Marathon album launch

On Saturday, March 2nd, God answered my oldest childhood dream, which was to release my own album, by allowing my Christian debut album Marathon to be released at Lakewood Church. I was invited to lead Worship at Lakewood Church every Saturday in the month of March as my mentor Jesse Cooper teaches on his series "Actionable You", so we decided to correlate the physical launch of the album with the first date of the series.

We ordered 2500 copies to begin with from Disc Makers, going thru the usual channels that everyone goes thru, and on Friday, March 1, I sat at home waiting for the UPS truck to deliver all of the boxes. When the truck finally pulled up out front (after what seemed like the longest wait ever), I walked out to help the driver unload all of the boxes, and then headed out to a meeting across town.

Come launch day, I had a meeting with my dear friend Nathalie Farinola, from Fiat/Ferrari, who is putting together a European tour for Marathon to Italy, Spain, and France, this summer. We met at Coffee & Cars, an expo they have monthly here in Houston at Victory Park off 249 and Louetta, where luxury and vintage car owners gather and talk cars, while literally hundreds of spectators line up outside to take pics of the vehicles.  After leaving the Coffee & Cars expo, I met Nathalie at Lamborghini Houston, where I met the entire team there and was proposed the idea to tie my tour in Italy to the 50th anniversary of Lamborghini in Bologna, Italy, to which I readily agreed, as it is a huge branding opportunity for me and an honor, as Italy is not normally a country that hosts Gospel music. After taking some dope pics with the various staff and various cars, I headed out.

After running to Sharpstown Mall to get a quick haircut and to the mall to grab a fly outfit, it was time to run home, where I barely had enough time to greet my sister Shana, my mom, Pastor Patricia Dorsey, my youngest brother Miguel, and my nieces and nephew who had all driven in from Shreveport to support me at Lakewood, before loading up my family and heading to church.

We arrived at Lakewood 15 minutes before 8, while Pastor Joel was up preaching in the main sanctuary, and headed to the Loft to set up the table and for what we believed to be a sound check before Worship. We had no sound guy, so we ended up starting the first song, "Marathon", with the sound horribly low, to the point where I couldn't hear the backing tracks. My wife Shaunta ended up running over to the sound booth to tell someone to turn the music up once she realized that I was off due to not hearing the music, and they turned it up just in time for Jeremy McCraw, who is on the Lakewood Worship Team, and I to sing "Chasing After You", our duet on my debut album Marathon. The Anointing fell, and the song was incredible! Afterwards, the speaker, my big bro Jesse Cooper, called me over to share my testimony about the Grammy win and everything that God has done since I was homeless over 11 years ago...I began to share my testimony and was overcome with emotion...tears began to flow, and before I knew it, most of the room was wiping tears from their eyes right along with me. God has brought JayTel and I thru so much to get here...and we're HERE now. It still feels unreal to think about it. Grammy winners...Dove winners...Stellar winners...#1 albums...so much just since I started this blog, but all of it was promised by God, and all of it, He has kept.

My wife, my mom, and my Aunt Sheila sat at the table where the Marathon album was for sale, and every time I looked over, people were lined up in front of the table buying copies of the album. Two of my friends, Dr. David and Melise Hannaford from Australia here visiting the Osteens, bought 6 copies and then gave us 5 back, saying that they wanted us to give them to some troubled youth who may be blessed by the album. God blessed us to sell a significant number of copies just that first night, but even more importantly, the responses of impact from those in attendance were powerful and immediate. God used the first night of Actionable You to touch those who were there, to provide a fitting launch for this project. To God be the glory!

Marathon: the autobiography

I was offered last night the opportunity to write my autobiography, creating the opportunity for people the world over to hear the testimony that God has given me in the process of taking me from being homeless to (now) a Grammy Award winning songwriter and producer, and I immediately began writing my story. For those who read my blog, I've actually included here the intro to the book for you guys to read. Comment here, or on facebook, or on my twitter, and let me know your thoughts, and keep me lifted up in prayer as God continues to create avenues for me to tell the world of His goodness and mercy in my life. #thebridgelife

