Artist ~ TobyMac

TobyMac

Toby McKeehan (born Kevin Michael McKeehan; (October 22, 1964), better known by his stage name TobyMac (styled tobyMac), is a Christian recording artist, music producer, hip-hop/pop artist, singer-songwriter, and author.

TobyMac was one of the first and most well known Christian rappers. He was first known for being a member of the Christian vocal trio DC Talk, staying with them from 1987 until their announced hiatus in 2000. He has since continued a successful solo career with the release of five studio albums. TobyMac became only the third Christian artist to have a No. 1 debut on Billboard's Top 200 chart with Eye on It. 

DC Talk (1988–2001)

Toby formed DC Talk with Michael Tait in 1987, at Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA. He and Tait released Christian Rhymes to a Rhythm in 1988, while they recruited classmate, Kevin Max Smith. The three set out on tour after they released their first album in 1989, DC Talk.

 In 1990 They released their first gold album, Nu Thang. After the Nu Thang tour they recorded their first platinum album, Free at Last. The Free at Last Tour was a success. They were invited to play on The Jay Leno Show and The Arsenio Hall Show, getting mainstream attention. They released their first single for their next album which immediately became a hit single. 

The album went multi-platinum and the best Christian album in the face of CCM music, Jesus Freak, which they released in 1995. The album led to the extremely popular Jesus Freak World Tour. They eventually released the tour CD, Welcome to the Freakshow. The tour ended in success in time for Supernatural, which would be their last album. The album would sell platinum. They then went solo in 2001. The band has not toured together since 2001 (except for one show in Redmond, Washington in 2005, and when TobyMac made surprise guest appearances at Winter Jam in 2010 in Nashville and in 2011 in Greensboro, NC and sang "Jesus Freak" with Michael Tait). However, DC Talk has recorded several songs together since their hiatus: "Let's Roll" (a song about the September 11 attacks) in 2002, "Atmosphere (Remix)" on TobyMac's 2004 album Welcome to Diverse City, and "The Cross", a track on Kevin Max's 2007 album The Blood.

 

 Momentum (2001–03)

In 2001, TobyMac released his first solo album titled Momentum. McKeehan composed and recorded the song "Extreme Days" for the 2001 Truth Builder Productions film Extreme Days, which was featured on the Momentum album. The song Extreme Days was also used in the movie, Hangman's Curse, based on the popular book by Frank Peretti. His song "Get This Party Started" was featured on an episode of the TV show Roswell. His song "Irene" was a big hit. His song "Yours" made it to the Top 5 on ChristianRock.net. His songs "Yours", "Extreme Days", "Get This Party Started", and "Momentum" were 
all recently featured in the Xbox 360 video game Crackdown. Momentum gained five Dove Awards and a Grammy nomination. In 2002 he released his first Christmas album, This Christmas with only two tracks: "This Christmas" and "O Come All Ye Faithful". In 2003 he remixed the Momentum album. This album was titled Re:Mix Momentum. His song "Yours" was used in TNA (Total Nonstop Action Wrestling) as "Sting's" Theme song. On Kirk Franklin's 2002 album The Rebirth of Kirk Franklin he was featured on "Throw Yo Hands Up".

Welcome to Diverse City 

(2004-06)

Welcome to Diverse City was released in October 2004. The album debuted and peaked on the Billboard 200 at number 54, selling 21,000 copies that week. The album's song "The Slam" was featured in the film Never Back Down, advertisements for the films Transporter 2, Aeon Flux, and The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, as well as advertisements for the television show Prison Break. The song was also featured in car commercials, men's NCAA clips, NBA Finals (Miami Heat, 2006), World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) programming, NFL Football commercials, and "The Ultimate Highlight" on Sportscenter. Ohio Valley Wrestling performer Matt Cappotelli (who currently is unable to perform due to a brain tumor) uses "The Slam" as his entrance theme. In the movie Never Back Down Toby's song "The Slam" is featured in the main fight scene. "Diverse City" was featured in the Veronica Mars episode, The Wrath of Con. "Atmosphere" was used in a Volvo car commercial, "Burn For You" was used for cinnamon gum commercials (as well as on a Dr. Phil advertisement). The album gave TobyMac another Dove Award for Rap/Hip-Hop Album of the Year. A remix version of the album, Renovating->Diverse City, was released in 2005.

