Ask hip-hop fans what they think of gospel rap, and they're liable to give you a puzzled look. "Gospel rap? Yo, you gotta be kidding me. There ain't no such thing as gospel rap. Ya feel me, son?" Truth is, there is such a thing.

Although not quite as popular as mainstream hip-hop, gospel rap is a cottage industry that speaks to thousands of young Christians who want to enjoy the infectious grooves of hip-hop without the music's secular, overtly sexual and often sexist themes. Ever since the early '80s, Christian rappers such as Nuwine, Prime Minister and True 2 Society have been selling their CDs at churches, Christian bookstores and select record stores, but none of them have ever been able to break into the mainstream.

Ironically, while Christian rap was struggling to be heard, Islamic rap groups such as King Sun, Poor Righteous Teachers and Brand Nubian--all of whom adhered to a New York-based faith known as the Five Percent Nation of Islam--were huge stars in the hip-hop community. A major reason for this had to do with Christian rap itself. The Five Percenters' music and lyrics were catchy and fit into the hip-hop aesthetic, which embraced the teachings of prominent Muslim African Americans such as Malcolm X. Meanwhile, early Christian rap acts like P.I.D. (which stood for Preachers in Disguise) had wack production and self-righteous lyrics that condemned non-Christians to hell, and they weren't even good rappers. That began to change in 1995, however, when the Nashville-based duo GRITS hit the hip-hop scene.

In just seven years, GRITS' Bonafide and Coffee have helped to take Christian rap from the pulpit to the mainstream, and with the release of their latest album, The Art of Translation, they are more poised than ever to reach a broad audience. Their music has been used as soundtrack material for TV shows (including MTV's The Real World, FOX's Boston Public and NBC's Third Watch) and a handful of independent films. Respected hip-hop publications such as The Source, Rap Pages and Rap Sheet have run features and favorable reviews, and the duo's videos have been placed in heavy rotation on MTV2 and BET's Rap City.

Sales for The Art of Translation have been brisk of late, with the album perched at No. 32 on Billboard's Heatseekers chart, which tracks independent label releases. Two weeks ago, the duo performed a well-attended showcase in New York City, setting the stage for upcoming road dates at which they'll be opening for the likes of OutKast, Cee-Lo and Nappy Roots--all hip-hop heavy-hitters. What's more, their songs "Tennessee Bwoys" and "Here We Go" have been adopted for use by the Tennessee Titans at the team's football games (not a bad thing, so long as the Titans continue to reverse their losing streak). In other words, GRITS may be Christians, but to much of their listening audience, they're just rappers, without any of the moral or religious baggage.

While GRITS' success is impressive, they remain an enigma in Nashville's music scene, where they don't fit easily into local hip-hop or Christian music circles. In the case of the sizable contemporary Christian music industry--which is headquartered in Nashville--record labels and music publishers haven't been quick to embrace hip-hop. As popular as GRITS have become, they're still struggling to earn respect from their peers. According to Coffee, much of this has to do with the people in charge. "Most of the church--especially the entertainment industry side of it--is run by old white people who don't know nothing about this culture. And they're afraid of what they don't know about. It's like now that hip-hop has become so blatantly popular and it's a billion-dollar industry, they're just now trying to take notice, trying to step it up a bit, but it's still not fast enough."

As for the local rap scene, Nashville is home to a few MCs, most notably Haystak and Quanie Cash, who've managed to transform their grass-roots followings into small-scale, regional success stories. GRITS concede that they may not be as plugged-in as some of these contemporaries simply because they don't hang out in the same circles. It's also worth pointing out, however, that many local rappers are far more taken with the conventional trappings of hip-hop music--the thug posturing, the glamorization of wealth--and have yet to break out with truly original music or ideas. So it's to GRITS' credit that they're trying to take the music in a direction of their own. And they insist that when they do cross paths with their fellow Middle Tennessee rappers, they earn respect because of their skills as performers.

"Our bottom line is that we go onstage and we do what we gotta do and we command," says Coffee. "Not because we're Christians, but because we got tight beats, we got tight lyrics and we got a tight stage performance. Period."

Bonafide and Coffee, né Stacy Jones and Teron Carter, first met in 1991, as dancers touring with the popular Christian rap act DC Talk. On the road 75 percent of the year, the two slowly forged a bond that served as the basis for their chemistry as rappers.

Since DC Talk spent much of their time while on tour conducting interviews and making personal appearances, and since the rest of the band's road crew was into pop, rock and alternative music, Bonafide and Coffee found themselves writing rhymes and swapping tapes of their favorite rappers (including Ice Cube and NWA). They also had other things in common. Both of them moved to Nashville in 1990, practically within a few months of each other, with Coffee relocating from Tulsa, Okla., a few months before Bonafide arrived from Jacksonville, Fla. Both of them were children of divorce, although both remained close to their fathers. And both shared a love for fly gear and pretty women. According to Coffee, it was the thrill of chasing girls that actually solidified their bond as a duo.

