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Scene: The Cross
Movement just finished three nights of concerts at an annual outreach
festival at Six Flags in Albany, NY, called, "Kingdom
Bound." This was Kingdom Bound '99. Cross Movement staff
and crew members rode out to Ray and Carolyn Majoran's camp (Ray is the
webmaster of Hip-HopZone.com)
to engage in a very intimate interview that would be broadcast on the Internet. The
group huddled around a picnic table, and it was a serious moment as they paused to give a
very heartfelt response to the questions Ray had posed for them.
Note:
To
listen to the Audio version of this
interview, CLICK
HERE!
| Ray Majoran of the
HipHopZone: |
 What's
up? This is Ray Majoran, representing Music Force.com and Hip-Hop Zone and the whole
Urban Cross Network. We're here today at Kingdombound '99 with the Cross Movement. You
guys want to give a shout out?
Yo, wassup,
shouts, yo, whats happenin', whattup ya'll, yoyoyo...
   
In case ya'll
didn't know, Cross Movement's been on every day since Thursday, Friday
[and]
Saturday at 1:30, very receptive crowd. Right now I just want to dig into the
Cross Movement a bit. I want to see what they're about, where they're going—just
different issues that they faced along the way as they're going along this path. A lot of
people come to me each day saying, "Yo, how do I get my album out there?"
"What do I have to do to become a big hip-hop artist?" Like, how do I get
this out there? And we want to see where this all fits in with God's plan, and let's
go from there.
So I think the first
question that I have is, why is it that you guys decided to start up your own thing
and do it independent?
What's up
ya'll? This is the Tonic. I think the reason we decided to go independent had a
lot to do with what the Lord had done with us throughout the year, just in terms
of—a lot of us came out of the secular industry doing secular music and then got
saved and the Lord changed our heart and changed our music. But along with the process of
trying to get a deal, we went through a lot of stuff, just in terms of being in certain
deals. And even as young Christians now doing Christian hip-hop, trying to get a
deal we were like—just put in the midst of the industry, and we learned a lot of
stuff. A lot of stuff crumbled in front of our faces, big deals that were offered to
us that nobody else even heard of in terms of being offered to a Christian hip-hop
group crumbled in front of our face. We got a chance to learn a lot through—the
Ambassador, Tru-Life and in I were different management deals and stuff like that.
And they all ended up
crumbling. And it came to the point where you know the Lord was bringing us together
into this unit called The Cross Movement. We were about to sort of put our own little solo
projects, and He sort of brought us together to do the project, our first project,
"Heaven's Mentality".
Through the process what we
learned was; all that stuff wasn't happening for nothing. We weren't learning, and
all that crumbling, wasn't for nothing. We actually learned the industry and what it
was all about: what they we're looking for, how they want to control this and that,
how the percentages break down, what managers do. To the point where we didn't need a
manager any more, we knew how to manage ourselves, we knew how to handle ourselves. So we
had decided [to] 'forget everybody else'. We're tired of waiting for the deal, we're
going to trust and believe in the God who can do and create anything to be able to, you
know, do and create anything through us. So we pulled it together, did the necessary legal
things to start our own record label, and decided we were just going to put it out on our
own. And as soon as we got that stuff in our head and was trusting God for that. We
met up with Matthew Abraham from CMN, He was interested in us and we just came together
and decided, you know, just to put it out on our own. Not caring about, you know, what was
going to happen. You know, you don't put out a project unless you have marketing and
promotion. You end up killing yourself if you do that stuff. But we wasn't worried about
it. We knew, if we just believed, if we promoted Christ and the Gospel, God would take
care of us and bring us along for the ride.
So that's what happened! I
mean, times where we didn't have marketing promotion, we put out this project, all of a
sudden, you know, here comes this magazine calling, telling they put us on the cover
of their new magazine. You don't do that kind of stuff, {if} you trying to sell a
magazine, you put people who are well known on the cover, you know? So it ended up {with}
that happening for us and all of a sudden, you know, that was free marketing promotion.
And the list goes on man, on and on and ON! That kind of stuff happening; where the
Lord just continued to come through and even to this day with our second project. You have
"House of Reps", {with} us not having the money to do a proper video. But
the Lord just sent in people to help us, you know, properly do that.
