Kirk Franklin and Tobymac: Ebony and Ivory

Ebony & Ivory
Kirk Franklin and Tobymac perform together
By MaryAlice Bitts
SundayNews
October 26, 2003


It's almost an oxymoron to be Christian, yet racially divided," said Kirk Franklin. "It's amazing that, 40 years after Dr. King's dream, racism is such a strong issue, not only within the larger culture but also within the church.

"We say that God is love, and God loves the individual, but that's not really how we treat each other. We finally said, 'Let's just stop talking about it. Let's just do it.'"

Franklin, an African American gospel artist, and tobyMac, a white contemporary Christian hip-hop/guitar rock artist, intend to do just that.

With 12 million records and eight platinum albums, Franklin is one of the top-selling gospel artists in the industry. He is also one of the most lauded. In the past year he earned three NAACP Image Awards, five Stellar Awards and two Dove Awards.

With his group dc talk, tobyMac sold more than 6 million CDs and won four Grammy Awards and numerous Dove Awards. His current solo album, "Momentum," has garnered six Dove Awards and two No. 1 hits.

Wanting to bring their very diverse music and audiences together, the two have embarked on a 15-plus-city joint concert, "I Have a Dream: The Tour," which rolls into the Harrisburg's Zembo Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 31.

When the two artists met at various Dove and Grammy presentations some four or five years ago. "It was mental love at first sight," said tobyMac. "We both enjoyed each other's minds and hearts on this matter, and we immediately looked for ways to work together.

"I think we're kind of forcing the issue to the limit, because (my) audiences are still mostly white, and you go to a Kirk Franklin show, it's 95 percent black," he added. "We're saying: 'You've gotta get under the same roof.'"

And so tobyMac and his (multiracial) dc talk bandmates and management founded the E.R.A.C.E. Foundation (Eliminating Racism And Creating Equality) in 1997. The Foundation, which creates special events and talk-back sessions to raise awareness about racial issues, is sponsoring this concert to spread its platform of interracial unity, awareness and equality - a message that tobyMac said hits home only when we are exposed to multiracial experiences.
"I was raised and reared in the Washington, D.C., area, so I saw all cultures, all races, in all socioeconomic ranges, all around me," tobyMac said.

"When I got on the road with dc talk, I got into some other towns, and I realized that not all people had the privilege I had. So it just put something in my heart to sort of just put something together and open people's minds, hearts and eyes toward each other, and recognize that yeah, we have a lot of things in common, and a lot of differences. But it's our differences that make us beautiful. I was privileged to have these experiences, so that I could develop this healthy view, and I wanted to pass it along."

Franklin's role modeling was not so positive, but his well-publicized life experiences likewise molded his world view.

Raised by an elderly aunt who adopted him when he was 3, he grew up never knowing his parents, never having a male role model in his household.

His upbringing, which he describes as "not at all happy," is outlined in detail in his autobiographical novel, "Church Boy.” The book is titled for the passages in which Franklin was beaten by other boys because of his job leading the Mount Rose Baptist Church adult choir at age 11. He later turned to a life of larceny and promiscuity before coming back to the church.

Knowing what it is to be a disempowered person drives Franklin to take on causes promoting healing and community building, including benefits that have helped combat crime in his hometown and saved burnt churches - and now the "Dream" tour.

Franklin and tobyMac's tour mix of gospel and hip-hop Christian guitar rock are as different as their backgrounds.

So the question is: Can they draw both of their fan bases to a single concert? Will their audiences appreciate the differences, not only in each other but in each other's music?

Don't bet against it. Franklin and tobyMac share some big similarities. Both are stars in their respective industries, both have addressed racial issues before, and both are musically adventurous, having made significant artistic changes this year.

The former Toby McKeean of the now-dormant dc talk has launched a new solo career as tobyMac. Franklin invented a brand-new genre - hip-hop gospel - with the release of his "Nu Nation Project" album, and he has collaborated with mainstream artists as diverse as Bono and Mary J. Blige. Still, it's worth noting that his new album, "The Rebirth of Kirk Franklin," represents a return to his earlier, traditional gospel style, including his signature, eclectic mix of sound.

Why all this experimentation and change?

"We wanted to push past those walls that make our separate (music) industries a ghetto," said tobyMac. "We also had a desire to infiltrate the mainstream, to make music so passionate that the whole world wants to listen. And this racial issue is a hot-button issue for me, something I've always pushed for."

The tour goes beyond musical inspiration. Event organizers hope to mobilize community members to spread the word about the cause (and, simultaneously, the event) by putting together street teams in participating cities. (For more information, visit tobymac.com.) But, said tobyMac, if they can just get people together, their goal will be met.

"It's not like we think we're going to roll into Detroit and cure racism with a single event. I think prejudice will always exist. If we all were blue, we'd all start looking at each other's eyes and figure out what color they were and separate ourselves based on that," he said.

"I think this is just to open people's minds and hearts one at a time, and the way to do that is by exposure."

"This is about awareness - learning about the differences between people and taking it from there. It isn't that it will all change overnight," Franklin agreed.

