Grits (stylized as GRITS) is an American
Christian hip hop
Christian hip-hop (originally gospel rap, also known as Christian rap, gospel hip-hop or holy hip-hop) is a cross-genre of contemporary Christian music and hip-hop. It emerged from urban contemporary music and Christian media in the United State ...
group from
Nashville
Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...
,
Tennessee
Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...
. Their name is an
acronym
An acronym is a type of abbreviation consisting of a phrase whose only pronounced elements are the initial letters or initial sounds of words inside that phrase. Acronyms are often spelled with the initial Letter (alphabet), letter of each wor ...
, which stands for "Grammatical Revolution In the Spirit". GRITS is made up of Stacey "Coffee" Jones and Teron "Bonafide" Carter,
both of whom were
DC Talk dancers.
Their song "
Ooh Ahh" has appeared on the
MTV show ''
My Super Sweet 16''. It is also used as the theme song of ''
The Buried Life'' and on the soundtracks to ''
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift'' and ''
Big Momma's House 2''. Their song "Tennessee Bwoys" was used on the popular television show ''
Pimp My Ride''. They were also involved in ''
!Hero The Rock Opera''. They recorded a remix of professional wrestler
A.J. Styles' entrance music and performed it on the May 28, 2009, episode of ''
TNA Impact!''.
Background
The
Christian hip hop
Christian hip-hop (originally gospel rap, also known as Christian rap, gospel hip-hop or holy hip-hop) is a cross-genre of contemporary Christian music and hip-hop. It emerged from urban contemporary music and Christian media in the United State ...
duo began as dancers for DC Talk and then formed the group in 1995, with Teron David "Bonafide" Carter,
(born January 17,
1971) and Stacy Bernhard "Coffee" Jones,
(born September 8,
1972), forming the group together in
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...
.
GRITS is an acronym with a meaning of "Grammatical Revolution in the Spirit".
They both credited the inspiration for their rapping to hearing
DC Talk, when the two first encountered each other in 1990.
This is the reason the duo signed with
Gotee Records
Gotee Records is a record label of Christian hip-hop, based in Franklin, Tennessee in the United States.
History
The label was founded in 1994 by TobyMac, Todd Collins and Joey Elwood. The first album produced is Out of Eden's '' Lovin' th ...
, a label founded by DC Talk member,
tobyMac, where they were one of his first signees.
They are also considered to be one of the pioneering groups in the Christian hip hop movement, while they eventually started their own record label, Revolution Art, in 2007, where it was first known as 5E Entertainment.
They explained it was like graduating from school by leaving Gotee Records, and founding their own label.
Style
Mainly, their style is
alternative hip hop and
Southern rap, while several of their songs have
pop influences, thus an occasional pop-rap sound, and their song "We Don't Play" has a Jamaican influence complete with
steel drums. They were one of the first acts signed to
Gotee Records
Gotee Records is a record label of Christian hip-hop, based in Franklin, Tennessee in the United States.
History
The label was founded in 1994 by TobyMac, Todd Collins and Joey Elwood. The first album produced is Out of Eden's '' Lovin' th ...
,
and have released seven albums with Gotee, with an eighth one released by Gotee and AudioGoat. In 2014, Gotee Records announced that the GRITS song "Ooh Ahh" was RIAA Digital Gold Certified, having surpassed 500,000 downloads.
They have appeared at
Cornerstone Festival and
Rock the Universe. In addition their song "Bobbin Bouncin'" was added to the track list in the video-game
Project Gotham Racing 4.
Discography
Studio albums
EPs
Remix albums
Singles
As lead artist
Other songs
*
With or Without You -
In The Name Of Love: Artists United For Africa
*Wedding Celebration -
!Hero
Vinyl
*''The Art of Translation (Single)'' (2002)
*''They All Fall Down (Redneck Remix) (Single)'' (2002)
*''They Al Fall Down (Ruff Nation Remix) (Single)'' (2002)
*''Ima Showem (Single)'' (1999)
*''Instrumentals 1'' (1999)
*''Instrumentals 2'' (1999)
*''Instrumentals 3'' (1999)
*''They All Fall Down (Original) (Single)'' (1999)
*''Factors of the Seven (song)'' (1997)
Guest Artists
*
Manchild - "We Don't Play"
*
Jennifer Knapp- "Believe" (Dove Award winning Rap/Hip Hop song of the year)
*
TobyMac-
"Ooh Ahh"; "Say Goodbye"; "Don't Bring Me Down"; "Hey Now"
*Stefan the Scientist- "Hittin Curves"
*Pettidee- "I Be"
*Jason Eskridge- "I Try"
*Antonio Phelon- "Love Child"
*
Lisa Kimmey- "It Takes Love"; "Shawty"; "Time To Pray"
*
Iz- "Jay Mumbles Mega Mix" "Dusk Till Dawn"
*
Pigeon John - "Open Bar"; "You Said"; "Beautiful Morning"
*
Canibus - "Ambitions"
*
KJ52 - "Integrity"
*
Mac Powell - "Fly Away"
*
Michael Tait - "Fly Away (Remix)"
*
Verbs - "U.S. Open"; "Hopes and Dreams"; "Gospel Rap; Parables"; "Strugglin'"; "C2K"; "Video Girl"; "Different Drum"
*
Dan Haseltine - "Sky May Fall"
*Jade Harrell-"Turn it Up"; "Say Goodbye"; "Neverland"
*Brittany Waddell (Better known as
Britt Nicole) "Rainy Days" "Soul Cry" "Right Back" "Dusk Till Dawn"
Awards
GMA Dove Awards
They have received several
Gospel Music Association Dove Awards throughout their career. Their first award was for a song about plagiarism ("Plagiarism" from their album ''Factors of the Seven''). For this, they received the best "Rap/Hip Hop Song" award.
[Dove Award Recipients for 1999]
". Published by the Gospel Music Association. Retrieved February 5, 2007.[N.W.A Twitter Updates]
. Published by Peso_3Stackz. Retrieved December 27, 2010. The next year they took the same award for "They All Fall Down", from ''Grammatical Revolution''.
[Dove Award Recipients for 2000]
". Published by the Gospel Music Association. Retrieved February 5, 2007. In 2003 ''The Art Of Translation'' won the award for "Rap/Hip Hop Album",
[Dove Award Recipients for 2003]
". Published by the Gospel Music Association. Retrieved February 5, 2007. and the following year their song "Believe" from the same album took "Rap/Hip Hop Song". They also shared in the "Special Event Album" that year, for their contribution to ''
!Hero The Rock Opera''.
[Dove Award Recipients for 2004]
". Published by the Gospel Music Association. Retrieved February 5, 2007.
Other Awards
They were nominated for Rap/Hip Hop Performer of the Year at the 2009 Visionary Awards Show (held at the First Baptist Church in Frisco, Texas). However, instead, the award went to the Christian rap duo "Word of Mouth"
[""]
References
External links
Gritson MySpace
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grits
American hip-hop duos
Alternative hip-hop groups
Christian hip-hop groups
Southern hip-hop groups
Musical groups from Nashville, Tennessee
American Christian musical groups
Hip-hop activists
Musical duos from Tennessee
Musical groups established in 1995
Gotee Records artists