Heatseeker
Hip to Manchester's red-hot club kids, the U.K.'s World Wide Message Tribe has become the holy herald in the burgeoning Christian dance scene with both street-cred and Jesus testimony. Coupled with their service work at schools and their outreach organization, the Message, WWMT has cultivated a hybrid of house, techno, hip-hop, and rap with the idea that if the booty shakes, the soul will follow. Adding a touch of ambient along with a disco streak to its glorious mess of praise, the Tribe (catalyst for the popular and critically acclaimedJumping in the House of Godcompilations) took the 1999 Dove Award for Rap/Hip-Hop/Dance Album of the Year withHeatseeker. While not the caliber of, say,PhotekorRoni Size, these soldiers of faith step to a buzzy break beat and provide an alternative toGoldie,Prodigy, and sexually explicit dance divas, giving young Christians something to rave about.--Paige La Grone