User:Flynchmob/sandbox

P.I.D. (Preachers in Disguise) is a Christian hip hop band formed in 1986, considered one of the founding fathers of the holy hip hop scene in the United States. The crew consisted of Fred Lynch aka Doug Tray, Barry Hogan aka Barry G., and Carlos Brown aka DJ Selecta. Fred worked at an inner-city church as the Youth Pastor while attending Christ For The Nations Institute. Fred and Barry (one of the students in the youth group that Fred directed) began writing and performing raps as a way to draw youth to their church's street outreaches in Oak Cliff Texas. The name Preachers in Disguise was born from the concept of using rap music as a communication device to share the gospel as "Holy Ghost Preachers in rapping disguise" (Barry G's verse from song "Don't Bow"). P.I.D. was signed to Graceland Records in 1988 and released their debut album Here we Are. Barry G. departed after three albums and released a solo project titled Rugged Cross in 1995. The Chosen Ones in 1991 was the introduction of Fred Lynch's brother Kevin aka K-mack the Knife. P.I.D. was quite controversial as a Christian Rap Group raising serious topics such as systemic racism in society, blatant racism in the church, sexually transmitted disease, and featuring Louis Farrakhan on their song Victim of the System. In 1993 P.I.D. welcomed new member Jay Johnson aka King Solomon Jay and toured the Greenbelt Festival at the same time of the Rodney King beatings in L.A. After returning from Europe after the L.A. riots, P.I.D. recorded their next album Born With The Gift (1992) where they continued their message of public theological discourse through rhythm & rhyme while touching on subjects such as Systemic Racism, Black on Black Crime, and Self-Love. In 1995 P.I.D. dropped "their signiture disguise" and became known as "Preachas" with their album Violent Playgrounds (1993), featuring new member Rich Martin aka Ace One The MC from the Bronx, New York.

Releases:	Album: Here we are (1988 Graceland Records ) Single Get You A Bible (1988 Graceland Records) Album Back to Back (1989 Graceland Records ) Single Racism (1990 Artful Balance Records) Album: The Chosen Ones (Frontline Records 1991) Album: Born with the Gift: John 3:16 Factor (1992 Frontline Records) Album: Violent Playgrounds (1993 MYX Records) Album: Get Into It : The very best of P.I.D. (1998 KMG Records). Fred Lynch released a solo project titled Gimmie Tha Planet in 1996, and completed the project The Script: a hip-hop translation of the entire Gospel of John in 2007.