That's pretty much why we
got into it, we were just tired of waiting for somebody to help us and we turned to the
God who is our helper.
Mm-hmm.
Now touching on that subject, a lot of people say 'Cross Movement this, they're
good, an
they're amazing, but they preach too much the Gospel'. One of you want to speak on
that?"
Yeah, this is
the Ambassador, whattup yo? First of all, we do hear that a lot, and that's what we really
want people to understand about us! Another element, or another factor that comes
into play with the reason why we became independent is: the "business strategy",
just by definition, seeks to gain a profit. Any business strategy, the plan is to
profit. You don't deliberately go into a business planning to break even or go under. Yet,
when we went into this thing, we were so caught up in a different kind of pay scale,
a different kind of pay off. We were, without any one knowing of "us", were
going from place to place to place to place with the Gospel. Kids and people were
hearing God explained to them, I mean like, our message before we got a deal, was the same
message as it is now.
People were understanding
God. They were coming to us saying "I fall asleep in church, but when you all
spill, I GET IT!. Now, I realize that you all are saying the same things that
they've been saying, it's just for some reason, I wasn't paying attention
before." So God began to fuel us with that fire. If we never made a cent,
wouldn't you love to have a career of going from place to place with the
Gospel, and
explaining the intricacies of the God of Scripture in a way that young people who
are tuning out they're pastors would catch on and light up! Go to church now eager
to learn! So, it was almost like we were willing to not make a cent.
So we went independent
because, you know, you cant force that on a label. You can't go in the label or something
and say "look I'm ready to like not make cent, I'm going to say 'this', 'this',
and 'this'. I know marketing strategy says you need to 'this this' but I want to do
'this' and do 'this', and that's probably going to mean that we're not going to make any
money." We knew we couldn't do that to any body 'cause it's NOT bad to want to make
money. We just didn't feel like that was our chief motivation. So we went and started
independent just in case this "radicalness" for Christ meant that we'd take a
loss financially. We said," well if we're the only ones losing, then it's no
thing". So that's why we went independent. And as far as our message, we believe that
when God -If u look at the whole bible-,we want to line ourselves as close with the
stuff that has gotten commendation from heaven in the Bible. If you want to know what
God's commending, you'll do one of two things. You'll look at something that we're
commending and say "God's blessing that".
Like you may see some preacher who could be teaching false doctrine , but
he got four thousand members. You'll say, "God's blessing it" Now ,
you don't have the scriptures to test it at, we just THINK that's how God
blesses. When God blesses , its a lot of people , so we say "God's
blessing it". OR you can look at what you know God is blessing thru the
inspired text. God blesses any message, about Jesus Christ, stemming from a
pure heart, stemming from His Word, talking about Jesus, and His
importance. If we know from scripture that God blesses that, He breathes on
it, He honors it, He creates supernatural results when it goes on. He
honors the servants who dared to take that message, in spite of "ahh that
sound all or ahh we don't like you because of it" He blesses that!
Then why not do it? So now with this Gospel thing, we have just found
more joy doing it this way regardless of what the external results look like.
So as far as the 'preaching the gospel to much' , well, it depends on whose
judging. That's the whole Bible is about that, every book is about the gospel,
it's about God's plan of redemption. So how can we overdue it?? When the
whole world excludes that, leaves it out of their mixture?? How can one group
overdue it in a WORLD that UNDER does it? So the Cross Movement takes it upon,
WE take pride in overdoing it, knowing that this AIN'T OVERDOING IT!!!
We're tying to make up for all the stuff that leaves Him out!!! And we figure,
everybody in the world can duck God. That's why we don't go to church , we
know he's there, that's why we don't listen to to preachers on the
street, that's why we don't take the tracts, or if we take the tracks we
ball them up. We figure, man, it would be a tragedy for people to like
us, and never have to run into the God that commissioned us. So now we say
"Ahh you know what, lets so load it! lets so load Him in our mixture
that if ANYBODY ends up liking us, they can't like us and get around
Him!" So now, OH, for the rest of time , we're going to load it,
LOAD Him in, ''cause I would hate for people to cheer ME on and still miss
God!! You know '{what} I'm saying? I want it to be where you can't! You're in
the direct line of fire! and if you come and , like the Ambassador or, or ANY of the Cross Movement members,
it's got to be because that "Jesus ya'll speak of, is who I'm
attracted to". If we leave Him out and they end up liking US, what have
we achieved ?!?!?
