P.O.D.
While they play around with the infectious grooves of reggae and Latin music and the heavy deliverance of hip-hop and rock, San Diego's hard rock four-piece P.O.D. defined a universal message. They're born-again Christians and such a thing is central in their music. They're not entirely classified as a Christian band though.
Let that be known. Formed in 1992 in the SoCal neighbourhood of San Ysidro, Marcos (guitar) and Wuv (drums) relished in the music they grew up on. San Ysidro or "Southtown" was a multi-cultural area, but working class. While Marcos and Wuv were fond of their jazz and reggae roots, they were young punks in the making. Both loved the gnarl of grunge and took to liking of Green Day, Pennywise, Bad Brains, and the Vandals. They got a band together, P.O.D. (short for "Payable On Death"), with Marcos' hip-hop MC cousin, Sonny, and aimed for something real. Cleveland native Traa joined in 1993 and P.O.D. was on the map.
Throughout the 1990s, P.O.D. played countless shows across the nation and sold more than 40,000 copies of their three homemade EPs — Brown, Snuff the Punk, and P.O.D. Live — on their own Rescue Records. Atlantic Records was intrigued by the group's hard-working ethic and their passion for music, inking a deal with P.O.D. in 1998. They also ventured into films, contributing several songs to various soundtracks. "School of Hard Knocks" proved successful in the Adam Sandler comedy Little Nicky in 2001, whereas additional tracks featured in the Al Pacino sports-thriller Any Given Sunday and Ready to Rumble maintained P.O.D.'s growing status.
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