Marathon

by Billy Dorsey

It was a night like all others before in 5th Ward, Houston, TX, at 2929 Des Chaumes, in the wee hours of the morning, with the smells of mold and old marijuana smoke hanging in the stale air. Tellas, his wife Michelle, and the rest of the Down 2 Long crew were in the front room of the studio, playing Grand Theft Auto on PS2, or watching some sporting event on the big screen tv they orbited frequently when it wasn't their turn to record, while I sat in my usual black leather chair in the studio control room, just down the hall. Big Dwight, a mountain of a man, sat in the back room of the studio, a makeshift bedroom that reeked of rat urine and old dog feces (and hosted the sometimes-operational security camera monitors), counting the money from his latest hustle. Keetron, a gravel voiced young rapper from southern Louisiana who'd recently become affiliated with Down 2 Long, was in the recording booth, a huge padded room with a large glass window cut into the wall directly facing me, spitting a verse for the compilation album Tellas had paid me (handsomely) to produce and engineer, and, as Keetron was a gifted artist but still learning to lock in his timing on the mic, we'd settled in for a long night of recording.

However, around 3 AM, hours from wrapping our session (we usually recorded until the sun came up, and then slept much of the next day until time to return to the studio after nightfall, like musical vampires), I saw the door to the booth swing open, inside the room with Keetron, to his right (my left). The next few events unfolded as in slow motion; Keetron glancing at the door, then doing a double take...him raising his hands in the air and backing away from the door as a silver .45 came into view pointed at his chest, and the rest of the person holding the gun walking into view, ski mask on, and looking directly at me. Now, guns in this studio were nothing new; pretty much every artist who came thru the doors to work with me was a drug dealer, many of whom hustled alongside the owner of the studio, and as such, I'd become inured to the sight of people with guns tucked in waistbands, guns in pockets, guns everywhere. I can even recall on the night of 9/11/01, one of the rappers, J.T., high on marijuana dipped in formaldehyde and pistol in hand, walking into the studio control room where I sat, running a session, as he screamed out, "I'ma KILL him!!" Since he said, "him," and not, "you", I relaxed, just a bit, and asked him who exactly it was that he intended to kill, thinking that someone in the front room of the studio had ticked him off or something. He replied, still high out of his mind, "Bin Laden!!! I'ma KILL him!" It appears that the news channel on the big screen tv in the front room of the studio was incessantly showing footage of the planes crashing into the Twin Towers, and so J.T. took it upon himself, in his drug induced haze, to hunt down Bin Laden. 

So pistols were commonplace for me by this particular night, but what was not commonplace was the ski mask. When the masked intruder looked at me, I tried to slide down in my seat, but with the large glass window separating the control room from the recording booth, there was nowhere for me to hide. He motioned to someone I could not yet see in the hallway leading from the booth to the control room, and I knew I'd run out of time. I had, earlier that day, been paid by South Park Mexican, a prominent artist in the Houston Hip Hop scene who regularly purchased tracks from not only me but several up and coming producers in the city every Tuesday and Thursday. This money was enough to pay 2 months of my rent (which was behind at that time), as well as utilities, and I tried to hide it under the old cloth covering of the seat next to mine; unfortunately for me, as soon as I tried, the door to the control room burst open, and another two armed intruders with masks on ran in, looked around, and, upon finding me, pointed their guns at me, telling me to get my hands in the air. Rather than appear to be reaching for a weapon and getting myself shot, I did as instructed, and watched in horror as one of the intruders grabbed not only the wad of cash I'd earned from South Park Mexican, but my box of disks which contained all of my music production files, and stuffed them into his pocket as they motioned me back out to the hallway.

Upon stepping down out of the control room into the hallway and being pushed towards the front of the studio to the tv area, I noticed at least 3 other gunmen herding everyone else in the studio to the same area, and forcing them, with gun muzzles pressed to the back of everyone's heads, to lie face down on the floor. I heard the sounds of a struggle from the back bedroom area, where two other gunmen were trying, unsuccessfully, to break the door down into the area where Big Dwight was holed up with his money and likely a stash of dope, but due to Big Dwight's size, they were making no progress in their efforts and ultimately gave up, heading back down towards me. Next thing I knew, the gunman whose pistol was pressed against the back of my skull told me to put my nose on the floor, as did the other gunmen with all of the others in the studio lying on the floor, and I instantly knew that we were all dead. My first thought was of my mom, who I knew was somewhere in Shreveport praying for me, and of the fact that I would never get to tell her how much I loved her, and my next thought was of the fact that I would never have any kids to carry on my name. I said a prayer to ask God to forgive me for all of my sins, so that when the bullet tore thru my brain, I'd be with Him in Heaven...

