clear for people to go after us." Reynosa recounts that "we never believed that we were called to emcee or rap, never. We were called to minister." The Tunnel Rats performed at churches throughout Southern California, and eventually throughout the Northeast and Deep South. While the group found some acceptance from progressive church leaders, who thought that hip-hop might be a way to reach youth, many church leaders took issue with the group's style, which fell somewhere between battle rapping and street preaching, and accused the group of sinfully glorifying their rapping skills as opposed to glorifying God. In addition, the group, consisting predominantly of Mexicans, encountered prejudice when performing in the South. Reynosa recounts how one night in Mississippi, an establishment would not serve the group because some of the members were Mexican. When they went to a Motel 6, member Redbonz screamed "WHY?" continuously into a pillow. "He couldn't believe that we had given up our lives to minister the gospel through rap music and ... had nothing." The group also was paid very little, often not at all, for its church performances, and Raphi recounts that if a church managed to book a hotel for the group, he, as the youngest member, often was relegated to sleep in the bathtub. Early successes Since the mid-1980s, Reynosa and his cousin Jurny Big performed as the duo LPG, and they released The Earthworm in 1995. With breakbeats, melodic riffs, and strong production, the recording broke new ground at a time when most Christian rap was considered a cheesy and watered-down imitator of secular rap, and according to LA Weekly, many consider the album "to be the first gospel-rooted album to feature real hip-hop." The Tunnel Rats proper released its debut album, Experience, in 1996 on Brainstorm Artists International, and started receiving letters from teenagers who were inspired by the group to leave gangs or excel in school. The group's efforts also started impacting the Christian hip hop genre, which started garnering serious critical attention. In 1997, the Brainstorm label folded, but Tunnel Rats' membership expanded, with Sev Statik of Deepspace5 and the brother-sister duo New Breed joining the group. At this point, the group Future Shock decided to leave Tunnel Rats and go on independently. Dispute with The Cross Movement In 2001, The Tonic, a member of Christian hip hop group The Cross Movement, criticized the Tunnel Rats in