Mike Rimmer spoke to Jeremy Bennett (Cousin J) from Leeds-based hip-hop crew TODAY'S MATHEMATICS

Today's Mathematics

Mike: Come on man, what sort of name is Today's Mathematics?

Jeremy: Today's Mathematics is a phrase that I first heard whilst listening to a tune on the Raekwon album 'Only Built For Cuban Lynx'. Soon afterwards, as I was turning the phrase over in my head, I had a firm conviction that it would be a good name for a band. I don't know, it just sounded good in my head and, in the context of the song, meant knowledge. As I wasn't planning on starting a band at the time I put the idea on hold for a few years. Shortly after becoming a Christian, I felt God was pushing me to start a band. I wasn't sure if Today's Mathematics was the right name for a Christian band until reading Proverbs 1: "The fear of God is the beginning of all knowledge" and that was when the penny dropped. One of the words over the band is that our songs would be like psalms. We have been praying for the last two years that God will use us to reach people.

Mike: Who's in the band?

Jeremy: I first approached Andy Brooks and spoke about starting something just over two years ago. We've done most of the writing so far. About six months later I met Emma just after giving my testimony at an outreach in Leeds. We tried her out and then started doing some acoustic sets locally. At the same time, we were writing tunes in my studio and we wanted to get hold of some musicians so we could play live. God has really blessed us by sending us the right people. This includes Phil Richards (drums), Samuel Jacobsen (bass), Aaron Jackman (keys) and Chloe Gillani (cello). Once, outrageously, we prayed for a bass player and Sam joined our church three days later. In some ways it would have been much easier to find musicians if we had not wanted to use an all Christian line-up, but God has been more than faithful.

Mike: Do you consider yourself a Christian hip-hop group or a hip-hop group who happen to be Christians?

Jeremy: We are definitely a Christian hip-hop influenced crew and this makes a lot of difference. Fame and fortune is not top of the list for us. We receive our songs from God and just pray that God will use them in any way he sees fit. We had another word that God would use us to save thousands of people so we are looking forward to a harvest. The main function of the band is to reach people for God.

Mike: What have the group been doing so far?

Jeremy: We have mostly been gigging in and around Leeds over the last two years. Our main priority has been recording a decent first CD and making sure that we can cut it live to promote it and reach more people. We have had some great gigs at the Hi-Fi club, the Faversham and Spirit In The City (all in Leeds). We are looking forward to playing out further afield when our album is on wider release early next year. The Leeds scene is great. There's a lot more clubs playing hip-hop these days which is great for the likes of us. First Word Records, our label, has one Thursday a month at the Hi-Fi and is just about to start New Bohemia (three Fridays a month) at The Faversham. I am excited about Christians infecting the club scene in Leeds. It really is starting to happen.