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Sioux Falls, South Dakota, United States | SELF

Sioux Falls, South Dakota, United States | SELF
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"Christian hiphop reaches out"


Local hip-hop artist Manny Guiterrez, who goes by Blitz Maximus, wants to use his music to reach out to youth and to share his Christian faith.

"Rap does a good job of being a reporter _ but not giving a solution," he says.

Guiterrez, 29, will be a guest host Saturday at the third annual Taking Back Our Youth Talent Show at the Bowden Youth Center. The event also will serve as an album release party for Guiterrez's Christian hip-hop album "Graceland."


He says helping youth in the community is his calling.

"I want to give back to them, to help them understand I've been there. There's hope and not a problem."

DJ Steve Wade will be at the event, which is targeted for youth as a back-to-school jam. Guiterrez will play at the beginning, intermission and end of the talent show.

"Our goal is to have an outreach towards the forgotten," Guiterrez says.

Joan Neilan, Volunteers of American-Dakotas regional director, says the talent show is popular with youth, and previous special guests have received a good response.

"It's been popular with other hip-hop artists," she says.

Guiterrez says his music changed two years ago when he renewed his faith in God. His perspective on God changed through a variety of experiences, and he became baptized at a local church.

Guiterrez grew up in the Bronx and moved to Mitchell to attend Dakota Wesleyan on a football scholarship. Looking back on his life in the projects, he says he realizes that God was watching over him.

"My mom was a very spiritual lady. The drugs and the violence in the projects, period, was terrible," he says. "But she would always say, 'Keep your faith in Christ.' Now I understand what she meant.

"To really put it in perspective now, there were times I really should not have made it out alive with some of the things I went through _ everything from shootings to gang fights. It was ridiculous. Now I can see there was a bigger plan for me," he says.

Guiterrez is married and has three children. He was involved in local music with The Young Noblemen before starting solo work on the album "3rd and long" in 2005.

"Graceland" follows two previous Christian albums, "Glorified" and "Free World Project." His beats are catchy, like "Hood Worship" on the "Glorified" album, in which he raps about "worshiping God with a two-step."

Guiterrez has worked with local hip-hop artists including Dirt Dee from Soulcrate Music, V The Noble One and Trey Lane.

Trey Lane says that Guiterrez took a risk in switching to Christian hip-hop, and he succeeded.

"He's a versatile, versatile artist. All of his projects are different, and, at the same time, they bring the Christian music together as well as putting in certain things that you wouldn't hear in regular Christian hip-hop," he says.

Guiterrez played last year at the LifeLight music festival and hopes to play this year. He also is negotiating with independent record label DeepLife Records.

"My goal now is to give people an answer and hopefully bring people to God through my music," he says.

Guiterrez has upcoming 7 p.m. shows Aug. 17 at Hillcrest Baptist Church, 4301 E. 26th St.; Aug. 22 at the Center of Life Church, 500 S. 1st Ave.; and Aug. 24 at Lutheran Social Services, 621 East Presentation St.

Reach BryAnn Becker at 977-3908.

- Argus leader/B.Becker


"Blitz maximus takes gospel hip hop to the street"

Blitz Maximus Takes Gospel Hip Hop to the Streets.Joanna Halverson

Manny "Blitz Maximus" Gutierrez says most Christian rap makes him "want to throw up."

Gutierrez manages the label Flame On Entertainment, and uses his experiences to try to change the "Christian rapper" stereotype.

"There are Christians who rap, and rappers who just happento be Christian."

To Gutierrez, Christian rappers' music comes off "corny" and turns off listeners. Rappers "who just happen to be Christian" take their real experiences and make music relatable to the street listeners.

Having grown up in "the projects," Gutierrez’s experiences as a youth reflect his writing for the streets.

JH: How did you end up in South Dakota?

MG: I was playing football in high school, but no colleges had offered me a scholarship. It was almost graduation; I was worried. I thought I was going to die in the projects. Then a recruiter from Dakota Wesleyan called me and offered me a football scholarship. It was my only option.

JH: You hadn't been to South Dakota before?

MG: I hadn't heardof South Dakota before! I was like, 'Oh, is that down South?'

JH: So how was the transition?

MG: My first thought was: Where are all the buildings? It was all farms. I was like, 'Oh man. I've died and gone to the wrong heaven!' [Laughs.] It was a culture shock. People here are so nice and all, 'Hey! How are you doing?' I had a chip on my shoulder. I was like, 'Oh, are you talking to me?'

JH: How did you get started in rapping?

MG: In the Bronx, you learn to rap when you learn to write. [Laughs.]

JH: How did your writing transition to 'Christian?’

MG: I was lying in bed one night and I couldn't sleep. I kept hearing, 'You need to bring me my people' over and over. This was before I was familiar with God's voice, so I was freaking out. I thought my wife was playing with me. [Laughs.]

JH: So what did you do?

MG: I got up, sat in my kitchen and just started writing. That was my first track-- my hand just kept writing. The words weren't from me, you know? That led to my first album Glorify in 2004. It actually made the top 25 in Gospel albums.

JH: Well, that's awesome! Is all your music hip hop?

MG: No, actually. I had heard Lauryn Hill. She does acoustic rap--it's like rap over a guitar. I thought it sounded awesome. So my friend and I made an acoustic rap album.