Portable Sounds (2007–08)

McKeehan's next album, titled Portable Sounds, was released in 2007 and sold 50,645 copies in its first week, debuting at No. 10 on the Billboard 200, and at No. 1 on the SoundScan Contemporary Christian Overall chart. The album also received a Grammy nomination for Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album. The songs "Made to Love" and "I'm For You" both hit No. 1 and were the second and third most played songs on Christian Hit Radio stations in 2007. "Ignition" is being used by ABC/ESPN to promote its coverage of NASCAR, and "Boomin'" has also been used to promote a new crime-drama, The Women's Murder Club, on ABC, as well as others. In September 2007, his song "Feelin' So Fly" appeared in the film The Game Plan starringDwayne "The Rock" Johnson. Recently, "Ignition" received worldwide exposure when it was used as the Arizona Cardinals entrance music during the pre-game of Super Bowl XLIII. Then in March 2011, it was played during NCAA tournament promo during Arizona vs UConn game. TobyMac was awarded two Dove Awards for his work on this album, including Artist of the Year. His music video featuring the song "Boomin" was awarded a Dove Award for Short Form Music Video of the Year. Around this time also, he wrote his song, "New World" for the "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" and recorded the song "What We Gonna Do?" for the VeggieTales movie, The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: A VeggieTales Movie. "Feelin' So Fly" and "I'm for You" appear in Thrillville: Off the Rails. 

Alive and Transported (2008–09)

TobyMac released his first live album as a solo artist in 2008. Alive and Transported was a live recording of the Portable Sounds Tour in Houston, TX. It included covers of popular DC Talk songs "Jesus Freak" and "In the Light". The album included a DVD of the concert and gained him a GMA Dove and a Grammy Award.

 Tonight (2010–2011)

 TobyMac's fourth studio release, Tonight, was released on February 9, 2010. The album debuted at No. 6 on the Billboard 200, selling 79,000 units in its first week. The album's first single, "City on Our Knees", was released on August 14, 2009. The song reached No. 1 on Billboard's Hot Christian Songs and No. 1 on both Christian AC and CHR. Christopher Stevens and Dave Wyatt joined McKeehan in producing the album, as with the production of his 2007 release, Portable Sounds. Truett, aka TruDog, Toby's oldest son, was once again featured on a song as in the previous albums. The album is a mix of pop, rock, hip-hop, Latin, and funk, similar to his album Portable Sounds. The album charted No. 6 on the Billboard Top 200 and No. 1 on the Billboard Christian albums chart; selling 79,000 units in its first week. He recently finished touring with Skillet and House of Heroes on the "Awake Tonight Tour". 

The title track of the new album is featured in the intro of MLB Network's TV show 30 Clubs 30 Days. In March, he announced the "Hello Tonight" summer 2010 tour with Chris Tomlin. The song "City on Our Knees" earned TobyMac a Dove Award for Pop/Contemporary Song of the Year. The song "Showstopper" was used to promote World Wrestling Entertainment's (WWE) June 2010 Pay Per View, "Fatal 4-Way", and was used at least once in NCAA Basketball. It was also used as an introduction to Thursday Night Football in 2009-2010. His single "Tonight" was also used as a pregame introduction at home games for the Baltimore Orioles during the 2011 MLB season. The song was also promoted for ESPYS' Best U.S Male Olympian. TobyMac's "Tonight" was listed best Christian album of 2010 on iTunes and his Christmas single titled "Christmas This Year" (featuring Leigh Nash) was awarded the holiday song of the week on iTunes. 

