So the saga continues. The three members of dc Talk have been successfully working on their solo careers since 2001, and they've all got two solo releases to their name at this point. (Well, at least if you count an EP on Kevin Max's part.) Bringing up the rear in terms of the release schedule is Toby Mac, the guy who started it all in the 80's with his love for the poppy end of rap music. His second disc, Welcome to Diverse City, has been out for about a month now, and while there's still more pop than rap in the equation, I have to admit that Toby's come a long way from his early days of sounding like a bad Vanilla Ice ripoff.

It's funny - when the three solo projects were first announced in 2000 or 2001, I expected Toby's to be my least favorite of the three, with Michael Tait leading the pack. Tait's style was more straight-ahead rock, and that was my favorite element of dc Talk at the time. Kevin... well, I expected him to just be weird and out there. Nothing against Toby, but I didn't expect a pure hip-hop album from him to interest me as much. I felt that it would be a throwback to the earlier days of dc Talk, to albums like Free at Last that were fun, but didn't have a whole lot of substance despite their importance in Christian music's history. And I was sort of right - Toby's record ended up being a mostly for-fun affair that was my least favorite of the three. (For the record, Kevin's ended up being my favorite.) What I didn't count on was Momentum having a fair abundance of rock songs that carried the rap-rock stamp of party-minded acts like Kid Rock at times. Going from that to more laid-back hip-hop was a bit strange at times, and it was that sense of discontinuity (well, and a few lyrics that were just too unintentionally humorous to allow me to take certain songs seriously) that kept Toby from being up to par with his dc Talk buds. The general public apparently disagreed with me, because Momentum became the biggest seller of the three.

Three years later, after a highly disappointing synthesized rock album from Tait and an intriguing but brief EP from Kevin, Toby's Welcome to Diverse City has finally dropped. And I think Toby's pulled into second place with an album that doesn't just sound like Momentum, Part II to these ears. Sure, all the elements that made Toby's first album fun are back - the power chord guitar-fests on a few tracks, the occasional riffs and vocal style that borrow from funk, the silly interludes, and an abundance of hip-hop cliches. In some cases, the stupid lyrics hang around as well. But in terms of how everything flows, I think Toby's made a major improvement here. Surprisingly, he's scaled back the rock stuff that made him so popular, and concentrated more on giving each song a distinct sound. Between that and the numerous guest appearances, this is basically the kind of album that I'd have expected from Toby the first time around. However, one thing's still the same - you can either be in this to have fun, or you're probably not going to enjoy Diverse City very much at all. Momentum serves as a good template in that regard (unless you had such a strong affinity for, or aversion to, the rap/rock songs) - if you loved that album, then stick around for the sequel. If you hated it, then run far, far away, because Toby's probably not going to surprise you in any pleasant manner on this one.

Personally, I'm having a pretty good time with Diverse City. I'll be the first to acknowledge that it's not a "real" rap album. I don't think Toby intended for it to be anything like that. He gets a lot of flak for being a white guy who does rap-influenced music, actually, and while I've jumped on the bandwagon in the past and blasted anyone with my same color of skin who tries to make music that originated from other cultures, I've since realized how immature that is. (What was I trying to prove with that, anyway?) Toby grew up around some of these styles of music. He has the right to wear them proudly as influences and mix and match them until the cows come home if that's what makes him happy. Yeah, it probably makes him sound cheesy to people who are into "harder" rap styles or whatever. Merging genres means that you run the risk of sounding pretty foolish to purists. That's not a dig at purists, but just a realization that it's not what Toby's interested in doing. Mislabeling is probably the culprit here - the Christian music industry has been historically slow to accept more urban styles of music, marginalizing most of it into the "Gospel" section of your average Christian bookstore. This means that the only religious hip-hop music a lot of Christian kids are hearing comes from those with the most pop-accessible sounds. And that, in turn, gets lifted up as the best of the best and nominated for Dove Awards in the category. Again, I'm no expert, but I know enough not to claim Toby as one of Christian music's best rappers. He's good at what he does, and that's bridging gaps. For rap purists to tear him down for that is to miss the point of what he's trying to accomplish with an album called Welcome to Diverse City. For those who know nothing about the genre to assume he's the end-all-be-all of that genre is equally foolish.