JH: So what are you working on now?

MG: I just finished the album, Street Psalms Volume I, a couple weeks ago. On Monday, I start recording Volume II.

JH: What feedback have you received on Street Psalms?

MG: Well... it's controversial. On that album there's 19 tracks. The last track is a letter I wrote to my brother about everything we went through [in the Bronx.] I used the ‘n-word' twice. And I said 'sh**' once.

JH: So how did the religious community respond to that?'

MG: I got plagued by churches. They were like 'Oh you have a confusing message. We don't understand where you're coming from.' I'm like, 'Really? 18 tracks in the album and you don't get my message?'

JH: That's interesting, because Jesus was rejected by the religious community.

MG: Exactly. I think of that adulteress woman they were going to stone. Jesus didn't say 'You have to clean up before you can come talk to me.' Jesus says we come to Him while we're dirty.

JH: Well, you aren't trying to reach the church, anyway.

MG: Yeah, exactly. The church is fine, you know? They already have the message. I'm trying to reach the streets.

JH: How did the streets respond?

MG: They loved it. I got some good feedback. It was like 'Oh that's real. You don't sugar coat it.' The projects is violence and drugs, you know? It's dirty. Pain is ugly. I think of the people Jesus helped; they were dirty. They were in pain.

JH: What is your impression of other Gospel music?

MG: Most of it I want to throw up. It's either real corny or real 'left-field'--doesn't even relate to God.

JH: So what is your vision for Flame On Entertainment? Where is the label heading?

MG: I want people to understand grace. I don't want it to be just a 'label.' I want it to be a movement. Gospel music today preaches a lot of ‘good behavior’ messages. And that's good, of course. But there's more to it than that. I want people to know about grace, first. That we are accepted by grace, not by what we do. And that our behavior changes afterwe have accepted God's grace. And that's the beauty of it.

JH: Have you been back to the Bronx since moving to South Dakota?

MG: I just went this past January. My dream is to go back and do a big show for the projects. I want to give them all free shirts and CDs and stuff. I want to bring the church to the streets. Where I came from, we couldn't go to church because we weren't dressed nicely. That ain't right.

Visit flameongospel.bandcamp.com to listen to Street Psalms, or Facebook "Flame on Gospel."

short URL: http://605magazine.com/a/20

- 605 magazine


"Hip Hop is not dead"


This Just In...Hip Hop Is Not Dead....It's just been missing! It's been missing the amazing sound of "GraceLand", we can thank Blitz for bringing it home and sharing this incredible album with the world. Pure power on each track, if you don't like songs stuck in your head don't push play on "GraceLand." It has been permanatley burned into the gray folds of my mind and my head is not letting go!

Trav-E-Trav
Morning Show DJ
Hot 104.7nal Message ----- - Hot 104.7fm/sioux falls


Discography

BLITZKRIEG 3rd and long album 2005
BLITZKRIEG Glorified 2006
FREE WORLD 2007
BLITZ MAXIMUS Welcome to GRACELAND 2008

Music singles played on HOT 104.7 in SIOUX FALLS, SD
ASCENSION off of FREEWORLD
THROW ya J's u p off of GRACELAND

Photos

Bio

"Born and raised in the city jects, where they match techs, 22's Gore techs, who on the court
next, now I'm in the Midwest, still yellin, Edenwald beat em all got beef heat em all"......These
are the words from an old track that gives you an idea of where BLITZ came from and where
he has arrived.Writing music since he learned to write,BLITZ always felt destined to hold a mic
in his hand...."a million stories in the jects thats just like mine, that s why I flow the way I do
cuz they feel me, Sex, drugs and crime, the times they should have killed me"...Another verse
that shows his understanding that he is just a piece of a struggle linked to a whole world of
forgotten sons and daughters.His opinion of HIP HOP music today, " We so lost in the game, so
focused on the problems, we forget to talk about the solutions", which in his view will come
from a spiritual evolution of people through faith in the middle of the storms.HEBREWS 13:5 "
never will I leave you, never will I forsake you", according to BLITZ has given him a new
confidence in life that allows hime to pursue music that he feels many are too "afraid to do
because they are trapped in the boxes of the industry". He has worked with mainstream
artists such as BUBBA SPARKS, YING YANG TWINS, DAVID BANNER, NOBLEMEN, CINATRA,on
down to XROSS, ANGEL DEAN, 1773, RYAN DANIELS...etc of the Christian music industry."GOD
is good " he states," I've been blessed to work with all these people and do shows with
them,learn bits and pieces and translate that into my life and music".Music that includes
everything from Gangsta rap to Christian Acoustic hiphop with guitarist ASCENSION of their
group FREE WORLD. " BLITZ is a beast we had to let him off of his leash" says Vonny "V the
noble one " Harriri, Co CEO and executive producer of the FLAME-ON family.BLITZ smiles and
says " V been there since day one with the rest of the family like, yo whatever you do, do it

FLAME ON , and the support I got from them was tremendous now that I'm doing God's music,
its like I got a team now who is really ride or die". Inspired by GOD and a hunger to change the
face of HIP HOP, BLITZ is poised to turn heads and make them bop to his vision of "FREE"
music. "GOD is good".....he smiles, "Thank GOD for GRACE"