first time, Rage Against the Machine debuted, Howard Stern’s radio show began, the Spike Lee film Malcom X was released, and Miley Cyrus was born.
What’s interesting about this little news tidbit is that it shows that, despite accusations and perceptions that white evangelicals stayed in their little bubbles, they were aware of national issues, and even responded to them. It was the type of their response, obviously that was the problem.
Street Called Straight is a minor group that most people probably don’t remember. It was a married duo made up of Scott Franklin and Jody Moreing Frankfurt. Jody passed away in 2006, but Scott became a well-known and successful sound engineer and music producer. Their collaborator on this song, Philip Bailey was an R&B singer as well as being a lead singer for Earth, Wind & Fire.
This song is yet another example of the evangelical belief that (certain) social issues are really problems of the heart. As they say in the lyrics, which again is *a response to the L.A. Riots!* - “The battle is won when we fall to our knees.”
From a Letter to the Editor…
(This letter is in response to an earlier article about Christian comedian Mike Warnke being credibly accused of lying about his past as a Satanist as well as committing tax fraud.)
“There is a fine line between holding a brother or sister in Christ accountable for their actions and casting the first stone…I challenge the Christian community to provide a genuine atmosphere where all of us can tell the truth and not be afraid of being cast out; where, even if we are right smack in the middle of our greatest sin and holding tight to our pride, we will be loved and cherished simply because we were created by God; where we need not fabricate drama in order to get the attention we deserve simple because we are alive.”
DC Talk
This cover story about DC Talk is when they’ve been established as a popular band, and so the questions dive a little deeper into who they are and what they want for the group, while still of course covering their history briefly. The article is promotion for their new album “Free At Last,” which would eventually go platinum and win them a Grammy for Best Rock Gospel Album.
The three guys talk about how their fanbase also includes a lot of young kids and teens, especially teen girls, but say, “We don’t want to be looked at as New Kids.” They credit their Arsenio Hall appearance with helping them reach a wider audience, and go on to talk about their desire to spread the Christian message in the rap world, even though ironically, Free At Last is much less of a rap album.
Their appearance on Arsenio Hall in 1992 did give us this…….interesting gem of a little song, which also appears on the album. What’s really funny is watching Kevin point to Michael - as if it wasn’t clear…
The juxtaposition of this ditty, the “Pick up the Pieces” song, and the Malcom X movie is really something, actually.
1992 was quite the year in retrospect! In the article Toby goes on to say, “The hip-hop generation, 1992, is a culture that has a chip on its shoulder. I think that there are a lot of underground rap records selling millions that are sowing seeds of anger. The M.C.’s out _ there cry ‘This is reality!’ You know what? I believe it’s reality. I’ve been downtown. I’ve hung out in the inner cities... with Mike near his house {in Washington D.C}. I believe that’s reality, but is this going to have a positive effect on our generation, or is it going to create all kinds of animosity?”
The strangest part of the interview is where they talk explicitly about race and musical styles, ending with this: “Getting a handle, then, on what exactly is their ‘blackest’ musical element becomes moot. Asking the question leads to a spirited debate among Kevin, Michael, and Toby not over racial and ethnic quality, but musical passion. The best answer comes, perhaps, when Michael deadpans simply, ’Me’ and then appends it with a jovial ‘Just kidding.’”
Pro-Life, of course
It’s the steady drip, drip, drip of content that lets you know that to be a good christian, one must be against abortion…
A look at the top charts…
And since I bought a Christmas tree yesterday….The interview with DC Talk also talks about their contributions towards a 1990 rap Christmas album, known as Yo! Ho! Ho! The whole album is uploaded here, and, it’s bad, but honestly not terrible.
There are a couple songs on 'Yo Ho Ho' that are okay but cheesy. In my opinion, the only really good song (given it >IS< supposed to be a hip hop album) is D-Boy's 'Winter Wonderland'.