OK, enough with the socio-political ranting (or whatever you want to call it). On with the review.

Hey Now
Back from the day, I'm the sleeper done slumbering
Pass me the mic and I might stop mumbling
Crumble like a cracker, I'll fall like a leaf
But the hole in my soul's been filled underneath...
I have to admit that when I first pressed play and heard the exact same female vocals from Toby's version of "Somebody's Watchin'", this time singing "Toby's back!" instead of "Toby Mac", I wasn't exactly anticipating greatness. Having girls sing your name, and having the first song on your album be all about how you're back after a supposedly long absence, are two cliches that honestly don't do anything for me. This little party song is fun enough for getting folks out on the dance floor, and the appearance of Coffee from Grits, a Christian rap group that Toby helped out in a big way by signing to his brand new label about 10 years ago, is always enough to put a smile on my face. (Now he just has to do something with Tait and he'll be on albums by all three dc Talk members!) But the whole "It's been a long time comin' but we're serving up the sequel" thing is just a bit too self-referential for my tastes. We're glad you're back, Toby, now rap or sing about something that we liked hearing you rap/sing about in the first place.

Catchafire (Whoopsi-daisy)
Started out and we was hot, looked up and now we're not
We had that fire like we was boilin' in a pot...
Things really start to get going on the second track, which cuts into the first one rather abruptly with its weird, vaguely Eastern-sounding intro, and Toby reprising a snippet of his part from Girts' song "Ooh Aah". (Rappers like to reuse their stuff from time to time, I guess.) I thought this would be a really stupid song from the title, quite frankly, and while the lyrics are a bit off in places, I actually think it's an effective blend of styles that shows us Toby at his best. The verses are done in this funky, trance-like that manages to be quite catchy despite how it seems to be stuck on one chord, and the choruses break out into more of the guitar-driven scream-rap style that we heard so much of on Momentum. The subject matter here is a desire for revival - a realization that he's allowed his spiritual fire to burn out and he's become apathetic about God, and he wants to be re-energized. Metaphors such as "Feelin' lukewarm like the water in my tub" come across as rather absurd, and the repeated line "Whoopsi-daisy!" sure makes for a strange hook, but hip-hop is one of the genres where things like that don't bother me so much, because hey, unexpected metaphors and catch phrases are just part of the package. Toby hands the mic over to not one, but two guest stars, on this song - female rapper MOC and reggae artist Papa San. Both do an excellent job and add a lot of flavor to an already solid song. It'll take a few listens to wrap your head around this one, but I've come to really enjoy every second of it, right up to the sweet transition where Toby's kids remind us of the album title and then the drums kick in, and...

The Slam
So run like the wind from the sin of your past
Keep your eyes on the prize when they put you on blast
It's the Christ on the cross, it's humanity's shot
It's a worldwide call to everything that we're not...
...and we get a rap/rock song comparing Christ to a pro athlete. Yeah, don't think too hard on this one, or it'll really bug you. This is definitely the most in-your-face, Momentum-styled song to be found here, and it was reportedly one of those Passion of the Christ-inspired songs. As fun as the yelling of random metaphors can the fist-pumping choruses can be, some things just seem like holy ground to me, and "This is the slam, this is the one" doesn't really seem to be a phrase that belongs on that ground. Not that I think Toby's song is sacrilege, but given it's source, I can't take it very seriously. Rapper T-Bone makes an entertaining guest appearance, grabbing attention with his tricky triple syllables that get spit out at lightning speed, but for the most part, this song feels like more flash than substance - it's one step beyond the awkward worship-meets-doo-doo-reference of "Yours". The chorus also feels a bit weak and out of place when compared to the rest of the song. Darned if I'm not walking around with line "We gonna bring it like it ain't been BRUNG!" stuck in my head, though.

Poetically Correct
Another female rapper shows up here, delivering a brief bit of beat poetry that sounds like it would fit in perfectly on an album by Nicole C. Mullen.

