The Cross Movement
| The Cross Movement | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Genres | Christian hip hop, East Coast hip hop, alternative hip hop |
| Years active | 1996 – 2008 |
| Labels | Seventh Street/Diamante, Cross Movement, BEC |
| Associated acts | 116 Clique, Da' T.R.U.T.H. |
| Website | crossmovementrecords |
| Members |
The Ambassador (William Branch) Cruz Cordero Enock Earthquake The Tonic (John Wells) Phanatik (Brady Goodwin Jr.) T.R.U.-L.I.F.E. (Virgil Byrd) |
The Cross Movement was a Christian hip hop group from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The Cross Movement has three separate and distinct eponymous components which comprise its ministry. The first component is the Christian hip hop group known as The Cross Movement (CM) which were composed of several rappers: The Ambassador (William Branch), The Tonic (John Wells), Phanatik (Brady Goodwin), and T.R.U.-L.I.F.E (Virgil Byrd), Cruz Cordero, Enock (Jaun James), and Earthquake (Cleve Foat). The CM also frequently collaborates with the Christian disc jockey, DJ Official (Nelson Chu). The CM's niche has been to translate biblical and Christian theology into rap music by using the same hyper-aggressive lyrics, sampled orchestral riffs, alliteration, and virtuoso delivery of many mainstream rappers without the self-aggrandizing and violent lyrics, or the materialistic imagery stereotypically associated with many rappers. The second component to the Cross Movement is the record label, Cross Movement Records (CMR), which is responsible for producing and marketing the albums of the CM, its individual members' solo albums, and other Christian hip hop artists such as Da' T.R.U.T.H. and FLAME. The third aspect of the Cross Movement is the incorporated, non-profit group called Cross Movement Ministries (CMM), which aims to use creative ways to spread the Christian gospel message within hip hop culture.
Since its inception, the CM has chosen to define itself as the Christian or holy division of hip hop culture as opposed to the hip hop or rap division of Christian culture. Within the genre of rap music, there are various subgenres such as gangsta rap, Conscious rap, old school rap, crunk, and reggaeton, but all of it falls under the rubric of rap and, by extension, hip hop. In choosing to define their music as simply being another subgenre – i.e., the Christian rap subgenre – of hip hop culture, the CM attempts to "keep it real" in order to maintain the validity needed to influence members of hip hop culture who may or may not be Christians. In their 2003 release, Holy Culture, the CM stated their reasoning is based on a passage from the Bible, John 17:15-19 in which Jesus said to God:
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