He won the "Artist of the Year" at the 2011 Dove Awards. Additionally, the songs "Get Back Up" and "City On Our Knees" were recognized for being two of the Top 25 most performed songs on Christian radio over the past year. TobyMac toured with Third Day, Michael W. Smith, Jason Gray and Max Lucado on the World Vision-sponsored "Make a Difference Tour 2010". Tonight was nominated for a Grammy in the category "Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album" for the 53rd Annual Grammy awards. TobyMac's first full-length Christmas album, Christmas in Diverse City, was released October 4, 2011. It contains songs from each of the Diverse City members as well as TobyMac. Its other guest artists include: Leigh Nash, Owl City, Jamie Grace, Victor Oquendo, Superherose, Arch Nemesiz, Tim Rosenau, Todiefunk, and Byron "Talkbox" Chambers. TobyMac released his third remix album, Dubbed and Freq'd: A Remix Project, on March 26, 2012 featuring remixes of songs from his prior two studio albums.

Eye on It (2012–present)

On May 8, 2012, a follower of TobyMac's on Twitter account correctly guessed the name of the fifth full-length studio album, Eye on It, released August 28, 2012. He has since released the album cover and track list for the album. His first single, "Me Without You", was released on June 12, 2012 on iTunes and Amazon MP3. The single went to No. 1 on Billboard's Christian Songs chart on September 1, 2012, becoming the singer's fifth chart-topper.The album debuted on the Billboard 200 at No. 1, which is a first for a Christian album since 1997, and sold 69,000 copies in its first week.

Other work

TobyMac has written two books with Michael Tait and Kevin Max, Jesus Freaks: DC Talk and The Voice of the Martyrs – Stories of Those Who Stood for Jesus, the Ultimate Jesus Freaks, and Jesus Freaks: Revolutionaries: Stories of Revolutionaries Who Changed Their World: Fearing GOD, Not Man. These books are mainly focused on Christian martyrs. Toby Mac has also written two more books with Michael Tait, one titled, Under God, containing stories of America's spiritual battles, and another book called, Living Under God: Discovering Your Part in God's Plan.

TobyMac has written a fifth book called, City on Our Knees

TobyMac is the president of the record label Gotee Records. He created the label with Todd Collins and Joey Elwood in order to produce Out of Eden's Lovin' the Day after efforts to sign the group to an established label proved unsuccessful.

Toby also performs in "Rock the Universe" in Universal Studios and "Night of Joy" in Walt Disney World annually each September. Toby usually alternates between Rock the Universe and Night of Joy.

Toby has also helped establish a camp, called Camp Electric, located near Nashville, Tennessee, for young musicians who want to have pop and rock skills.

Toby released a DVD, TobyMac: Moving Pictures Featuring His Entire Work of Music Videos, on November 10, 2010.

Toby made a headline appearance at the quadrennial event NYC (a conference of the youth of the Church of the Nazarene) at its most recent North American gathering in Louisville, Kentucky.

Personal life

McKeehan and his wife Amanda (Mandy) were married in 1994. Amanda, who comes from Jamaica, is the daughter of Judy and Robert Levy (of Jamaica Broilers fame). Being married to a Jamaican, and with regular visits to the island, TobyMac is well immersed in Jamaican music, language and other aspects of local culture. Toby and Mandy live in Franklin, Tennessee.

They have five children: Truett, born September 4, 1998; twins Moses and Marlee, adopted in 2002; Leo, born on November 2, 2004; and Judah, born March 24, 2006.

Simple Past

El pasado simple

en inglés es equivalente al pretérito imperfecto y pretérito indefinido del español. Usamos el pasado simple para acciones completas en el pasado. El período de tiempo de estas acciones no es importante como en el español.

Grammatical Rules (Reglas gramaticales)

Form (Forma)

Para formar el pasado simple con verbos regulares, usamos el infinitivo y añadimos la terminación "-ed". La forma es la misma para todas personas (I, you, he, she, it, we, they).

