MC 900 Ft. Jesus

Mark Griffin, a Dallas native, took the stage name MC 900 Ft. Jesus from a sermon delivered by Oral Roberts and started making recordings in the late 1980s. His earliest releases combined hip-hop, industrial textures, and spoken-word passages with understated jazz accents. The 1990 debut Hell With the Lid Off and the 1991 album Welcome to My Dream brought him steady college-radio attention, though his reach stayed confined to a small but loyal audience. After keeping a low profile for several years, he resurfaced in 1994 with One Step Ahead of the Spider, his strongest commercial showing to that point. Anchored by the hit single “If I Only Had a Brain,” the set favored a gentler approach than before, folding in greater doses of jazz and funk that resonated with alternative radio and MTV viewers alike.