Grammy Award win for Gravity

On Feb 10, 2013, at 4:22 PM, God answered the last unfulfilled promise He made to me when I was homeless 11 years ago by blessing Lecrae, and my team thebridge as producers and songwriters, to win Best Gospel Album at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards during the Pre-Show telecast. When Lecrae's name was called as the winner of the Grammy, he was outside on the red carpet waiting to take a picture with 2 Chainz and Nas, and missed the opportunity to give what I'm sure would have been an eloquent and inspirational accceptance speech; instead, my big bro, Reach Records Head of A&R Torrance "Street Symphony" Esmond and Reach Records co-CEO Ben Washer raced up to the podium and accepted the award in his stead. History was made yet again as Lecrae was the first Christian Hip Hop artist to be nominated for or win a Best Gospel Album Grammy (he is not, however,  the first Christian rapper to ever win a Grammy; that honor goes to dc talk, who won back in 1994). Suffice it to say that when we won, I have never felt a feeling like that in my whole life. Tears were shed and praises were given to the Most High God for this amazing thing that He saw fit to do on our behalf.

I spoke with Def Jam A&R Rod Anthony, who brought me to the label, immediately after our win, and he said that he'd already let the label know we won, and that they are ready to move forward with the launch of my debut Christian album, Marathon, whenever my team thebridge and I are ready...it's almost time.

We (Reach Records and my team thebridge) are now anxiously awaiting the debut album of the next Christian Hip Hop megawatt artist, Andy Mineo, whose project Heroes For Sale drops April 16, 2013. My team thebridge co-produced the record "Curious" with my bro Steeet Symphony's Heat Academy team, and the record is fire. Commercially, Andy has the potential to eclipse even Gravity's sales impact,  and provide another landmark album for the CHH community; undoubtedly,  this will be our next Billboard and iTunes #1 charting album. We are also now getting back to work on records for Tedashii, a Dove Award nominated phenomenal artist on Reach, and for the homie Derek Minor, who is not only a great rapper but a superb record producer in his own right.

Stay tuned, as the next major post on this blog will be tied to the release of my own album Marathon, which we believe has the power to be to the R&B world the same thing that Gravity has been to the Hip Hop world (a viable, quality, well produced Christian alternative), but have an even greater impact due to the forces God has aligned to support my team and I in our efforts. I was told by the label yesterday that we will likely have a couple of multi-platinum stars featuring on two of the key records from the album,  which is extremely exciting for me and will serve to further validate what we already believe to be a phenomenal album.

The craziest thing to me is that, for the rest of our lives, when people in the media or industry refer to us from now on, they will preface it with "Grammy Award winning". That is a dream come true, and an incredible honor, one I don't take lightly. God has done just what He said He would...now it's time to take this platform He's given my team and I and take the Gospel to the ends of the world. Get ready for the Marathon.

#thebridgelife

Latest Updates: Def Jam, Grammys, Lakewood, Reach Records

Since finishing Marathon and the Grammy Nomination announcements, during which we learned that we are nominated for Best Gospel Album Grammy for our songwriting and production work on Lecrae's Gravity, it has been a madhouse on my end. Def Jam South stepped up and offered me an artist deal, and gave us an insane deadline to get the project done to have it on shelves prior to the Grammys. We've spent the time since then working like crazy to get it all done. Once all the details are resolved, I'll share the full story of how that all came about, but suffice it to say that JayTel and I went to ATL a month ago for other, unrelated business, and walked out with a 7 figure recording contract offer from one of the biggest labels in the world, for a CHRISTIAN album, nonetheless. Shout out to my big bro Rod Anthony, and my publicist and friend Makasha for connecting the dots. God has done it again. The first single, "Enough", which was written, arranged, and produced by thebridge (Ty Steez, Aphillyated, JayTel, and myself) goes to radio this Thursday, and the album is (as of now) scheduled to be released March 5. I know these dates are malleable based upon when the label feels the project has the best chance to impact, but that's what we're looking at now.