• Ejemplos:
• Want→ Wanted
• Learn→ Learned
• Stay→ Stayed
• Walk→ Walked
• Show→ Showed

Excepciones:

1. Para verbos que terminan en una "e", sólo añadimos "-d.
   • Ejemplos:
   • Change→ Changed
   • Believe→ Believed
2. Si el verbo termina en una vocal corta y una consonante (excepto "y" o "w"), doblamos la consonante final.
   • Ejemplos:
   • Stop→ Stopped
   • Commit→ Committed
3. Con verbos que terminan en una consonante y una "y", se cambia la "y" para una "i".
   • Ejemplos:
   • Study→ Studied 
   • Try→ Tried

Nota: Hay muchos verbos irregulares en inglés. Desafortunadamente, no hay reglas fijadas para formarlos. A continuación tienes los tres verbos irregulares más comunes y los que actúan como verbos auxiliares.

Verb	Past Simple
be	was (I, he, she, it) / were (you, we, they)
do	did
have	had

Pronunciation (Pronunciación)

Pronunciamos la terminación "-ed" de forma diferente dependiendo de la letra que va al final del infinitivo. En general la "e" es muda.

1. Con los infinitivos que terminan en "p", "f", "k" o "s" (consonantes sordas, excepto "t") pronunciamos la terminación" "-ed" como una "t".
   • Ejemplos:
   • Looked   [Lukt] 
   • Kissed   [Kisst]
2. Con los infinitivos que terminan en "b", "g", "l", "m", "n", "v", "z" (consonantes sonoras, excepto "d") o una vocal, pronunciamos sólo la "d".
   • Ejemplos:
   • Yelled  [Jeld] 
   • Cleaned  [Klind]
3. Con los infinitivos que terminan en "d" o "t", pronunciamos la "e" como una "i".
   • Ejemplos:
   • Ended  [Endid]
   • Waited  [Weitid]
   • 
     
   • Structure (Estructura)
   • 1. Affirmative Sentences (Frases afirmativas)
   • Ejemplos:
   • I wanted to dance. (Quería bailar.)
   • She was a doctor. (Era doctora.)
   • They learned English. (Aprendieron inglés.)
   • We believed him. (Le creímos.)

Sujeto + verbo principal.
1. Negative Sentences (Frases negativas)
   • Ejemplos:
   • I didn't want to dance. (No quería bailar.)
   • She wasn't a doctor. (No era doctora.)
   • They didn't learn English. (No aprendieron inglés)
   • We didn't believe him. (No le creímos.)
Sujeto + verbo auxiliar ("to do") + "not" + verbo principal.
Nota: En frases negativas, el verbo auxiliar va en el pasado ("did") y el verbo principal se queda en el infinitivo.
2. Interrogative Sentences (Frases interrogativas)
   • Ejemplos:
   • Did you want to dance? (¿Querías bailar?)
   • Was she a doctor? (¿Era doctora?)
   • Did they learn English? (¿Aprendieron ingles?)
   • Did you believe him? (¿Le creíste?)
Verbo auxiliar ("to do") + sujeto + verbo principal?
Nota: Como en frases negativas, el verbo auxiliar va en el pasado ("did") y el verbo principal se queda en el infinitivo.

Uses (Usos)

