Look out dc Talk fans! This is not an album I would recomend if you are a fan of dc Talk's later material. If you like '80's rap, you might find it okay though.

The album begins with a strong trumpet intro followed by drums and Toby's vocals. Mike and Kevin sing the chorus while Toby raps the verses. Towards the end of the song is another blistering trumpet solo and pretty quickly, it's over.

"Gah Ta Be" follows, and talks about having to be saved to get to heaven. Once again, a good message, but unless you like the 1980's style of rap, it's not really a great song. "The King (Allelujah)" is a bit different from most of the other songs on the album. It begins with a distorted guitar riff and moves into a rap verse. Kevin Max sounds great on this one, as does Michael Tait.

Next comes "Spinnin' Round" which is all in all not a good song but does offer a good simple message. "Voices Praise Him" is a simple song about praising the Lord, and starts off with Mike and Kevin singing a bit from the chorus and Toby goes into a rap. "He Loves Me" begins with Michael singing the classic verses of "Jesus Loves Me," and yes, he has a good voice, but I would consider this song a poor attempt at modernizing "Jesus Loves Me." "He Loves Me" is the last song of a very short 8 track album that is not nearly as good as dc Talk's later material.

I would not recommend the 1989 self-titled dc Talk debut, although, I'm sure there are a lot of people out there that enjoy this record. However, I definitely think their strongest work was yet to come, as evident in projects like Free At Last and Jesus Freak.

Review date: 6/23/04, written by Samuel Underwood for Jesusfreakhideout.com