Tonex: Out-The-Box The Movie DVD

By Donte Banks

Now a day everyone is talking about Tonex. You know Tonex right? The cat with the 6 Octave range, The dude with the funny hairstyles, the high energy eccentric brotha that gave us hits like Personal Jesus, God Has not 4Got, & the number one smash single Bout a Thang. Well, Mr. Tonex, Mr. Singer, Producer, Dancer, Director, and now Mr. Gammy nominated artist, is on the lips of everyone one in gospel again with his visual aid to the Out-The-Box release Out-The-Box The Movie DVD.

Out-The-Box The Movie DVD is a high energy high impact DVD that will not only entertain and bless you. It will make you take notice to this minstrel and his relationship with God. The movie, which is actually a mix between a live show at San Diego 's Civic Center in September 2003 and visual elements, is an eclectic hodgepodge of music and mirth with all emotions melding you into a Tonex fan and a Jesus freak all at once.

We open up with some out takes of Tonex and someone we assume is his mother (she refers to him as Anthony) riding the elevator as Tonex acts… Tonex and he introduces the tour and the concert. Many of these excerpt are to be found directly in the mist of the DVD, not put on a separate part like and out takes or back stage segment. But then again that is Tonex. Moving against the norm and breaking all manmade boundaries! Then we start the show with Yolanda Adams introducing Tonex. You can hear the ferventness in her voice as she begins shouting to get the crowd hyped for what is to come. Meanwhile Tonex comes out of a 9 Foot Box onto the Stage and welcomes The Peculiar People as they start the Progressive Rock part of the show. The first set includes Out-The-Box, The Trust Theory, and a true eye opener called Alive where Tonex's speaks as Jesus screaming and a hard rock fashion, “I'm Not Dead, I'm Still Alive!” This song should captivate any Christians heart even with it's aggressive beat and tempo. To hear Jesus say I could have called 10,000 to have my back but I took it like a champ and I'm not dead ran chills up my spine. From Rock to Progressive Gospel Tonex and the PP keep it moving as they shriek out the lyrics to Work On Me, one of the traditional church favorites of 04, and games where Tonex samples uses the theme song to Family Feud to make his point that U shouldn't play games with God. Don't say he didn't warn you… Tonex says about the creation of the song “Last year I was in Philadelphia and I was staying on floor 22. My wife was with me and we took the elevator down and I started writing the concept and putting it together. By the time we hit lobby, I had the whole song written. I told my wife, this is going to be crazy. No one does Family Feud and makes it a choir song. A traditional sounding choir song at that. The concept of what we are talking about would be an oxymoron. We would make it seem like a game, but the words would be very serious which help people digest serious soapbox, fire and brimstone messages in a way that they don't know that that's exactly what they are hearing until the end. The song goes from happy, country major triads to the end where it turns into a warning. There's a sense of alarm after the bridge. Have you been watching CNN?? You never hear choirs singing anything about CNN or about what everyone can relate to outside of church. That's what makes it hot.” The set ends with Tonex doing a round Robin and playing multiple instruments from the Organ to the Clavinet to the drums, proving once again that although he can blow… He is much, much, more than a singer.

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