London hip-hop crew 29TH CHAPTER are going all out to take the Jesus message into schools. Tony Cummings talked to the righteous rappers.

MR PRINCE: "Definitely, '29' history! Well we originally went under the title Acts 29, if you don't know what is written in Acts 29 we suggest you grab a Bible and check it out. Basically, our vision as a crew then, as is now, was to be the continuation of the Gospel, to be young men - through our music, through our lyrics, through everything that we do - that shine the light of Christ really. We kicked off as Acts 29 for a couple of years, we released a single called 'Born Again Believers', which I believe had some good airplay on Cross Rhythms - good support from the British radio industry which we appreciate. And then another crew made up from America dropped a CD under the same title and we just decided it was time for a change of name. So we changed our title to the 29th Chapter, and this is us, right here, right now. I guess Navigator is a little bit better about dates and times so maybe he should add a little bit about this."

NAVIGATOR: "Yeah. Originally Prince and I started in about '94 as a group called Set Apart and then from there we just started rapping and doing crazy stuff - it wasn't very good back in the day, but ... it was alright. Then we met another guy called Yinka who was a passionate MC as well and he was an evangelist, and he kind of had this idea in his heart, around '98 we began to get together and pray. We knew Dave from some summer events that we had done and we met Kev in around '99 at Soul Survivor, we saw him breaking there and by 2000 the group was formed. God just brought us together. Kev moved to London and Dave was fairly accessible from Birmingham, so we just began to do stuff. So, in about 2000 we started ministering together as the four of us and we've been going ever since, by the grace of God."

TC: When did you officially change you name, what month or year was that?

NAVIGATOR: "I can't actually remember! It was a bit later than 2000 - summer of 2001, yeah."

TC: OK. Why 29th Chapter? Give me a bit more on that, what was the thinking behind the name?

GLADIATOR: "Basically, what we were thinking was - as Mr Prince already referred to - the book of Acts has 28 chapters and basically we want to be the 29th Chapter. What we want to see as a crew, fundamentally the heart of what we do is to be a continuation of the Acts of the Apostles and see signs and wonders in our age and our generation and see young people raised up for Jesus and that is at the core of everything that we do, the core of our music. The core of our ministry, the core of our lifestyle is just to see young people raised up, to get into schools, to get on stage and fire young people up and tell people that there's another way of living and show them through our lyrics and our lifestyle that Jesus is a reality and that he can be a reality in their life - and that we have a heart for them and that Jesus has a heart for them also. Our EP was called 'History' and that's what we want to do, we want to make history in our generation. We don't want to lie dormant, we don't want to lie asleep. We want to get busy and let people know about Jesus."

TC: You mentioned signs and wonders there. One of the things that occurs to me is that there is a great deal of the miraculous dimension around in the book of Acts. So are you saying that during a gig, would you be open to seeing words of knowledge or something like that coming through in what you were doing?

GLADIATOR: "Definitely! I believe in that 100 per cent. Just recently we were in Soul Survivor and me and Dangerous were working on a team and we were doing some music together as 50 per cent of the 29th Chapter and at the end of that they would run a club night for a lot of the non-Christians that were at Soul Survivor and at the end of the evenings we were having words of knowledge for young people. We were seeing young people come up at the end of a club night, having danced all night and responding to words of knowledge and seeing young people give their lives to Jesus, on the spot - just through music. That challenged me so much and I believe for this! I believe that we can go into school and with faith that we can see young people healed, with faith we can speak directly into young people's lives. It's about walking in the power, you know we don't want to walk in mediocrity or pander to popularity, we want to walk fully just for Jesus and see these things really happen."

TC: And you're beginning to see that. What about plans to go full time?

DANGEROUS: "With regards to full time it's really been a long time in coming for us, it's been a dream that's been in the pipe-line really since we've started, and I think for all of us personally - even before we were part of the 29th Chapter and even Acts 29. You know we all really had a calling on our lives for God to use us, so we feel like we're on the crest of a wave at the moment. We're seeing some amazing things happen, and you know God's really putting us in places where we've just been trusting him to put us for a long time. So, with regards to full time it's happening kind of now and as of January we're gonna be doing that with a much busier schedule. For now we're just working two days a week getting the admin and all that kind of stuff in progress. So, watch this space mate 'cos 29th Chapter is coming to get ya!"

TC: So if you're really thinking of giving this a full time shot in January one of the structures you're surely going to need is a practical, financial support base of some description from a ministry, some churches or whatever. Is some of that coming together for you?

MR PRINCE: "Well, it's funny you should say that because that's exactly what we're looking for! We're looking for people that will get behind, not just the 29th Chapter as a band, but 29th Chapter as a ministry. We're setting up a project in London, it's called the New School project and what we're doing is we're getting in association with school's teams in London and trying to bring them together with bands, other acts, media people, creative arts people... to take the Gospel into schools. We're looking to set that up as a trust, as a charity and we're really just asking people to get behind that. You know, to get behind the whole vision. We've really got a heart - as Gladiator said - to not just make music and not just be on stage, but actually to affect this generation. We believe that we live in a generation, like every other that needs God, desperately so! And our heart is to get into schools and to bring the Gospel with urban arts, with creative witness, hip-hop, break dance - whatever. But the bottom line is to get the Gospel into schools. We're kicking off in London, that's the focus of our school's mission for this year and we just need people to support us. So, if you're a schools team worker, if you're on a schools team or you're an artist or anything creative, or if you've just got a heart for young people we want you to contact us, get in touch with us, support us. We need prayer supporters, we need financial supporters - we need backing baby! So, that's what we're asking for."

TC: Can you give me a web address or maybe a postal address where people could maybe send donations or write to you for more information?

MR PRINCE: "Yes, certainly. We'd ask that people don't just send us money because - we'll spend it! No, I'm only joking, but don't just send us money. To get in contact with us you can get onto www.29thchapter.org.uk and you'll find a section on there entitled Full Time which will give you all the information, the latest up-dates on what the 29th Chapter's doing and also links to the new school's project website should be launched in the next few months. If you want to find out more that's the way to do it."