Word. Last
night , as I was walking from my car,-I don't know if you guys have seen it or
not, but around here a lot of people are walking around with those crosses on
their neck that glow. You know, the glow in the dark ones??
Well, I was
walking last night and as I was walking, I looked on the ground and there was
one of these crosses on the ground and the light had gone out. Like they threw
it away. You know, a couple of days' the light goes out. And I'm thinking to
myself ."Man!, and like how true is that!?, To when, someone comes to a
concert, or a youth event, whatever. They come in and they're on fire. The
cross is lit up, and then when they leave, the light goes out. They can't see
the light anymore. The cross is still around their neck, but they can't see it
anymore because its not visually right in front of them.
What would you guys
say to people that come to your concerts and they're moved by your
concerts and they go home, and they're , they're right back where they
started?? You know what I'm saying? How, like HOW, What, what WAYS can we do
that? In a sense that, Man, like this is for real, this isn't a
two day event, this is your life???
That's funny that you said
that. This is Phanatik from Cross Movement. Just this morning, I was talking
to some guys from South Jersey, who were here. And I saw them, I mean, they
were on fire for the Lord. They were encouraging me! I mean like, they were
just on fire for the Lord and I was loving what I was seeing. And then, just
as I was about to commend them for the third time for being on fire, something
flashed in my mind and just made me think "dagg, but what if five years
from now, I got to take back everything I'm about to say to these guys?"
So , rather than commend them again, I just began to let them know that
this Life, is a life of faith, ain't just you get in the door of
Christianity by faith. It's a life of faith. And 'the just will live by it
(faith)'. Not just get from one big event to the next big event by it. You
know what I'm saying? What if there's no big event, what if there's no
miracle? WHAT IF THERE'S NO...??? Faith is such that it holds out!! Over the
LONG, you know?, Over the long haul. You know I often say that people -not
that this is what God saved us for, He saved us to be with Him-,BUT
just imagine if you had to live forever by faith!(*laughs*) How
long could you hold out if God DIDN'T confirm what you have faith in?!?! You
know, through the next miracle around the corner?? OR, one day when we
go to be with Him, our faith, everything that we have now by faith, we'll have
Right In Front Of Us! But until then, it's by faith. And I think the
Christian who burns out with the swiftness , is the Christian who THOUGHT
"God's going to come and confirm my faith Real Quick". You
know 'God does do things to help you along', as my man from M.O.D. said, God
makes the road smooth with a lot of stuff, but still our faith in Christ is
what we travel on. Ain't like something's going to come and and make it, you
know, just as clear as day. We still live by faith. We see through a pale
glass, NOW. WE don't see crystal clear yet. And I think the Gospel needs
to be presented in such a way , and the Christian life needs to be represented
in such a way that young Christians know, This is a Life we live by
faith. Not just a momentary 'hold on till the next big thing that happens to
spur you on'. We live by it ! Until God confirms it and for most that
will be when we die. (Laughs.) And We'll have right in front of us the thing
that we have now by faith.
Very cool!
Cross Movement has done "Heaven's Mentality", the new album "House of
Reps"...where does the Cross Movement go from here?
Same thing, we continue! We
just continue in the same thing. We have
a project coming out, it's the Ambassador's 's solo project featuring each member of the
Cross Movement, but we'll have a project. It's called "Christology, in Layman's
Terms". Once again, a Christological focus but the "in Layman's Terms"
means that "don't worry, it wont be so deep that it can't be understood by, u know, in
simplest terms." And right now we just plan to continue to peel each layer off of the Cross
Movement. The Cross Movement comes together in compilation form frequently, but then what
we like to do is peel each layer off and highlight each layer: The Gift,
Phanatik, Cruz,
Enoch, just the way it goes. Just sort of peeling each layer off, continuing to interrupt
that flow by comps, periodic compilations, just because there's an element where the
collective also makes a greater impact. So right now what we're going to do is we're going
continue to do that.
