Toby McKeehan (or tobyMac, as he is professionally known) grew up in the northern Virginia suburbs in the shadow of Washington, D.C., where he fell in love with rap and hip-hop. While attending Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, during the mid-'80s, he met Michael Tait and Kevin Max Smith (aka Kevin Max), and the three friends formed the highly influential Christian pop group dc Talk, which mixed elements of gospel, grunge, and hip-hop into an immensely successful hybrid. When dc Talk ended in 1999, Mac went solo, releasing the well-received Momentum in 2001.
