Getting Ready For Marathon...

After all the events of the past two years and the heightened visibility of the award wins, I'd been seeking God for my next step, musically. You see, every goal I'd started out with for my career, God has blessed me to achieve, and as exciting as that feels, it also caused a little bit of "What now?" anxiety. I wanted to travel and work with the best in music, and I've been blessed to do that...I wanted to have #1 records and I can now claim that as well. The only thing from a career standpoint that I still desire to accomplish is winning a Grammy, and I firmly believe that if God can bless me with a Dove and Stellar Award as He has, a Grammy is coming up soon as well.

Having said that, I'd been quietly working on a pop/R&B album, and had several songs completed for it that I felt captured my vocal ability and the sound that I heard in my head for my first solo album. The few people I trusted to let hear the first single had positive feedback regarding the song and the sound, but it just didn't feel....right. I am not one of those Christians who feels that "church people" should only sing/write/produce Gospel music by any means, but I DO want to make sure that, with this being my first real opportunity to step out front since the days of my Gospel group Serenity working with the talented V. Michael McKay on our unreleased debut album, people get the impression of me as the artist that I would like them to have from day 1. For whatever reason, doing the pop project just didn't feel as though that's where I'm supposed to be right now.

As I prayed more and more about direction, I kept working on projects for other artists/labels, one of which was for a label based out of Atlanta, whose CEO, Michael Lett, sat next to me at the Dove Awards. Michael said after the awards show that he wanted to get some work done with me and was going to fly out to Houston so we could work. 2 weeks after the Doves, Michael and co. arrived in the H, and during our first session at Barron Studios, as I was laying down the hook on a Christian song called "Miracles", he called me out of the booth. I assumed that he wanted me to change the vocal arrangement or that he wasn't happy with something I'd recorded, but he instead asked me if I could just add singing verses on the song (that was supposed to be a rap song with a sung chorus) and make it my own single, which he would then push via his label and have the video for it played on BET. He'd already paid for the BET spot and had the radio and colleges lined up for the project he hired me for, and now was offering me the chance to have the first single off that project be my own.

In the booth at Barron Studios about to record "Miracles" (That's the engineer, Chris, behind me adjusting the mic)

Mixing down "Miracles"

After the session signing all the Songwriter Agreements with the CEO

After finishing the song that night, doing the paperwork, and dropping the CEO back at his hotel, I came home and began asking God if this was the direction that He wanted me to go, because there is definitely a such thing as doing the RIGHT thing at the WRONG time, and as long as I've waited for the opportunity to sing to present itself to me again, I didn't want to do it out of God's timing. But during my prayer I heard God in my spirit say that this is my season, and that the opportunity to step out front now is exactly what He promised me when He laid out the plan for my life. God promised at my lowest point that He would allow me to go thru that tough time to be my testimony, and that He would then elevate me to the heights so that I can better lift HIM up and be an even more effective witness for Him. This was but another step towards that destiny. I shared with those in my inner circle the direction God had given me, and felt the peace that surpasses all understanding (from Philippians 4:7) upon my decision....a decision to follow Christ and trust Him with my dreams.

From that point, God began speaking direction into my spirit...my album is to be called Marathon, after Ecclesiastes 9:11 ("I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong...") and Matthew 24:13 ("...but to the one who endureth until the end..."). This Christian life is not a sprint (short-term thing), it's a marathon (lifelong journey). He revealed to me the layout for the cd cover, as well as the imagery to be displayed and the meaning behind it all. I'm still in awe at how quickly it has all come together, and just this morning received a call from the CEO of the label asking me when I will be able to go on tour (answer: asap). Besides finishing my work on Lecrae's next album Gravity and the couple of indie projects I'm producing, finishing and promoting my album Marathon is my #1 priority. There's nothing like knowing that you are finally in God's perfect Will for your life...nothing comes hard, because He's already done it all. All you have to do is show up.

Link to a snippet of the first single "More Like You" from my album Marathon

My album title also reflects the fact that this has been a long journey for me personally...one with heartache, pain, as well as emotional and physical suffering along the way, but also one with lifelong friendships, love, happiness, and ultimately success. Earlier today, my brother and writing partner JayTel and I were discussing the day for us to get back to work on both Lecrae's album and my project, beginning with the creation of my first single, "More Like You." I can't wait...this has been my dream since I can remember, and God is bringing it all to pass before my very eyes.

#STAYTUNED

My First Magazine Cover

Last night, I received a tremendous honor...I had the pleasure a couple of weeks ago of being interviewed by writer and PR expert Dee Stewart at DeeGospel PR for a story to be published in Soul Fusion magazine, during which she asked substantial, thought-provoking questions about the recent successes God has blessed me to partake in, compromising one's faith in working with secular artists, and my thoughts on the state of inspirational Hip Hop. I attempted to give answers that were every bit as substantial as the questions, and that shed some light into my creative process and mindset.