"I've lived in my neighborhood for six years, and we're the only black family in our neighborhood - they don't even know me, and I don't know them. It makes no sense that people will work in the same office building, or have the same day care and not get to know each other. If people can sacrifice the time to get to know each other, that will be a start."
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Third Day Wired for Tour

Third Day 'Wire'd for rocksponsibility
SundayNews
October 10, 2004
By MaryAlice Bitts

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"Oh, it makes me wonder/ What if I slip, will they catch me/ Or watch me fall?"
- "Wire"

In the song "Wire," Third Day guitarist Mark Lee compares the stress of being famous with walking a tightrope. And since Third Day has 21 Dove Awards, 20 No. 1 singles, and a Grammy under its belt, it's safe to say he knows what he's talking about.

"The audience is rooting for the high-wire guy, but a tiny part of them wants to see him fall, because the danger of falling is what makes it exciting," he says. "It's about risk."

Third Day must enjoy risk. Otherwise, it wouldn't be messing with a winning formula. Eleven years into a very successful Christian rock career, its new album, "Wire," marks a definitive shift in the band's focus.

"You get to the point where you've been (successful) for a while, and you can just stay comfortable," mused Lee. "But we started asking ourselves hard questions like: What do we want our legacy and our impact to be?"

Those questions led to "Wire," an album of pop songs that touch on both spiritual and secular matters.

The result is yet another hit. "Wire debuted on top of the Christian music charts and hit No. 12 on the Billboard charts last May. It also led Third Day to a guest shot on "The Tonight Show" and launched a hot new tour that brings Third Day to Hershey's Giant Center Thursday, Oct. 21, along with tobymac.

The album's new sound was inspired by its producer, Paul Ebersold, who's also straddled the Christian and mainstream scene, having worked with Three Doors Down, Sister Hazel, Big Tent Revival and Skillet.

But the band reveals its new, secular self in more than music. Third Day continues to support both Christian and other charitable causes - giving away free merchandise to fans who contribute to the Christian relief organization World Vision, building a few dozen houses for Habitat for Humanity and helping raise awareness of AIDS in Africa.

Breaking taboo

On this tour, they've added a kicker: Now, they're talking politics, going so far as to play at the Republican Convention last month.

Lee said it was a natural progression. "My grandfather told me never to talk about religion or politics. I was already talking about one of those because of my job, so why not take on the other?"

The band's voter registration campaign - and open endorsement of President Bush - began after Lee had a chance meeting on a plane with an American soldier returning home from Iraq.

"It made the (war issue) a lot more personal for me," he said. "We've got soldiers overseas literally putting their lives on the line for the sake of freedom. It's a slap in the face to those soldiers not to get involved.

"I've got to do that guy and his family justice by voting this year. So that's what we want to encourage people to do."

Frontman Mac Powell, mentioned Third Day's support of President Bush in an interview, and within the week, the Republican Party called to book the group for the convention.

"We're not at all getting up on stage and telling people who to vote for," Lee clarified. "I think it's more that this election season, with the race being so close and so many things going on, it's time when everybody needs to let their voices be heard, whatever it is that they have to say."

Some say the band that gained mainstream support working for secular corporations - recording a Coca-Cola jingle and giving away CD samplers to folks test-driving Chevrolets - now runs the risk of losing long-time fans who may not back its less obviously religious lyrics.

Lee does not agree.

"Any time you start talking about mainstream stuff, your audience starts to say, 'Hold on, does that mean you going to abandon us?' We love our fans - it's been awesome - and we have absolutely no intention to do that," he said.

The early success of "Wire" in both markets bears him out.

Grounded in reality

Lee said Third Day has had a lot of practice straddling the line between two worlds. With 12 children under age 6 between them, band members have worked to balance career and family for more than a decade.

("We have very expensive cell phone bills," Lee said, laughing.)

And besides, Lee noted, Third Day's members are living in a different world from when the band first arrived on the Christian charts.

"I don't know what mainstream and secular vs. Christian really is, anymore," Lee said. "You can go into Wal-Mart and see our record next to everyone else's. You can go see our show at the civic center. It's all a matter of how you phrase it.

"There's kind of a weird stigma with the word 'crossover.' But as a friend of ours said, it's not crossover because you're not crossing over and going anywhere. It's spillover. You're still in your main market, but hopefully there's going to be enough of a story there that it will spill over into other places.

"I think for years and years, when people talked about Christian music, there was kind of a negative connection. The music wasn't as good, and they were maybe five years behind. I feel like there's definitely a new attitude, where we're trying to create excellent music that will compete with anything else," he said.

"And I think we're selling ourselves short any time we are asked or pressured to do anything other than what God has called us to do. It's all about serving the song, and I feel like if I have to change the lyrics in any way to try to pander to the market, then I'm selling that song short.

"Do we have a question about where we need to go? Just because we happen to be people of faith doesn't mean that we don't have doubts every day and are constantly second-guessing things. We just place things in God's hands and know that he's got everything taken of."
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