My #6 Album

in 2012

Released

in 2012 on

Forefront Records

This page was created on March 23, 2014

It was first published on March 30, 2014

   I’ll never forget the first time I heard DC Talk.  It was in 1989 in my old 1972 Oldsmobile Delta 88, I was on the road in Ohio listening to a wide-signal AM Christian radio station (my car only had AM radio).  Most of the music on the station was barely tolerable (that’s always been the case for CCM radio), so I was blown away when I heard some good rapping come on!  Who is this, I wondered?  The music was terrible -- it was great rapping interspersed with gospel-quartet sounding music -- but the rapping was so good I could suffer with the music.

    That was the beginning.  Their second album, Nu Thang, was much better, and I purchased that one plus 1995’s Jesus Freak, when the group veered away from hiphop into grunge, which was popular at the time.  I didn’t get any of their albums after that, but when TobyMac went out on his own, I started getting his albums.  I bought the first two solo albums -- Momentum and Diverse City, as well as the remix albums for each of those.  I did not buy the next two albums -- Portable Sounds and Tonight, but I bought this album, Dubbed & Freq’d, which contains remixes from those two albums.  Unlike Re:Mix Momentum and Renovating Diverse City, which sound very much like remix albums, Dubbed & Freq’d sounds like it was the original album, in that instead of sounding like a bunch of songs remixed and thrown onto an album, the album flows as if this were the original creation.  I don’t know what the original versions of these songs sound like, and I never felt like I was listening to a remix album when listening to this.

    I discovered dubstep in 2012, with my first real experience with it being dancing at Future Sound Of Worship 4; it was there that I learned from the others how you dance to dubstep, which I couldn’t figure out before in the few dubstep songs I had heard.  Once experiencing dubstep at FSOW4, I was immediately a fan, thus seeking out a CD to get that included that music.  Dubbed & Freq’d is mostly electro and dubstep influenced remixes, which is perfect for me, as I like both styles.

^ Click the Play button to hear “Tonight”

TobyMac began DC Talk, the first Christian rap group to make a major splash, in 1987 and remained with them until they disbanded in 2000.  Since then he has been making solo albums,  usually following them with remix albums.  

    But here’s something that makes this album stand out above much other Christian dubstep music I’ve heard: These songs are lyrically strong.  Dubstep as a genre does not generally lend itself well to vocals of any kind, so that’s understandable.  Actually, come to think of it, this album is more electro than dubstep, and electro does lend itself more easily to vocals than dubstep does.  At any rate, the point is, the lyrics are good!  The songs are singable -- you can sing along while you dance, if you choose.  So this album gives the best of all worlds: music to dance to, melodies you can sing to, lyrics that are explicitly Christian, and great sounds of electro and dubstep!

    The album opens with the Telemitry remix of “Made To Love,” whose chorus states, “I was made to love You, I was made to find You, I was made just for You, made to adore You, I was made to love and be loved by You.”  The next song continues the theme of love with G-Man remix of “No Ordinary Love.”

    The third song goes into pure party mode, with the Capital Kings remix of “Showstopper.”  Musically, this is my favorite song on the album, a fabulous electro party jam, complete with an “ooh-whee” chant.

    Next comes a slow song, which is such a shock after the incredibly adrenaline-pumping “Showstopper” -- a really bad placement on the album, I think.  In fact, I usually skip the song, not because I dislike it, but because I’m still ready for more jamming, so I skip on to track #5, another  jamming electro remix by Capital Kings, the song “Tonight.”  Unlike the pure party lyrics of “Showstopper,” this song turns its attention to the life abundant:  “I want a feel a new day, I want alive a new way...it starts tonight!  Right here, right now, under the stars, I promise you my heart.”

    Telemitry has the next remix, “Hold On,” with a shuffling reggae-influenced beat and lyrics that encourage you not to give up -- hold on to the one who is holding on to you...the love of God is breaking through.  This song is followed by another midtempo song of encouragement:  “We lose our way, we get back up again; it’s never too late to get back up again.  You may be knocked down but not out forever.”  The bridge: “This is Love calling, Love calling out to the broken....”  The energy in the chorus of this song provides the musical equivalent of the lyrics in boosting great encouragement to get up! Don’t give up!  Love is on your side!  (“Get Back Up”, the Broke Remix)

    Track #8 is the weirdest song on the album to me.  The lyrics are just about “boomin’ out the stereo system,” but strangely in this song about BOOMING sound, they took all the bass out of the mix!  What??  I don’t get it.  So this song is frustrating for me -- in a song about a booming stereo system, I want to hear booming bass.  Not there.

    Next up is a tune more along the lines of a ballad, at least compared to the rest of the songs on this album.  The Shoc remix of “Lose My Soul” refers to Jesus’ words about being careful to not lose your focus by winning the world but losing your soul:  “I don’t want to gain the whole world and lose my soul!”  In the song, he mentions various things in the world that pull us away from Jesus, and his vow to not let them.

    Now I’m going to talk about track #4, which I think should have been put here: “City On Our Knees (Golden Snax Remix).”  This is a slow-tempo song with a very pop sound, apparently the only remix in it being a dubstep touch added in the bridge.  (Again, I haven’t heard the original, so I’m guessing that’s the only remix part, since the rest has a very normal pop sound.)

    Okay, back to track #10: This is the KP remix of “Captured,” which speaks of being enthralled with the love of God; this is among my favorite songs on the album, being good both musically and lyrically.  Next is the Hotwired Remix of “Ignition,” which is okay, nothing more. 

   The album closes with the X-Zach’d remix of “Start Somewhere,” which is one of the best dubstep mixes on the album -- a great way to end the album.  My only complaint is that it’s too short.  Yes, dubstep songs are short, but at 3:17, it leaves me feeling it ended prematurely.

    Dubbed & Freq’d was my first electro/dubstep album.  Having no other full albums in this genre in 2012, and the fact that it was so good, I played this album a lot.  I frequently played it on my commute to work, when I prefer high energy music to keep me mentally in high gear as I drive at high (legal) speed on a crowded freeway.  It was also great to jam to at home, where I could actually dance to it, which can’t be done while driving.  This album is by far my favorite TobyMac album.  Most of his albums are hit or miss for me -- some songs I’m crazy about, others I don’t like at all.  There is not a single song on this album that I dislike, though I tend to skip tracks 4 & 8 for the reasons mentioned above.  In my book, Dubbed & Freq’d is far and away the best album ever put out by TobyMac or DC Talk.