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 MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

show ''

My Super Sweet 16 ''My Super Sweet 16'' is an American reality television series documenting the lives of teenagers, usually in the United States, Canada and United Kingdom, generally with wealthy parents who throw lavish, excessive and expensive coming-of-age c ...

''. 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 ''Pimp My Ride'' is a staged American television series produced by MTV and hosted by rapper Xzibit, which ran for six seasons on MTV from 2004 to 2007. In each episode, a car in poor condition is both restored and customized. The work on th ...

''. They were also involved in ''

!Hero ''!HERO'' is a 2003 Christian rock opera about Jesus. It is based on the question, "What if Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania?". After the original tour in 2003 ended, it was released on DVD, CD, and was written into a trilogy of novels ...

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! ''TNA Impact!'' (stylized as ''TNA iMPACT!'') is an American professional wrestling television program produced by the American promotion Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) that debuted on June 4, 2004. It also features wrestlers from WWE's ...

''.

Background

The

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 Kevin Michael McKeehan (born October 22, 1964), better known by his stage name TobyMac (styled tobyMac), is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer. His road band is known as Diverse City. Widely regarded as one of the most ...

, 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 Alternative hip-hop (also known as alternative rap and experimental hip-hop) is a subgenre of hip-hop music that encompasses a wide range of styles that are not typically identified as mainstream. AllMusic defines it as comprising "hip-hop group ...

and

Southern rap Southern hip-hop, also known as Southern rap, South Coast hip-hop, or dirty south, is a blanket term for a regional genre of American hip-hop music that emerged in the Southern United States, especially in Georgia, Texas, Louisiana, Tennessee, ...

, while several of their songs have

pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop! (British group), a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Album ...

influences, thus an occasional pop-rap sound, and their song "We Don't Play" has a Jamaican influence complete with

steel drums The steelpan (also known as a pan or steel drum) is a musical instrument originating in Trinidad and Tobago from Afro-Trinidadians. Steelpan musicians are called pannists. In 1992, the steelpan was declared Trinidad and Tobago’s national in ...

. They were one of the first acts signed to

, 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 Cornerstone Festival was a Christian music festival put on by Jesus People USA and held annually around July 4 near Bushnell, Illinois, drawing some 20,000 attendees each year. In a given year, many artists that played at Cornerstone also playe ...

and

Rock the Universe Rock the Universe is an annual Christian rock festival that takes place at Universal Studios Florida. It started in 1998, and it used to take place in September. In 2019 the festival was celebrated in February, since 2020, the festival is celeb ...

. 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 "With or Without You" is a song by Irish rock music, rock band U2. It is the third track on their fifth studio album, ''The Joshua Tree'' (1987), and was released as the album's lead single on 16 March 1987. The song was the group's most succes ...

- In The Name Of Love: Artists United For Africa *Wedding Celebration -

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 Jennifer Lynn Knapp (born April 12, 1974) is an American-Australian folk rock and contemporary Christian music singer-songwriter, author, and LGBTQ advocate. She is best known for her first single "Undo Me" from her Gold-certified debut studio ...

- "Believe" (Dove Award winning Rap/Hip Hop song of the year) *

TobyMac Kevin Michael McKeehan (born October 22, 1964), better known by his stage name TobyMac (styled tobyMac), is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer. His road band is known as Diverse City. Widely regarded as one of the most ...

- "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 John Kenneth Dust (born John Kenneth Dunkin: November 30, 1972), better known by the stage name Pigeon John, is an American rapper based in Los Angeles, California. He is a former member of L.A. Symphony. Early life Pigeon John claims that his ...

- "Open Bar"; "You Said"; "Beautiful Morning" *

Canibus Germaine Williams (born December 9, 1974), better known by his stage name Canibus, is a Jamaican-American rapper. First having gained recognition for his freestyling abilities, he signed with Universal Records to release his debut studio al ...

- "Ambitions" * KJ52 - "Integrity" * Mac Powell - "Fly Away" *

Michael Tait Michael DeWayne Tait (born May 18, 1966) is an American contemporary Christian music artist. Tait met Toby McKeehan in 1984 when he was in high school. Both Tait and McKeehan and Michael met Kevin Max while attending Liberty University in the ...

- "Fly Away (Remix)" *

Verbs A verb is a word that generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual description of English, the basic fo ...

- "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 Brittany Nicole Waddell (born August 2, 1984), better known by her stage name Britt Nicole, is an American singer and songwriter. She has mainly charted as a Christian pop artist, but in 2012 found her debut mainstream single, "Gold" and in 201 ...

) "Rainy Days" "Soul Cry" "Right Back" "Dusk Till Dawn"

Awards

GMA Dove Awards

They have received several

Gospel Music Association The Gospel Music Association (GMA) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1964 for the purpose of supporting and promoting the development of all forms of gospel music. As of 2011, there are about 4,000 members worldwide. The GMA's membership c ...

Dove Awards A Dove Award is an accolade by the Gospel Music Association (GMA) of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the Christian music industry. The awards ceremonies presented annually and have been held in Nashville, Tennessee excep ...

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

. 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

. 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

. 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

. 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

Grits
on 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