Dove Award Nomination

I just spent this past weekend with John "CheeseBeats" Williams and Chris Lee Cobbins, both of whom won the Stellar Award with JayTel and myself for our involvement in Lecrae's album "Rehab: The Overdose"; we were working on new songs and had the opportunity to reflect together on our successes and God's blessings, and talked about what it is to be a man in the music industry, a husband, a father, etc. We discussed the possibility of us getting the Dove Award nomination for this album, and Chris, who is a phenomenal writer and a strong Man of God, was actually up on the final ballot for the nomination in a variety of categories due to his work on several prominent albums in the Christian Hip Hop community.

Fast forward to this morning. At 10:00 AM Central time, the nominations for the Dove Awards were aired on the web via the GMA website. They announced the nominees for only a few categories live on air, one of which was my brother Chris Lee for Urban Recorded Song of the Year for "All I Need" with the Christian Hip Hop artist Flame. I shouted like it was MY name they called, because I can't think of a more deserving guy to get that nomination. Look him up when you get the chance. @ChrisLeeCobbins on twitter...tell him @BillyDLyrics sent you.

After only a few awards, they had some female artist sing, and then ended the nominee presentation show. I sat in muted silence for a sec, and then remembered that they'd have posted the rest of the nominees online immediately following the show. I went to the GMA site, and found the link...clicked the link...scrolled down with baited breath...and saw Lecrae Rehab: The Overdose as one of the nominees.

http://www.gospelmusic.org/Files/Doves/43rd_Dove_Nominees.pdf

I immediately began praising God and shedding tears...look, I know that it's not a WIN (yet, prayerfully), but to be nominated for the biggest Christian award IS a win in my book. And after all the events of the past few years, and the decade of grinding that JayTel and I went thru to get to the success...I guess it was all just bottled up waiting to come out. The Stellar Award win last month brought elation; this nomination brought true joy to my heart. I have devoted much of my childhood and pretty much all of my adult life to music, because music was my first love, and my gift. For God to bless JayTel and I to have achieved what we've achieved is the icing on the cake. Nothing compares to the feeling of knowing that everything you've chased your entire life is YOURS now, and knowing that you didn't have to sell your soul or compromise what you believe in to achieve it is priceless. I give all praise and glory to the Most High God for giving us the passion to keep going in the years when it seemed we may not make it here and for keeping His promises He made to me over a decade ago when I'd literally lost everything I owned chasing this dream.

See you guys in Atlanta, April 19th, at the Dove Awards. You'll see me on tv; I'll be the guy with tears in my eyes if we win with the word "Lyrics" cut into the side of my mohawk lol! I'll make sure to post pics of the trip and the awards so everyone can share in the experience with us.

#IMPECCABLEGRIND