Toby Mack (left) with Tommy Cowan

When Christian rap/rocker Toby Mack wants a break from his busy routine, he comes to Jamaica his second home, which gave him his wife, Amanda (nee Levy), the daughter of Robert Levy of Jamaica Broilers fame.

While on his current visit the platinum selling Christian music artiste been meeting with Tommy Cowan and the staff of Glory Music to discuss his participation, as well as other acts from his genre, in the third staging of Fun In The Son scheduled for Ocho Rios next March.

Mack has not only fallen in love with Amanda, with whom he has three children (including two adopted ones), but also with the island and its culture.

He met his wife while they were studying in college in Virginia, USA in 1989 - she at Hollins College and he at Liberty University - and got married.

"It was a case of the Liberty boys snooping around the all girls school," he confessed. There was, however, a mutual Jamaican friend who made sure they bonded.
By that time, Mack had already been to Jamaica once (in 1982/83). He came back at the end of 1989 and he has been coming for his vacations twice per year since, in the summer and the winter.

"I love it. I spend a month here in the winter and a week in the summer. It's more like a vacation, but part of my family is here, so I think I embrace it a little bit more. You know I try to embrace the culture and understand the people and the country. I listen to radio a little, but it is real hard," he admitted.

Would he be prepared to do some ministering in inner city areas? "I think about it. I am not sure, I try to be realistic about impact and, you know, putting the right peg in the right hole," he explained.

However, he has done Fun In The Son twice with much success and is looking forward to a third. He is encouraged by the growing numbers who have been attending the annual music festival which started out as a Christian alternative to spring break.

"The first year it was a little small, but year two was at least three times bigger and I think that it is sending the message to Jamaica and to the world that spring break can be a light. It doesn't have to be strictly darkness. It can be a place where God is lifted up and people have a good time. There needs to be options and I think that Fun In The Son offers an alternative that is not too slow. In other words it is an alternative that still rocks. It's not boring, or where you can't have a good time. It's still a party."

Mack has been urging the marketing of the event to mission groups in the United States. These are groups of American students willing to go to developing countries to assist in various ways. "They come to learn and serve," as Mack puts it.

He thinks that this would offer Jamaica the double benefit of the charitable work these groups could do, as well as the fact that they come to Jamaica to holiday at the same time.
Mack, who just recently did 25 US cities with Kirk Franklin, describes his music as guitar-laden hip-hop or fusion hip-hop in which he raps and sings.

"My band is very diverse. Not only diverse in culture and in race, but also diverse in musical taste. We sort of make this big pot of gumbo. We are a one pot band," he added.

He also has lots of praise for Jamaican gospel acts whom, he believes, are "incredibly talented" and, if given the right promotion and exposure, could do just as well as foreign gospel acts.

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