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!

“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.

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!

I’m pretty sure it wasn’t an apple that they ate as we see in so many pictures, but I do have other questions about this time. How old were Adam and Eve? 5? 55? Did the devil look like a snake or a lizard? Why didn’t Eve think it strange that a serpent was talking? Did all the animals talk? Was that part of the temptation, that if a serpent talks, he couldn’t be wrong, right? But anyway, I digress.

The consequences of what happened set the stage for everyone on, including us. We see the effects of this disobedience [sin] in ourselves and the world around us. The thing is, God isn’t leaving it – or us – to suck it up and live through it. In the book of Genesis, chapter 3, verse 15, God says that Jesus wins. See, the solution for sin isn’t ignoring it, or trying to pretend it doesn’t exist, or saying that’s not really bad at all, or embracing it, or doing enough good to cover it up. The solution is forgiveness. It’s acknowledging the reality of it, but then also having it not count against us. When Jesus died, and Jesus was in effect even from the beginning of humanity’s sin, God put the punishment for our sins on him. If we believe this, then our sins do not count against us. We have forgiveness and have a new life, one in obedience to God, doing our best to follow his rules, those things that are good for us.

The devil tricked Eve into believing that what was bad was good. Adam also fell for it and was God said was good, they thought of it as bad. Let’s not all into the same trap. Jesus is good and a life following him, cuz he followed God perfectly, is good. Won’t you follow?

“The song tells the story of Hip-Hop’s history from the South Bronx to where it is today. It paints a picture of it’s humble innovative beginnings to where it began to blow up and change to now where it has mostly lost it’s way. The song doesn’t just celebrate the culture or talk about the problems – most importantly it brings a challenge and an answer at the end as Urban D. talks about eternity and introduces Christ. The song structure is purposely set up like this as verse one walks people through the 70’s and verse 2 through the 80’s and verse 3 brings you to the 90’s and today as it comes to a climax.

The music video was recently shot at Crossover Church’s former North Orleans Campus in the infamous skate park where one of the Flavor Fest stages was in 2008 and 2009. This is now vintage footage as that skate park no longer exists as Crossover moved and the new church demoed the park. The video features Crossover’s own DJ D.Vize and Reflex The Son on the hook along with several faces from the church and some of the B-Boys and B-Girls that are part of the ministry.

This song is featured on Urban D.’s album Un.Orthodox and is available on iTunes along with a remix version and instrumentals.”

The Runaway is offering his single “Away We Go” as a free download! Click here for the Bandcamp link and some history of the song.

The Runaway site is been back up and running. Check it out by clicking here.

Here is a video of The Runaway freestyling, featuring Ill Seer & Soul Natural @ The Hard Rock Cafe. (For more freestyles from The Runaway, ILL Seer, Shad & Soul Natural, check out the free Prophetic Poetic release called “Off The Top”. Download it by clicking here.)

We asked The Runaway for some behind-the-scenes insights and thoughts about this show and performing in general. Here’s what he shared:

This was shot at the Hard Rock Café in Toronto. The show was the kick off for a cool new Canadian indie music website called Pay What You Want.

“At my shows, I really like to provide a diverse experience. We do the beats & rhymes, a DJ (when we can grab one), (my hype man) Showtime pulls out a guitar, and my cousin Lady Blaise brings the vocals. I really like to have a community feel – with many people on stage getting their shine.

On this night, two very good homies from WAY back were in Toronto to share in the celebration, so of course we had to do it like we did back then. During my days at Wilfrid Laurier (2001-2005), ILL Seer & Soul Natural (along with Shad and Mere Mortal) used to regularly freestyle and fellowship. When we first got together, I had a campus radio show and I would be the DJ. Eventually I began rhyming too and their encouragement inspired me to develop my skills as an emcee.

From that crew, most people recognize Shad’s name for his career with Black Box Recordings. In a cipher, Shad would sharpen EVERYBODY. However, I would credit Soul Natural as a greater influence. This dude lived to express himself and would always encourage me to freestyle regardless of how I was feeling. He is tireless in his approach and that often motivated me. So, that night it was an honour to freestyle with such gifted wordsmiths and feel like I could hang. When I watch the video, my mind’s eye sees that cat from 8 or 9 years ago who was just getting started. But I am so thankful that I have kept going because the community spirit of the cipher session has never left, and it fills me with joy each time I get to commune with someone.

Shouts to ILL Seer (who let me hype for him while I was getting my performance legs), Qu-C (my brother who made all the beats) and Youngdo for filming (and being a good all around dude).“

Cop his album, Round Two, off of iTunes (tracklisting below) and make sure you catch a show. He puts on a good one.

1) Away We Go – beat by The Runaway
2) Bless You Too (Structural Damage remix) – beat by Re:Flex
3) Heart Mind Body Soul – beat by MatAmax
4) Lord I Need Ya remix feat. Crisis – beat by The Runaway
5) Time To Think – beat by Qu-C
6) Spit Hot Fire feat. Sivion, ILL Seer, Shua James, Shad, Relic, Braille & Die-Rek – beat by Theory Hazit