As a ministry, we started a non-profit organization where we can use,
or "piggy-back" off of the favor that God has shown us musically and that name
"Cross Movement" is ringing out and rippling, you know, the nation and beyond.
So what we like to do, we start a non-profit organization so that we can really maximize
our ministry potential: everything from erecting a learning center, probably in the city
of Philadelphia where we're based out of, so that not only will we run the streets and do
concerts but let them know that if they got more questions they can always come by our
learning center, where we teach the same stuff we rap about. It'd be the non-profit
organization also, where we'll be like this 'umbrella', this umbrella houses all kinds of
efforts. One of the things we also want to do with the center is, maybe teach computer. We
got people who are Christians who really want to help other people, especially unfortunate
{who} can't afford to pay people, learn computers and how they can be of assistance. The
lady that does our web site, June, you'll probably know her as JD if you're online, she's
got a burden to help people in that capacity with computers and just the many different
things man. Uh, proper tours: tours that truly have a crusade feel to them rather than
just a tour. Where it's, you expect to hear a lot of Jesus, you expect to hear a
call to Salvation, you expect to just stop the music for an extended period of time and
just bring the truth. Uh, Conferences where we truly for us, by us youth: Christian youth
running conferences that encourage up and coming generations to stay true to the essential
of the Christian faith. Reformation, not just revival but reformation that leads to a
proper revival. So that's really where the Cross Movement is going from there man, just
more of the same.
Awesome! Any thing
else you guys want to say to the Urban Cross Network, Hip-Hop Zone, Gospel Force, the
whole Music Force thing?
I mean, just mad love!
Keep on with the work of the Lord, Keep on with the work of Christ. Laborin in it.
You know, get together with other believers, know that, know your place in God, know your
position in God. The power that you have in God, the ability, the 'dunamis' of the Holy
Spirit, the ability to proclaim Jesus Christ and be a witness of Him, you know? This world
is dying from starving from [not] having God, you know what I mean? They don't have a
relationship, this earth doesn't have a relationship with it's Creator, you know?
And only the Gospel is what leads a man
to the point of despair and to the point of crying out to the Lord, you know, crying out
for that forgiveness, to the reconciliation to come back into a relationship with their
Creator. And that the Creator is the God of Scripture, the God of Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob and the God of the Church,we Christians, you know?
And the Lord is going to continue to echo
that, and that's, you know, life is but a vapor. Since it's a vapor, let's make it worth
something you know what I mean? Life's short, let's juice it up for all of its worth. You
know all those who believe in Jesus Christ, those who believe, who are saved, we have a
place in eternity forever, we're going to have ,..we're going to ENJOY an eternity with
God, learning of Him forever and ever and ever and ever and EVER! But this earth
that we're in, this body that we're in, is temporary, you know. We're going to juice it
for all of its worth. Bring the Gospel,because that's what brought each member of The
Cross Movement to the point of to that...to that foot, to that land in Calvary where we
confessed our sins and we was broken down and the Lord became our Savior, our God! And not
just Calvary, not just (that) it didn't just brought us back into a relationship, I mean,
it didn't just bring us into heaven and now we have eternal life, it brought us into a
relationship here on this earth!
Day by day we're governed by the cross,
we're governed by Jesus Christ and all of His works, all of His powers so, I mean that's
my encouragement to the Music Force, to the whole Christian industry. Keep representing,
you know, let them know who's God and His love and His wrath and His justice, you know?
And so just, One Love for all of ya'll that's putting it down for the Lord, and there's
many of us coming soon, apart from the Cross Movement, there's madd people out there just
dying to be a voice for the Lord and His message of...of hope, His message of the Good
News! Peace out and this is Cordero from the
Cross Movement and One Love!