Atmosphere
I know you're all alone in a crowd full of friends
I can see it in your eyes that your fadin' again
Checking out, moving into your hole
Where the light can't touch any part of your soul...
I think Latin/classical guitars have become one of the standard backdrops for hip-hop ballads these days. Not that it's a bad thing - I like having a lush, acoustic backdrop to a song like this because it just feels more "real" and emotional to me, and it gives Toby a chance to mellow out and be a little more serious. Toby has described this song as a mix of dc Talk's "Consume Me" and his solo song "Irene", and I can definitely hear it in his sing-songy vocal approach. There's probably more singing than rapping here, though the beats and overall feel are obviously still very hip-hop. Like "Irene", this is a song where God's voice speaks to a person, though this time it's not a specific person, just someone who's suffering and who has locked themselves away in a lonely world. Toby allows them to imagine God calling out to them, "Just turn around and I'll be there, I'm moving into your atmosphere." A simple song, but beautifully done.

Gone
She said she's had enough
Well, it sounds to me like you're straight out of luck
And she said she's all through
And life's not blowin' her kisses thanks to you...
Now, I'm OK with singing on a rap album. Doesn't bother me. I'm OK with diversifying your musical style. It makes for interesting listening. But you know what really doesn't belong on this album? A cheesy, fuzzy guitar-driven teenybopper rock song that sounds like a reject from the Avril Lavigne school of songwriting. Seriously, you could probably sing "Complicated" over this thing if you tweaked the chords just a little, and that ain't a good thing. Toby's whining might even be more irritating than Avril's actually, especially at the beginning of the song when he's telling off a guy who mistreats his girl but is out looking at "blingy rings" for her. Toby just has a nasal tone that doesn't work for him here - there's a reason why he rapped or whispered or sang backup more than he sang lead in dc Talk. Sure, the song is catchy as heck, but that just means you'll have a high-pitched, nails-on-chalkboard chorus trapped in your brain for the rest of the week. If this song belongs to Diverse City, then I guess we can consider it to be the "suburban nightmare" portion of that particular town. The fact that it's the current single, that WoW 2005 picked it up, and that it'll probably get a "Best Rap/Urban/Whatever-Else-We-Want-to-Marginalize Song" nomination at next year's Doves (anyone remember the year Carman won that award?) likely means that this nightmare will hang around for years to come. Um, nice try?

TruDog: The Return
So far, this album has followed the pattern of Momentum to a T. Three songs, interlude, two more songs, and then a track with Toby's son Truett McKeehan rapping and beat-boxing. It was cute when the kid hardly knew how to talk. Now, it's honestly getting a bit frightening to hear him repeating back his daddy's slang, and while I'm sure anyone with little kids will probably think it's adorable, I think it runs on for a bit too long. The exchange at the end between Toby and Tru about what form of payment the kid will be receiving is amusing, though.

Diverse City
Short ones, tall ones, skinny ones, bigger
Love is the gun and we pullin' that trigger
So you send me and I'll send you
Hope in the form of a new tattoo...
And here we have the title track at #8. Once again, just like Momentum. What isn't so much like Momentum is the strong R&B/disco/funk influence here - it reminds me of some songs that I'm sure must be about 25 years old, but that I can't place due to my limited knowledge of any music before 1990. One obvious influence here would be Bootsy Collins, who I can only name for certain because I know that he plays on this track. Toby's thin singing voice and faster-paced raps actually work quite well on this track, which features kickin' drums, tasty little vocorder effects, and silly metaphors to keep us all smiling' and singin' along. It's a much more convincing party song than "Hey Now", and the nod to older styles of music fits quite well with the album's theme (actually, I can't recall whether much Christian music of this type was made back when it was first popular). It's more than just the fact that having a bunch of diverse people together is cool because they're all, um, different and cool - it's the idea that doing so glorifies the God who made all those people, and that it becomes a "city on a hill" that offers light to a divided world. Cheesy, perhaps - but then, so was "Walls", and heck, maybe even "Colored People". I'm not gonna complain, because behind the silly "spread this love like dandelions" stuff is an important truth that fits the mood of the song.

