Tony Cummings spoke to hip-hop artist PHILLYTF, breaking through on xRhythms with "Woahh!!!"

PhillyTF: "That's my first EP. I actually had a project called 'Tuned Out'. That was my first project, and then 'D.O.P.E' was after a couple mixtapes I put out. It was kinda like the transition in my life. It was my first major release."

Tony: Were you doing a few concerts by that time?

PhillyTF: "Yes. I was doing quite a few in Ohio - a lot of church events, youth events. They would have me speak because I really love getting in the word, breaking the word down. God gave me a grace and a blessing to share it in a way that I'm able to break it down and draw out things that people will be like, 'Wow! I never would've thought you could extract that from a Scripture.' So it was a little of both with the ministry of music. I did a couple with out of state things as well, a couple showcases that were all secular. I was the only Christian artist there and I was actually able to win. God really blessed me doing the music during that time."

Tony: In 2019 you did a single with Steven Malcolm, who's pretty well known now. How did you get to meet him?

PhillyTF: "Steven Malcolm was really a blessing. He didn't know that I was following him on Instagram. I never met him before. I'd just heard of him around the time he put this post on Instagram promoting his songs. It's kinda hard connecting to artists on Instagram sometimes because they've got a lot going on. I prayed earlier that year, 'Lord, I really want to do a record to generate some buzz, some steam, but where it points towards you. I want to have a good feature for a catchy song.' 'Sauce 2 Tuff' was the record that we did. I DM'd him on Instagram, just on a random - not really with no high expectations other than what God put on my heart. I asked him what was the price of admission for a feature, and he actually hit me back. We just built a relationship from Instagram. We connected and gave each other numbers. I sent him two songs, I think, and he was really on the 'Sauce 2 Tuff'. He was like, 'Yeah, bro, let's do this.' He sent me the vocals within a week, cut me a real good deal on the feature. That was a blessing just to connect with him, and now we share Scriptures and stuff like that when he has time. That record's a beautiful thing with Spotify and stuff like that."

Tony: xRhythms is playing "Woahh!!!". What's the story with that one?

PhillyTF: "My whole thought process with that record was when I think about God, when I think about this gift with music, and you think about his grace and things, it's just like, 'Woah!' Every record that I put out has something to do with what I'm currently experiencing in life. A lot of the content in that was when I moved out to California. There's a lot of strategy in what I do, a lot of purposeful thought. So the whole record was basically capitalising on that, being like, 'Woah!' Using the image of me and my sister when we were kids - my life from the time I've been saved to when I'm speaking with you has been a 'woah!' experience."

Tony: Cross Rhythms sees no division between black and white artists, and we play a lot of hip-hop, which can be very confusing from the perspective of Christian radio in America, which is normally catering for what they think an audience of soccer moms wants to hear.

PhillyTF: "It's the same with the Church. Soccer moms, white artists, black artists - that's a perspective thing. But when you look at Christ, there was so much division looked at upon him. He did things that were uncustomary to a principle built on what God created, but man put his own perspective on it. When another person's perspective is placed in an area that it doesn't even belong, that's when we get all these divisions. We also know the enemy is orchestrating and working behind that as well. When you come to music and 'This isn't Christian enough', or, in the secular world, 'We like the artist but his music is too Christian'. That's a perspective thing. I look at it like God is always sovereign in what he allows and what he doesn't allow, and he's going to position the people that are going to have a selfless perspective in terms that 'I just want to be where God wants me to be, and he'll do exactly what's going to be needed'. Christ never really did anything outside of the Father's will, not worrying about other perspectives in terms of what his mission was. That's just where I'm at with it. When I look at it like that, I don't see barriers, I don't see colours, I don't say, 'I can't put my music here.' No. God is going to initiate, and as long as that is the tunnel-vision focus then you don't even see colour and culture. You see the Kingdom of God."