ILL BREAKS CREW

In case you missed it a couple months ago, Dale Baker released a new album. Check out the official music video for the single, “Cut You Down”, and interview below!

Ill Breaks Crew: What is the song about?

Dale Baker: The song is about a few different things. Each verse from each emcee is a different take on God cutting you down [bringing judgment]. My verse is about a guy who got hung and is on his way to hell. Awol One’s verse is about someone sitting in the county jail. Spoken Nerd’s verse is about someone confronting the Anti-Christ.

Ill Breaks Crew: How did the concept of the song come about?

Dale Baker: Well the sample for the hook kinda lays it all out. It just calls for a story type of song.

Ill Breaks Crew: What is the concept of the video, and is there an element of your faith in Jesus Christ that comes through the song and/or video?

Dale Baker: I’m being chased by religion and not the relationship with Christ. It seems I’m always bumping heads with the Christian community regardless of the fact that I have a relationship with Jesus. They always want to nit-pick the superficial even though I’m trying to reach a few people.

Thanks Dale for the Q&A!

The first in our series of testimonies, we present to you Playdough. Emcee, producer, freestyle champion, solo artist and a member of the supercrew, Deepspace5. We asked him how following Jesus makes a difference in his life. Hopefully his story will help & encourage you in your life.

“I was raised in a church going home. I really started focusing on living for God when I got to High School. I was involved in everything that had to do with God and felt obligated to do so. If I loved the Lord, I had to be involved in everything my church was doing.

Once I started college and moved out on my own, I realized that in a new city nobody knew me. They didn’t know anything about me or the fact that I was a follower of Christ. I was used to everyone knowing what I was about and realized that the reason I had been making decisions to ‘do the right thing’ was because I was afraid that if anyone saw me doing otherwise they’d think I was fake. Now that I was in a new city with no pressure to make Godly decisions I started living for myself.

It took a few months of me making horrible decisions and regrets before I realized that all my life I hadn’t been living right not because of my love for God, but because of my fear of my reputation and the people I knew. Even though I had been making good decisions, they were for the wrong reasons. That’s when I realized the importance of having a personal relationship with Christ. It’s not just knowing about him, but knowing him. That revolutionized my thinking and my attitude about God. I had never felt more free in Christ and am still discovering that freedom that only comes through knowing him, not just knowing about him. I care less what anyone thinks about me because at the end of the day I only need to please God.”

I know some people that don’t like others coming to their church until they’re good enough, whether that’s with the wrong-doings in their life or simply in the way they dress. I know others that will let anyone in the doors, but never really lead them in following the ways of God. I think that both are the products of human nature. In my humble opinion, both extremes need to be tweaked a little bit because the Jesus I know did both.

Jesus accepted everyone and loved them regardless of who they were or what they did. The dude who never did wrong and knew God the best let everyone come and get a chance for a relationship with God. However, he also told them how God wanted them to live and if they needed to change, he told them to. It was an amazing balance of truth of right & wrong and the grace of love. An example of this is the lady who was “down with OPP”. By the law, she was to be put to death. By grace, she wasn’t. Jesus didn’t condemn her even though she was wrong, but he also did tell her to stop the sinning.

I love Christians and I give the benefit of the doubt that all churches have good intentions. However, I also think that we need to keep learning and maturing in our faith. Many people have been hurt by us and none have been hurt by Jesus. We need to represent the best we can and we aren’t there yet.

If you’ve ever been hurt by Christians, whether you are a Christian or not, I hope that you can forgive us and find great healing and find God. Let us know if we can help. If you are a Christian, I know that all our contexts in life and ministry are different, but let’s learn this balance even better than we do now. It isn’t easy, but, I think it’s the right, loving, and godly thing to do.

Move Merchants is the music brainchild of duSt from Phatmass.com, who combined the forces of ATL emcee ManCHILD (Mars Ill and Deepspace5) with the Texan beat genius DJ Sean P. (Beat Producer and the DJ for Playdough). Check out the new music video below and interview with ManCHILD and DJ Sean P. below that.

Directed by Danny Hidalgo of Spirit Juice Studios (spiritjuicestudios.com). Motion graphics 3D compositing by Renzo Reyes (renzoreyes.com). Copyright 2010 Spirit Juice Studios, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Ill Breaks Crew: What is the song about?

DJ Sean P.: The song is an introduction to ManCHILD and Sean P. together as Move Merchants. Straight up raw beats, cuts, and raps.

ManCHILD: Like Sean said. It’s just an intro to who we are. “Two-man conglomerate, bumrush the populace.” And I also just wanted people to know that “Sean stomps out beats like Elephant Feet”. People needed to know.

Ill Breaks Crew: How did the concept of the song come about?

DJ Sean P.: No real big concept. I made the beat in 2003 and it had just been siting on a hard drive until ManCHILD did his thing. The drums are super chopped from a Buddy Rich record (the great Jazz drummer). DJ Stibs put me on to him back in the day.

ManCHILD: I think Sean suggested it be the intro. And with a lot of this record being from a party rocking standpoint, we just wanted to blast you one quick time on the intro.

Ill Breaks Crew: What is the concept of the video?

DJ Sean P.: Danny Hidalgo made the video (SpiritJuiceStudio.com). His description is “A ‘Move Merchant’ busy moving product transcends a reality he can’t escape.” As far as I know…they shot the video of ManCHILD in ATL and then the rest in the Chicago area. It was all filmed in a few days, but the CGI animation you see took a while to complete, which was done by a talented dude, Renzo Reyes (renzoreyes.com). That’s why it is just now coming out. Thanks to Dustin at Phatmass.com for putting this together and to Danny Hidalgo for stepping up to do the video!

ManCHILD: Sean covered that one pretty well. Shot all the green screen stuff in my basement here in the A, believe it or not. On each side of the green screen were toys thrown everywhere and my kids trying to run through the shot.

Ill Breaks Crew: Is there an element of your faith (in Jesus Christ) that comes through the song and/or video?

ManCHILD: Like everything I write, God is in it. There’s no grand statement on my Christian faith in the song. But believe that, no matter what, Christ is right there in the center. Thanks to Sean, Danny, Dustin from Phatmass and everyone involved. If you like this video, go to www.movemerchants.com and buy this record. It’s the best kept secret in town.

Thanks to both guys for the Q&A. Not only are they great hip-hop artists, but great guys too. Check out the album and catch a show if you can!