The album release party for Marathon will be held in Houston the same week of the album release, with one in ATL tba soon. I'm looking forward to both; the one here in the H, my friends and family can be here to share in what God is doing, and we get to bring a bit of major label glitter to a city that has done without it for far too long (as Def Jam will have reps here for the party as well as street teams around the city promoting the project, and some of the Houston Gospel and Christian artists, radio, and multimedia elite will be in attendance), while the one in Atlanta will be off the chain due to our fam Lecrae, Street. R. Swift (who appears on my album, on the song "Just Because"), and the whole Reach Records fam being there, as well as that being where Def Jam South is headquartered, so who knows what artists from the label may come out to support (quite a few, from what I'm told)? It's an incredible feeling, one I couldn't have imagined in my wildest dreams. For any of you guys who may read this, when this one is announced, you won't wanna miss it, trust me.

We are heading to LA in less than 2 weeks for the 55th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony and festivities, a trip for which I've been waiting and believing God for my whole life. We're up for Best Gospel Album for Gravity, and have a very good chance of winning; this isn't our first award at all, but it will be our first Grammy, and for any kid who grew up like I did, loving music and wanting to be the best at it, a Grammy is a very public validation that you have reached a certain level with your craft. We'll hit the industry parties and spend time with our thebridge teammates, Ty Steez and Big Phil, who live in the area, and celebrate together what God has done and is doing in our lives and careers in advance of Marathon's launch.

I've also been blessed to become a part of the Lakewood Church family, by the Grace of God...God placed me upon the spirit of Lakewood Men's Director Pastor John Bowman, who brought me to the leadership team to help with Outreach (exactly what God called me to do when He called me to pastorship) without ever having met me before, and has taken me under his wings to establish other Divine Connections to assist in doing what God has given me to do. I've been blessed thru his guidance to link with Robert Ortiz III, Associate Pastor Lisa Osteen Coomes, Evangelist Debra George, Rev Antonio Smith, and my sister Reggie Kerr, all people with great hearts who have a tangible passion for the saving of souls and for advancing the Kingdom. I'm glad to be able to count them all as part of my spiritual family, and am looking forward to everything that God is doing by linking me with Lakewood. There will be some major announcements on that front here very soon as well. #SPEAKTHOSETHINGS

Let me digress for a moment, because I feel that this blog may be the most appropriate place to address this:  I've had several of my friends, mainly black Christian friends, make negative comments to me over the last few weeks about their perceptions of "mega-churches", since they've seen me talking on facebook about what God is doing at Lakewood. The most common criticism is that "a church that big isn't a church, it's a business", or that the leadership at the church "must be" disconnected from those who attend. Let me say, once and for all, that this couldn't be farther from the truth. I've spent the past few weeks at the side of the leadership of this church, and have seen, with my own eyes, more heart, more compassion, and more consideration shown by these pastors and leaders than I have in my lifetime at most of the smaller churches I've been a part of. They take out time to get to know those who come into contact with them, and make themselves available thru the various ministries at the church (men's, women's, singles, young adults, etc) for anyone to have access to them and their wisdom. They provide opportunities for those who want to work and grow, and have a zeal for witnessing that you wouldn't believe. There is a warmth and love there that people just don't get to see while watching on television. And I'll say something else, if the criteria for a thriving, Spirit filled church is souls coming to Christ, Lakewood definitely fits that bill as well. Don't believe everything you see on tv or that you hear. Every church isn't for everybody, but for those who are here in Houston or visiting, give it a chance. You might be surprised at what you find.

Album Cover for my debut Christian album, Marathon

God is doing some amazing things in my life and that of my team. We are now still shoring up funding for some of the things we are seeking to do with Marathon (effective promotion isn't about the product as much as it is the money to let people KNOW about the product), and gearing up for touring once the album is released. We're also working with our Reach family on their future projects (Tedashii, Derek Minor, Lecrae's Church Clothes 2), and have already landed a song we co-produced with my big bro Street Symphony and his Heat Academy team called "Curious" on the debut album from Christian Hip Hop artist Andy Mineo, Heroes For Sale, which drops April 16, 2013. This album is going to be HUGE....another Billboard #1 charting album for us all.

2012 was the year of destiny. 2013 begins the season of prosperity; a season I am believing God will last for generations. To God be all the glory!! #thebridgelife