"...I'm watering my lawn..."
Band Website: bobbybishop.com
Since 1996, I've been neck deep in the streets of Lynn, Massachusetts. An industrial suburb 6 miles north of Boston, Lynn has approximately 100,000 residents. Commonly known as Massachusetts' "Sin City”, across the country and the world, people know the jingle, "Lynn, Lynn, city of sin, you never come out the way you went in." Historically, Lynn has been home to immigrants from all over the world. Presently, Lynn is enriched with a population reflecting the planet, with 87 languages present in the public schools. As a social worker I have had the opportunity do street work on a daily basis, working with Lynn's families. Tackling issues of neglect, drug abuse, domestic violence, gang involvement, and more, this is the kind of work that inspired me to rap in the first place. For five years I served as a full-time youth pastor for East Coast International Church, a church my wife and I helped conceive with a team of planters in 2000. Our church deliberately targets parishioners who seek a seemingly non-traditional church context, or may not realize church as an option in their life. We hold meetings in a school building, and focus on street outreach each week as a means to reach those who didn't realize their church home was just around the corner. Presently, I am a minister for our bus outreach, as well as a middle school sunday school teacher and outreach minister. From 2000-2004 I released 2 independent CD’s, and began to build a reputation as an emcee who is intrinsically focused on his community. This helped me build a tremendous amount of momentum. In 2005, I was privileged to release my first nationally distributed release, Government Name, with Beatmart Recordings/Provident-Integrity/Sony BMG entertainment. Government Name received a tremendous amount of national and international exposure, and set the stage for me to tour the country. Mtv in particular took to the record, and placed nearly the entire record into rotation on some of the networks most popular shows (Pimp My Ride, Next, and more). My most recent project, One Shot, was released into the marketplace by Beatmart in 2006, and is (in my opinion) my most creative project to date. A rap opera, it tells a fictional story based on true events that took place in my neighborhood. My new label home, Philadelphia based Chosen Records, has brought this project to the screen in the soon to be released video, One Shot. My goal is to bring you a music ministry presentation with heart, on the strength of my community service and countless hours of stage experience. My aim is to be approachable and real, and to continue making music birthed out of community, and breathing the hope of Christ.
