DC TALK
DC Talk is a Christian rap and rock trio. They released five major studio albums together: DC Talk (1989), Nu Thang (1990), Free at Last (1992), Jesus Freak (1995), and Supernatural (1998). In 2002, the Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music called DC Talk “the most popular overtly Christian act of all time”. The group’s musical style evolved significantly throughout its career. Its first two releases, DC Talk and Nu Thang, were of the hip hop genre. DC Talk’s third album, Free at Last, also mainly took influence from the hip hop style, although the group’s music began taking on a rock sound. The trio’s last two albums, Jesus Freak and Supernatural, were predominantly pop rock. (More from Wikipedia)
I always thought that “Jesus is Just Alright” was their first hit song, but it was actually the third single released by the Doobie Brothers (in late 1972), after “Listen to the Music”. In the CCM world, DC Talk put “Jesus Is Just Alright” on their 1992 album, Free at Last; the early Christian heavy metal band Stryper included “Jesus Is Just Alright” on their 2013 album, No More Hell to Pay.
(July 2014)
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Get Real! (CD from the 1998 Alabama Youth Evangelism Conference) – I was listening to a lot of Christian contemporary music in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s; in fact, I was doing considerable right-of-way appraisal work in northwest Alabama at that time, and one property owner who had a professional recording studio in his house gave me close to a dozen CD’s of very good CCM music that he had masterminded for local people. I don’t know enough about the scene to really say whether these artists are all as prominent as BeBe Winans, Steven Curtis Chapman, DC Talk, and Newsboys; but there are lovely and lively songs alike on this record, starting with the standout opening cut “God” by Rebecca St. James.
(December 2015)
