As a chief spokesman for Stellar-nominated hip hop crew, The Cross Movement, it soon becomes clear that The Ambassador, aka Duce (William Branch) brings his preacher’s background not just to his hip hop mic, but to all areas of his vocal expression.

Hardly any encouragement was needed for The Ambassador to offer up his perspective on the third in the trilogy of The Cross Movement's albums (see review).


GospelFlava.com: Why did you choose to title the album Human Emergency and why is it significant and relevant to today's society


The Ambassador: Human Emergency came as a result of a multiplicity of issues. The first being the overarching theme of the return of Christ. Point blank, the world is rapidly decaying, and evil is becoming more and more prevalent with seemingly nothing to hinder its uncontested flourishment.

[Mainstream] hip hop ups the dosage of their poison and increases its support base as it feeds man's inner crave for that which is anti God. [To counteract this] is a job for, "the salt of the earth." That is, the people of God.

We are the salt, and our job is to repel the bacteria of sin and slow up the decaying process of this world. And the seriousness of this need for Christians to be Christians, and to stop being consumed with a passion for earthly success, is of such an urgent nature that we felt that this title would declare that there is an emergency that we can be distracted from attending to.

The other thing that sparked the title was the battle that we seem to be faced constantly, as we defend our emphasis on blatantly Christian content. We get reprimanded by people who suggest that we are too "straightforward" with the Jesus stuff.

Well, we figure that someone disturbing dinner time yelling “Fire!” will be commended after they've help me escape the fire. The person who neglected to interrupt my dinner time because they didn't want to upset me, and let me and my family die in the fire,just did me greatest disservice.

That's what many rappers who are Christians seem to do: spare the world's feelings at the expense of the world’s souls. There is a human emergency, and someone should be screaming, "Fire!"

The last time I checked, when there is a blazing fire, you need a flood of water, not a squirt of it. Well, with the level of sin and sickness that exists and that is highly evident in today's culture, we need a flood of redemptive material. An abundance of Jesus' Gospel power, not just a sprinkle. In the final analysis, we will all stand before the "Evaluator's Table”.


GospelFlava.com: How is this album different from your previous releases? Did you desire to reach a broader audience with the 'meatier' versatile beats and changeable rap styles displayed by the group, while keeping Jesus as the common Denominator?


The Ambassador: This album has many apparent differences in every aspect, with the exception of it's one intentionally redundancy —Jesus Christ and man's need for Him.

We are after as wide as an audience as God will give us. We have [gone] national and international. We saw a need to broaden our appeal for the sake of the global terrain that we have been invited to cover. We are growing and expanding for the sake of the Gospel, and so yes, we tried some different things.

Also, with our independent label not having some of the marketing power that more affluent labels have, it takes radio to create an awareness. So being conscious of how funny radio can be, we tried to [provide] a wider selection from which to find something that fits their various formats. We'll see.


The Ambassador released a solo project last year (Christology In Layman’s Terms see review). He concluded the interview by acknowledging that there are definite plans for more solo offerings from The Cross Movement camp in the future.

We're trying real hard not to be impatient!