With the musical amalgam of  B. Reith, Relient K and TobyMac on one stage, Winter Wonder Slam 2009 at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York revved up audiences for this jubilant holiday season. 

As the audience rocked to the beats that he and his band served up, you couldn't help see how incredibly receptive the people were to this fusion experience. They transitioned from punk-style jumping to head-bobbing to unison outstretched hand-jerking just as easy as the urban hip rock star himself. 

"I grew up liking Police and Bob Marley, U2. I grew up into rock and roll, into hip hop and I would just step in and out of those things very naturally," TobyMac told NEWD. "If you stepped to my CD collection, you'd see that it's from rock and roll to reggae to hip hop to the blues. You're gonna see it all and those are the things that influenced me my entire life." 

Still, as high-energy as Toby's performance is, he is quite intentional about depositing nuggets of wisdom into a crowd comprised mostly of impressionable youth. 

"I just think it's great that he can play at a Christian concert and fit in and he can play at a secular concert and fit in. His musicianship really allows for that. It's his entertainment value, but also through the message he portrays and the example he shows to youth everywhere," said Naomi Foreman, a student from West Point who attended the concert with over 50 of her peers clad in uniform. 

His newest single, "City On Our Knees," speaks to the social ills of our time, yet offers the time-honored solution of prayer to quell the savages in us. As Toby sang the chart-topping tune, fans raised their hands in solidarity while images of hungry children, war-torn cities and 9/11 memorials were projected onto the screen behind him. 

For Toby, it is not enough to dialogue about the world's problems; he is committed to allowing the faith that he espouses speak into the social climate. 

"I admire a Bob Marley more than any writer of all time for the way he integrates social climate, spirituality and just a lyric ready for the streets and the people, to capture what culture was going through, to lean into their God… Jah… and also be the voice of the people on the street," said Toby. "That's masterful writing in my mind. That's exactly what I want to do. I wanna say here's where society is, here's our need for God. He just continued to point people to the spiritual side of it. If my work is at all similar to that in anyway, then I am honored." 

To top off the night, Toby performed the classic DC Talk Hit - "Jesus Freak" with a Diverse City twist. 

This crowd went wild, no doubt recalling how this song spawned a movement of radical living in the '90s as it accompanied a book written by Toby, his former bandmates and The Voice of the Martyrs -- Jesus Freaks : Stories of Those Who Stood for Jesus, the Ultimate Jesus Freaks. 

The book told the rarely told stories of those persecuted all over the world for the cause of Christ.