1. El pasado simple se utiliza para hablar de una acción concreta que comenzó y acabó en el pasado. En este caso equivale al pretérito indefinido español. Generalmente, lo usamos con adverbios del tiempo como "last year", "yesterday", "last night"...
   • Ejemplos:
   • Tom stayed at home last night. (Tom se quedó en casa anoche.)
   • Kate worked last Saturday. (Kate trabajó el sábado pasado.)
   • I didn't go to the party yesterday. (No fui a la fiesta ayer.)
   • Did they walk to school this morning? (¿Andaron a la escuela esta mañana?)
2. Se usa el pasado simple para un serie de acciones en el pasado.
   • Ejemplos:
   • I received the good news and immediately called my husband. (Recibí la buena noticia y llamé de inmediato a mi marido.)
   • He studied for an hour in the morning, worked all afternoon and didn't return home until 10 at night. (Estudió durante una hora por la mañana, trabajó toda la tarde y no regresó a casa hasta las 10 de la noche.)
3. También lo usamos para acciones repetidas o habituales en el pasado, como se usa el pretérito imperfecto español.
   • Ejemplos:
   • We always traveled to Cancun for vacation when we were young. (Siempre viajábamos a Cancun durante las vacaciones cuando éramos jóvenes.)
   • He walked 5 kilometers every day to work. (Caminaba 5 kilómetros hasta el trabajo cada día.)
4. Lo usamos para narraciones o acciones de períodos de largo tiempo en el pasado, como el pretérito imperfecto español.
   • Ejemplos:
   • I worked for many years in a museum. (Trabajaba en un museo durante muchos años.)
   • She didn't eat meat for years. (No comía carne durante años.)
5. Se utiliza para hablar de generalidades o hechos del pasado.
   • Ejemplos:
   • The Aztec lived in Mexico. (Los aztecas vivían en México)
   • I played the guitar when I was a child. (Tocaba la guitarra cuando era niño.)

2012 Olympics

Symbol of the Olympic Games is the intersection of five rings symbolizing each of the five continents involved in the various disciplines and sports, sports and friendship between countries. But each issue has its own logo.

Logo of the 2012 Olympic Games.

The London 2012 Olympic torch.

The tradition of the torch carried in relay by cross country athletes is used to light the Olympic flame, which burns without interruption until the next Olympic Games. These torches were first introduced by Carl Diem responsible for the 1936 Olympic Games as during the ancient Olympic Games at the Temple of Hera in Olympia burned a flame when they lasted.

The emblem of the games in the Olympic torch.

The official mascots 

The official mascots of the Olympics and Paralympics are Wenlock and Mandeville. They were created by the company Iris and delivered on May 19, 2010. According to the story, both born of the drops falling steel construction of the last support beam of the Olympic Stadium in London.

Pet names refer to two British localities of concern to the Olympics. Wenlock's name is based in the town of Much Wenlock, located in the county of Shropshire, where they took place Wenlock Olympics, organized by William Penny Brookes and one of the inspirations of Baron Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic movement . Mandeville's name, meanwhile, refers to Stoke Mandeville, in Buckinghamshire. There, in 1948, the same day it was inaugurated the London Olympics Dr. Ludwig Guttmann organized a competition for veterans of World War II who suffered spinal cord injuries, which laid the foundation for Paralympics.

The XXX Olympic Games was a sporting event that was held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in the city of London, UK. The first event, the group stage in the women's football tournament began two days before the inauguration on July 25, 2012. Around 10,500 athletes from 204 countries participating in the Olympic Games in London.

Organized

The event was organized by two entities: the Organizing Committee and the Project Office Olympics (ODA by its acronym in English). The organizing committee was responsible for planning, as well as raising the funds needed to carry it out. He was also responsible for the implementation of the opening and closing ceremonies, the Olympic torch relay, the participation of non-profit organizations, the promotion of pets and the festival in 2012. The committee chairman was former Olympic champion Sebastian Coe.38

Meanwhile, the Project Office was responsible for carrying out the works necessary materials for the development of the Olympic Games, as well as transport and services for optimal functioning. There was also support from other agencies: the Olympic Board that was responsible for the coordination and inspection of the games, The Nation and Regions Groups, which ensured the involvement of people in the UK in the games, the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson , which helped ensure that Londoners benefit event received, the Department of Culture, Communications and Sports, finance Manager of the games and sponsorship of ODA, and the official sponsors of international and United Unido.38 addition to the development of the event was attended by around 70,000 volunteers

Sports

In the sports tournament twenty-six developed covering Olympic sports disciplines thirty-nine. With respect to the previous edition, two sports were less with the removal of baseball and softball from the Olympic program. However, there was some news: for the first time took place in the women's boxing, also in track cycling the number of competitions for each gender was five, unlike in Beijing where he had five for men and three for women, and added in tennis mixed doubles competition