I just want to tag one
more thing onto this. Believers, there's another thing we do want to draw
attention to, and I'm sure God'll continue to make these issues clearer as time
goes on. Sometimes in the Scripture you'll see that because of God, you know, God'll give
somebody a promise and sometimes his time-table's so hard to roll with, that the anxiety
of a believer will cause a believer to work out God's promised plan for his or her life
pre-maturely,and always mess it up! I take note of Abraham, who knew he was going to
have a son, but just didn't like the length of time it was taking. And therefore, ended up
saying 'How can I pull off what God has told me, what God tells me, is going to happen? How
can I pull it off?" So he slept with Hagor, brought Ishmael in the world and God's
people, Muslims, Jews and Abs, have beef to this day! Now I said all that to say that you
may believe that God has set you apart to infiltrate the industry with Godliness,
infiltrate music industry with your talents and skills, but whatever you do, don't fall
for Satan's willingness to help you out. I draw attention to the Savior, Jesus was
supposed to be accepted as Messiah, Satan says "jump off the cliff, God'll float
down, you wont have to go to the cross, you'll get accepted as the Messiah", and
Jesus said "Satan!..", He rebuked him and told him to flee from Him. Satan is
down to help you all represent the Lord, because he know if HE help you to represent the
Lord than any moment he can throw a twist in there. And what's happening today is secular
industry is seeing the hotness of Gospel music right now, not necessarily music with the
Gospel in it, but anything that has a form of Godliness, same form of light, they're ready
to throw it into the gospel category and ride the Gospel wave right now. And Satan who
runs all that's secular, secular industry is starting to want to offer you their
deals..."here, let us help you get that powerful positive they'll call it- message
out" and secular artists will loop a whole bunch of Christians and be the head of a
Christian effort. You CAN'T have a secular people as head of a Christian effort.
Now you can have secular people the head of a "religious" effort but not a
Christian effort! And what we want to tell you is beware of wolves in sheep's
clothing. That there's this union between those who are clearly Godless, either in their
nature or in their ways. You could even have Christians who do not belong in the
limelight, speaking for God, because they need to be sat down like every other person
who's been hit by God, recognizing that for all their lives they've been Godless and
wayward. There's a learning period that must take place, God must de-program your natural
way of thinking, re-program your thinking and that takes time. All these new converts
shouldn't be hopping up, jumping up and spilling for God. And we just,
Christians, are so
desperate for a star. We're so desperate for somebody with a big name to be named among us,
that we welcome ANYBODY! Even though after per, after they accept the awards and say
thanks to God, after you read the cover of their album, they said thanks to God {but} the
rest of their song still reflect a Godless, natural mindset. People need to be
re-programmed and that goes for every star out there. Right now, all the stars are
"getting saved" ,quote unquote, all of them got pastors backing them now, and
these pastors who preached to us back in the days before this was popular, talking to us
about holiness, talking to us about sanctification, talking to us about consecration, NOW
seem to be throwing that out the window for these new cats, they got millions and that got
a reputation.
They come out, they before their concerts
and they let them come singing the same old garbage! They take news interviews and they
just basically don't reflect that they know God at all. They just keep talking like
natural people. But because they got a name, we clap,we welcome them. Don't fall for it!
God is not pleased with this union between light and darkness, He's said "what do
they have in common?...be not unevenly yoked". That's both contractual, that
goes for
marriage, that goes for business deals. You don't want them having any power of control.
I'm speaking vaguely now because the time is not right to come calling names, I can't
judge pre-maturely and I can't call names out without having a chance to at least confront
the people, but you all might know some of the types of things u might of been seeing some
of the types of things, all I'm saying is, don't be fooled . The Cross Movement is saying;
please! Our God is the same God that says He demands holiness, purity! And that fresh
water and salt water can't come out the same spring. So, so join us, as we hold on a
little longer. Not just buck willin', doing it for ourselves and just coming up with stuff
and calling it God. Look though, be patient! Let God bring His plan out without Satan,
plus secular assistance. In terms of decision making,you know, It ain't like you can't
{say} "uh well I wouldn't go to a Christian plumber" people say "I wouldn't
go to a Christian plumber, so why can't I just go to a secular music?" Music has
moral effect on us and we...Yo, tap into the web site www.crossmovement.org for more on this subject in
the near future and continue to hit Hip-HopZone.com, 'cause it's on! We going to start
feeding ya'll from the soul of Scripture till your blood is Bibline, as my man Stat said,
So Much Love! Peace!
Transcribed by Zgrrl
and Lady-O. Big ups, ya'll two!
Note:
To
listen to the Audio version of this
interview, CLICK
HERE!
|