My publicist, Makasha Dorsey (Dorsey Group, LLC) let me know that this was potentially a cover story, and that I needed to get a headshot done by Monday night (April 30th) to be considered for it. I had the pics with my mohawk and "Lyrics" cut in the side, but as I don't really rock it like that anymore and some people I plan to do business with in the future may not be too crazy about that look either, I needed something professional, classy, and that looked like my current, more clean-cut style. I prayed that God would let me find the right photographer and take the right picture to be considered for the cover in earnest, if it was His will, and then got to work.

I called a few of my photographer friends on Sunday, Brad Brock-Brown with WeRun Houston, one of the biggest nightlife photography companies in the city of Houston, my lil bro Dice with EmaQlate Forever, who has designed the logos for pretty much every company I own and is an amazing photographer, video director, and graphic designer, and my bro Tony Aguire, aka GhetoRancho, a gifted music producer in the Houston Latin community who also delved into photography. Tony was the first one to call me back, and when I let him know what I needed, he said, "Say no more...let me call my guy Joel, and I will hit you right back." True to his word, not 5 minutes later, he called back and said, "Joel can get you in tomorrow, and he is expecting your call." I reached out to Joel, locked in the shoot, and went back to the controlled chaos that is my day after the Dove Awards...

The day of the shoot, I intended to get out and hit every mall in the city to find something fly...a possible first magazine cover?!? Man, I wanted to make sure that I represented myself the right way, while being true to who I AM, rather than trying to look like who I would want people to see me as. I've always seen pics of celebrities where they "put on" their look, rather than it being an extension of them. I admire Puffy in this way...his sense of style is all him, even if he may have stylists and designers, etc, he ALWAYS looks sharp, and it always fits his swagger.

But....I couldn't find ANYTHING. Not one outfit, not one look, not one feel, that said what I knew I wanted the pictures to say....and time was running out for me to get to the shoot. I ran back home to shave/shower/edge hair etc, and glanced over where my clothes were from the Dove Awards which I'd not worn since. I shot Makasha a text asking if she felt that outfit might work, and she replied with, "That outfit would be perfect." Sometimes, God doesn't give us what we think we want, because we already have everything we need...this was yet another example of that.

Outfit ironed, running late...I rolled across town to the location for the shoot, and when I got there, Joel already had everything set up for us to get to work. I changed clothes and headed to the front of the camera for the first time by myself in almost a decade...all my other shoots were with my bro JayTel, or with he and our other bro Stro (the three of us together are LifeLine), and so I hadn't had a need to do any pics alone since I've been with them. This thought crossed my mind and gave me pause for just a moment...then it was time to get to work.

We started snapping pics, and the flash was so bright I kept squinting every time it would go off in my eyes. Joel, a true professional, kept changing angles, and lighting, and filters, and snapping away, and in a very short period of time, we had more than enough pictures to choose from. We sat down and looked at them all via his laptop, and found a few that we both agreed were solid pictures, including one that we felt was "the one". Joel did some editing to the pics to clean them up, emailed them to me, and I emailed them to Makasha.

Fast-forward to last night...after a wonderful day as a panelist at the Springboard South Music conference during which I was blessed to meet the guy behind the tv show Shark Tank, the Senior VP at MusicWorld who handles all the Sunday's Best contestants, and a television network developer, and a studio session with the CEO of a label I was hired to do some writing/production/arranging work for who'd flown in from ATL and ended up offering me a single deal as an artist (!), I got home to wind down after a crazy week, and see a message from Dee Stewart pop up on my screen saying simply, "You got the cover." My heart jumped...and thru my ear to ear smile, I began praising God for all the blessings He has been pouring out upon my life!! I know all of this is only so that I can lift up the name of Jesus for all men to see...God told me years ago when I was homeless that He would elevate me so that I can better lift Him up and draw others to Him, so there is nothing but gratitude, and a sense of awe that I'm watching God's plan for my life unfold before my very eyes, and He is doing it openly for all to see, which is pretty awesome.

My first ever magazine cover story...to God be the glory!

The article is every bit as great as I thought it would be from the questions Dee posed to me, and I feel that it really captures my thought processes and my heart. I'm not close to perfect, and I've made some pretty big mistakes in my life, but if God can forgive me and use someone like me to speak for Him and testify with my words and my actions on His behalf, then He can use anyone. I hope that all who read the article walk away with a better understanding of how my creative mind works, and where I stand in the faith, and that more Christian writers, producers, and artists who deal in the secular music world would take more of a stand for Jesus as they do. God brought me here...and this magazine cover is yet another first along the journey to where He's ultimately taking me. I'm just enjoying the ride.

www.soulfusionmagazine.com

#IMPECCABLEGRINDUNSTOPPABLEDREAMS