Stories (Down to the Bottom)
Rock bottom's never felt so near before
And if pain is God's megaphone it's loud and clear...
Here Toby gets together with the members of Superchic[k] for an acoustic-driven session that doesn't sound too far removed from some of their mellower remixes. Their lead vocalist Tricia Brock provides some sweet backing vocals that you might not recognize at first if you're more used to her usually deadpan style, and Matt Daly does a guest rap that takes on a little more of an Eminem flavor (though not as bitter or angry). The song's basically about being down and out to the point where you finally realize you can't make it on your own, and surrender to God. Nothing terribly deep, but I like how the song is wrapped up with the lonely sounds of Toby sitting out on the street singing his song with a guitar, and a kid passing by asking his dad why the guy's sitting on the street, and the dad replies uncaringly, "He just wants people to give him money".

Getaway Car
I put my hand on the wheel before I change my mind
I put my foot to the floor and I start to fly
I keep my eyes on the road so I don't get spun around
To the nightmare I've been delivered from...
Another funk/R&B song shows up here - Toby sure makes some fun ones. Here I'm reminded of the little I've heard of groups like Earth, Wind & Fire - somebody slap me if that comparison turns out to be way off! It's interesting to note how the car serves two main functions in a lot of CCM songs - either it's a symbol of material wealth and superficiality, or it's a transportable sanctuary, which people can climb into in order to pray and find some solitude as they hit the open road. Toby's meaning is definitely the latter, and while his rhymes are rather elementary here, "I need a getaway car, I've gotta get outta here fast and far", the female backing vocals, hand claps, and era-appropriate guitar riffs make this one a keeper.

Burn for You
Woke up in a sweat, those ghosts in my head
Had a grip, but I slipped on by
It's a whole new day as the darkness fades
And the sun's climbing in the sky...
This track was a bit of a hidden surprise for me - it leads off with a clean electric guitar picking away, and the song builds slowly around that and the beat, much like the title track from ZOEgirl's Different Kind of FREE. Toby's in a mellower mood here, but there's a definite passion boiling just under the surface. He's kind of reusing the "fire" metaphor from that "Whoopsi-daisy" song, but here he approaches a worshipful fervor that, against all odds, is quite refreshing. Little computerized blips add to the melody of the song without over saturating it, and in general, this one strikes an excellent balance between being meditative and having a solid groove. It's a left-field entry that a lot of folks might skip over, but I think it's one of the album's best.

Fresher than a Night at the W
Another interlude here - this one's just a brief Toby rap that indicts people who think they're being incredibly diverse and open minded just because they "know a guy who knows a guy who has brown skin". I have no idea what it means to be "Fresher than a Night at the W", but it any case, this little piece manages to keep the flow of the album going, unlike a few of the other little snippets in between songs.

Ill-M-I
With KO's and OK, we bash clots-n-dot-dash
You got that right, I'ma rock the Morse code tonight...
Man, oh man. When I first heard this song performed by the indie-rock-hip-hop band Soul-Junk a few years ago, I thought it was one of the absolute stoopidest things I had ever heard. Not a single word made sense to me. Now I find myself amused by the almost complete lack of understanding, and I have to give props to Toby for covering a song from such an unexpected source (though I really should have seen it coming - Toby co-wrote "In the Air" with Soul-Junk's mastermind Glenn Galaxy last time around). Somehow it's a bit less annoying to hear Toby and the girls who back him up sing "Ill-M-I, Ill-M-I, Ill-M-I, Ill-M-I, and U? Illuminati comin' through" as it was to hear Soul-Junk do it, and I honestly don't remember which of the surreal lyrics belong to the original song and which ones Toby modified, but anyway, it's fun to listen to him rattling along through this one as if the words he was saying actually meant something. In truth, there are probably a lot of layers to the metaphors here that do mean something, but it's one of those pieces that you can admire just based on the wordplay.