"It was weird, because we were both kinda like the same," Coffee says. "We were both the playa-type dudes. I mean, we wanted the fly girls in the joint. And it was kinda like this competition thing. But after a while it was like, 'Yo, let's unite. Let's be macks together.' "

While both men were raised in the church, they openly admit that their faith had started to waver when they went on tour with DC Talk. According to Coffee, a preacher's kid, they were a couple of "scragglers," who, like many of their peers in hip-hop, thought they were "good Christians" but didn't really know what that meant. "I think that we both were just riding that fence," adds Bonafide. "We both kinda felt like we were Christians, but it took some time before we both realized that we needed to start living that way." The duo credit the example of their friends and former employers DC Talk for showing them that they could maintain their Christian lifestyle and still be a viable part of the entertainment industry.

When Toby Mckeehan of DC Talk formed his label Gotee Records, he asked the two if they wanted to be a part of it. They accepted and soon began working on a demo that would later become the foundation for their 1996 debut, Mental Releases. The record boasted smooth beats, jazzy samples and lyrics filled with clever rhymes and abstract metaphors that spoke to young hip-hop fans, rather than preaching at them. To the 20,000-plus kids who bought it, Mental Releases came off like just another dope album. This has been true of all the other GRITS records: 1997's Factors of the Seven, 1999's Grammatical Revolution and the new album. The only difference is that more people are listening now.

In a market dominated by overproduced, sample-filled tracks and cliché-ridden lyrics, The Art of Translation is strikingly fresh. Coffee and Bonafide are on par with any MCs rhyming today; their flows run the gamut, from the fast-paced flipping style of Twista to the cool, laid-back delivery typical of Common. Ditto for their music, which utilizes elements of jazz, soul, rock and Latin music to create an aural sacrament that's as pleasurable as it is sanctified.

Indeed, listen to GRITS' music, and you're likely to forget that these guys are Christian rappers--which is precisely what they want you to do. They don't want to be identified as Christian rappers at all, but instead as good rappers who happen to be Christians. That way, they feel, their socially conscious message of spiritual uplift has a better chance of reaching the ears of those who need it the most.

"A lot of other Christian rap groups embrace that term 'gospel rapper,' " Coffee explains. "We don't embrace it, because you pigeonhole yourself. You put yourself into a box automatically for people not to listen to you. And even though that's not your intention, listeners put you into a category with 'those' people."

Unlike many members of the bible-thumping, Scripture-quoting Christian right, who are quick to interpret the Bible when it suits their own narrow political views, Bonafide and Coffee understand that their faith is a living, evolving entity that serves as a guide for how they should conduct their lives. They don't waste time condemning their potential flock for sins committed, because their theology teaches them to love their fellow human beings and to look out for those who have the least. Hence they aren't afraid to speak out against racism, poverty and misogyny. An outsider might even say they're living out the principles of liberation theology, but GRITS would say that they're just trying to follow the example set forth by The Man himself.

"We really kinda look at it the way that Christ did it," Bonafide explains. "He even said, 'I speak in parables so that people will understand.' It's like the more that we read and study, we're like, man, when he was in the streets, he came at people like he was from the streets, and when he was in the temple, he would speak to the people in the temple in a way that they would understand. He didn't just walk out into the streets and start reading the scroll from the prophet Isaiah. He would speak to the people in a way that would directly relate to the culture and that directly related to their hearts. They wanted to hear him speak all the time 'cause they just liked the way he put it down."

This is primarily the reason why GRITS elected to call their latest effort The Art of Translation. They understand that if they are to speak to their baggy-pants-wearing peers through hip-hop, then they need to do more than kick fly rhymes filled with clever metaphors about Jesus. They also need to address some of the pressing social issues affecting their audience. Whether that means dealing with racism, hip-hop's misogynistic attitudes or the music's rampant materialism, GRITS aren't afraid to challenge conventions, even when it means pointing the finger at themselves. "People need more than entertainment from the industry," they point out in the song "Seriously," "...and not many try to live a life beyond self, chasing status and wealth."

But the difference between GRITS and angst-filled rappers who draw upon their life experiences to paint bleak pictures of social ills is that Coffee and Bonafide offer their listeners more than just insight into social dilemmas; they inspire hope and offer solutions. As they rap in "Make Room": "My long-range aim is dedicated to change / Persist to twist brains with rhymes only God can explain."

They also show by example that, despite what the mainstream churches tell them, it is possible to exist in the secular world without sacrificing their higher calling. They can be Christian and still be active in hip-hop culture by working to change the attitudes of their peers and by making music that strikes the difficult balance between being of-the-moment and reaching for something greater.

More than that, they try to live out the very ideals they put forth in their rhymes. Despite their hectic schedules, Bonafide and Coffee remain active members in their church, Bethel World Outreach Ministries, and they take part in charitable projects such as the Chris Sanders Foundation and ERACE, a concept album and tour designed to combat racism.

"We like to come with the approach that this is obtainable and you don't have to be outside yourself to have it," says Bonafide. "You can have this and be who you are. If we're made in His image, then we should be able to be just as creative and intriguing with whatever we're doing. I don't have to be drenched in Criss and have my wrist froze to be able to teach and to be able to influence. I don't have to do that. We just tap into the essence of the power behind what hip-hop can do and the powerful influence that it has. As long as we maintain the integrity of that, then we're all right."