Gravity Album Release Party

On Friday, September 28, 2012, Lecrae and the entire Reach Records family (minus Tedashii and Trip Lee) descended upon Houston for the 3rd of 3 release parties for Gravity (the first was held in Manchester, UK, and the second on September 27 in Denver, Colorado). Phillip Guillory of my production and songwriting team, thebridge, flew in from Cali to be a part of the festivities.

Phil and I got there early to make sure the tickets were squared away for the rest of the team, and waited outside until JayTel and his wife Merakal arrived. Thanks to my bro Jimmy who handles booking for Reach Records, we were squared away quickly, and once JayTel got there, we entered Warehouse Live where the concert was held. I invited OJ Toks, one of the Youth Pastors at Lakewood Church, to meet Lecrae and Street, as we are working on putting together (we being myself, Lakewood Men's Pastor John Bowman, and my agent and brother, Jesse Cooper) something wonderful thru Lakewood for the Houston youth community with Lecrae and Reach in the next few months. I went out to meet OJ and his fiancee', and got them squared away as well. Two of my voice students, Jimmy Duran, and Gracie Smith, surprised me by coming to the concert to support my team, as they knew we had a song on the album. Wonderful surprise!

Once my crew (minus my wife Shaunta, who was en route but had to drop our daughters off with her sister first) was inside, I reached out to Street and Cheese to see where they were so we could all link up. Tera, the head of booking for Reach Records, advised me after a warm greeting that the crew was all backstage in devotion, and that Street would come scoop me once they'd finished. True to his word, once the team finished praying, Street came out to the floor to grab me and show me where the rest of the team was. I got backstage, and saw Andy Mineo, Derek Minor (formerly known as PRo), Sho Baraka (who I'd just been speaking with via twitter two days earlier about thebridge doing some work with him on his album dropping in January), and my big bro Cheese, who introduced JayTel and I to the whole Reach movement. After pounds to everyone, I ran back to grab Phil, JayTel, and his wife to bring them all backstage. The food smelled wonderful, but having just had one of my wisdom teeth cut out of my mouth three days earlier, I couldn't even eat it. Sucks...but Phil didn't have the same problem and was tearing that food up lol! After a few minutes, Lecrae came out of the dressing room, somewhat subdued, and gave us all a pound. He said he was pleased with how "Higher" had come out, and said we had more work to do, to which I replied, "Yessir!" I learned a few minutes later that his father in law had just passed away earlier that day...and I'd ask that anyone who reads this post send up prayers for he and his lovely wife Darragh and their family in this time of bereavement.

Shortly after we got situated backstage and began talking with all the artists and Cheese, the show began. My wife Shaunta arrived, so I went out to see her inside safely, and we watched the beginning of the performances from within the crowd, starting with Andy and Derek Minor's. I always enjoy seeing how the young kids who attend the concerts react to the performances; they know all the songs, wear all their Rehab and 116 t-shirts, and do the "Reach Dance" (you'd have to see it to understand, but there is definitely a move that all the Reach artists do while on stage). This night was no different, although Lecrae early into the show mentioned that some of the kids in the crowd may not have been familiar with Christian Hip Hop due to the energy level flagging a bit. My observation was, due to the success of Gravity, many people may have just come out to the show due to the hype of the album, rather than actually understanding what the Reach movement is truly all about. Lecrae ended up going out on stage and letting everyone know that he doesn't care about being famous or selling a million records, but that his concern is ministry, and seeing souls come into the kingdom.

As the concert progressed, we saw Ashthon Jones from American Idol come out to sing her hook on Mayday, the third single from Gravity, and once Crae started performing the new album, the energy in the venue shot up noticeably. Backstage, I was sharing with the artists how I was brought into the Christian Hip Hop world after avoiding it for so long (because I thought the rappers who were out when I first tried to listen to it years ago all sucked lol) to laughter from Derek Minor and Sho, and was able to talk with them all about how long they'd been in the industry and what drew them to Christian Hip Hop to begin with. The answers I got from them all were illuminating, and gave me new respect for each of them. We all then laughed again, because, as we were talking backstage, "Background" by Lecrae came on, and Lecrae was on stage spitting his rhymes. The only problem was, Andy Mineo sings the hook on that song, but was still backstage talking with us, until Sho Baraka and Derek Minor pointed out to him that he might want to head out to the stage for his song! We laughed even harder as he tried to figure out at which point he'd be able to come out on stage since the song was already going on for quite a while before he noticed.

As the concert drew to a close, I noticed a commotion backstage, and saw security coming to clear the green room. As we tried to figure out what was going on, I saw former New York Knicks sensation and newest Houston Rocket, Jeremy Lin, walk in via the security entrance. Can't say I was surprised at all...Jeremy was very vocal in the media of his love for Lecrae's music and ministry prior to Gravity dropping, and since he now resides in Houston, it made sense for them to link. The Reach crew took pics with Jeremy and he and Lecrae had a warm conversation. I ran out to get OJ Toks and his fiancee' to bring them back to meet Lecrae or Street regarding the Reach/Lakewood connection, but as Crae was caught up with Jeremy and Street was helping to get the artists ready to hit the bus back to the hotel, I ended up (at the behest of Ben Washer, the pastor who created Reach Records with Lecrae 8 years ago) introducing OJ to Tera, who would have been the one we'd follow up with to secure the date more than likely anyways.  They exchanged information, and the night ended with me driving my big bro Street and his lovely wife Leilani back to their hotel.

There were some other details of the night, some of which may prove to be tremendous for my thebridge team, and for my family, but I'll keep them close to the vest until they're finalized. Just suffice it to say that God is definitely up to something amazing, and I can't wait to see how everything plays out over the next couple of weeks. I have a saying, and it's the name of this blog: "Impeccable Grind, Unstoppable Dreams"...and I do believe that at this point, with God in my corner, my dreams truly are unstoppable. Faith without works is dead, and we've been working at this a long time. I thank the Father that He has decreed our years of work to not be in vain. If God be for me, who can be against me? Stay tuned...He's not thru with me yet.

#IMPECCABLEGRIND