Phenomenon
A marvel that will tickle the mind
It's unaccountable in actual time
But when we're free
They will see what we were destined to be...
I caught up with this song rather late - it's about a year old, since Toby originally thought he'd have his album ready sooner and a single needed to be out around this time last year. I heard it once or twice and kind of forgot about it - maybe I found the chorus annoying with all of it's "forever"s and "whenever"s. Toby has modified it a bit for its final release (probably so it wouldn't seem like old news, as "Extreme Days" did by the time the last album came out), and I believe he got the help of Earthsuit offshoot Mute Math on this one. The reggae-falling-headlong-into-driving-rock feel is definitely a lot like something they would, though the chorus comes a bit too abruptly to be entirely convicing in the greater context of the song. Kind of the opposite problem of the one that "The Slam" had. It's a bouncy enough song which basically talks about eternal life and the overall weirdness of Christianity kind of making you seem like an alien at times. Again, the music fits the topic, and that makes the song's various elements fit together instead of falling apart.

Gotta Go
"Yo Tob, what's up?"
"A whole lot."
"What you doing?"
"Hangin' with Truett, tryin' to make music.
Hustlin' Gotee, I'm getting no sleep
Yo, uh, you mind if I call you back next week?"
Preceding the beginning of this track is a hilarious series of answering machine messages that are about 10 times funnier than "Mrs. Morgan" could've ever hoped to be. If you liked "In the Air", then this one'll probably be up your alley too, since it uses the same motif of Toby having an ongoing phone call with someone else in the song's verses. The subject matter is less weighty this time around - basically he's just stressed and he can't keep up with all the people calling him on his cell phone, and he wants to concentrate and not lose sight on the fact that being a performer, a record label owner, a father, etc. is supposed to be all for the glory of God. One particular interchange with another rapper is quite humorous, and I love the fact that he name-drops John Reuben. Tru-Dog appears once again here, doing the inevitable "Kid on the answering machine" thing that so many people seem to love to do when they have tykes that age. It's one step short of exploiting the fact that he has a cute kid, but I'll go easy on Toby. Let's just hope he's not planning a full album of father/son duets the next time around. (Thank God Kevin and Tait don't have any kids yet!)

Atmosphere (Remix)
Normally, I'm less than thrilled about remixes being tacked on to the end of albums - it usually breaks up the flow and the remix is almost never as good as the original. The trick here - and this oughta get you diehard dc Talk fans salivating - is that Kevin and Tait both appear on this version, which is otherwise the same as track 5. Toby got the idea at the last minute while working on the album that he could call both of his old pals into the studio to sing on a track - he just didn't tell either of them that they'd be singing on the same track until after they had recorded their parts and left. The result is a virtual reunion that finds the other two guys crooning their way through an already smooth song, sticking to their parts (Tait in the chorus lead-in and Kevin in the actual chorus) until closer to the end, when they harmonize and interweave and basically do the things we loved in songs like "Into Jesus" and "Between You and Me". This version kind of renders the first version unnecessary, actually. I'm among the many who hopes for an eventual dc Talk reunion (in terms of artistic collaboration, not just singing together), so this definitely whets my appetite, but I'm with Toby in believing that they need to do it only when they all feel excited about it. Otherwise the results will be catastrophic.

And that's the album. Not all that it could have been, still a bit too youth-groupy or fake-sounding in certain places, but also commendable for not always taking the easy way out genre-wise. For younger listeners, an album like this could serve as a gateway into genres they previously weren't interested in, and I think that's the crowd that will enjoy this the most. But it's also a good pick for listeners of all ages who don't take offense to a white guy trying to do hip-hop and who don't read as deeply into lyrics as I often do. Those looking for the most artistic side of dc Talk are advised to stick with Kmax, but for everyone else, go grab this one and have some fun with it!

ALBUM WORTH:
Hey Now $.50
Catchafire (Whoopsi-Daisy) $2
The Slam $.50
Poetically Correct $0
Atmosphere $1
Gone -$.50
TruDogg: The Return $0
Diverse City $1.50
Stories (Down to the Bottom) $1
Getaway Car $1
Burn for You $2
Fresher than a Night at the W $.50
Ill-M-I $1.50
Phenomenon $1.50
Gotta Go $1.50
Atmosphere (Remix) $2
TOTAL: $16.00

Website: http://www.tobymac.com

Great Music to Play While: Burning rubber in your getaway car.

Recommended: Yes