Entertainment
The Rise of Maverick City Music
A collaborative group of worship singers come together to write and create songs to show their hearts for God and ended up making history.
Maverick City Music has reached listeners from the church to some of the biggest entertainers today. Their music has millions of listens and views on every music streaming platform and YouTube. This year they have won awards such as Billboard’s Top Gospel Album and The Stellar’s New Artist of the Year and Album of the Year.
The group was originally started in 2019 to just write songs. Tony Brown, the founder of Maverick City Music, reached out to artist like Naomi Raine to come along and collaborate to write songs for artist. The singers and artist eventually were asked to sing and preform them. After releasing these songs, it turned into to something that none of them would have ever expected. Maverick ended up breaking the record for the most streams in the Christian genre in one day. When asked did they plan for it to be as big as it is Naomi expressed, “To me it was just going to be something fun that we did with friends, that no one really knew about. I couldn’t have expected what has happened with it.”
“I think going into it with no expectations was probably the best thing to do because it gave room for the Lord to surprise us along the way” said Maryanne George, a Maverick City singer and worship leader. Major recording artist outside of the Christian genre have mentioned how they have been impacted by Maverick City Music. Just recently, national recording pop artist, Shawn Mendes, mentioned in an interview while talking about the power of music, that he encountered Jesus through Maverick City Music, even though he grew up having Atheistic beliefs.
“I use to think, oh we’re called to the church. Now it’s like I got to say no because God is showing us something else! The facts are the facts, like SZA is playing us in the background on her live” says Maverick City and solo singer and songwriter Dante Bowe. Maverick currently has over 2 million listeners monthly on Spotify, with their most popular song being “Promises” sung by Joe L. Barnes and Naomi Raine at almost 25 million streams.
This collective of artist has released 11 music projects over the span of 3 years and with their most recent releases this year being the albums “Old Church Basement” and “Jubilee: The Juneteenth Edition.” Some of the artist have released their own projects recently such as Joe L. Barnes’ single “Come Back Home,” Dante Bowe’s sophomore album “circles,” Naomi Raine’s “Back to Eden, Part II,” and Maverick’s joint album with Elevation Worship.
Maverick City Music will be going on tour starting this fall to cities near you. To find out more information, visit their website and follow them on social media.
If you’re looking for new music to add to your playlist, this is a single you can’t forget! Grammy award winning artist Jekalyn Carr and Christian R&B newcomer have come together for their newest collab “Hands On Me”! In just four days, their new video for the single hit 100K and the numbers continue to climb!
Surprisingly to some, Christian R&B is not a new genre. But, it has recently become more widespread outside of the Christian R&B community in the last few years due to much of the music going viral on TikTok. There have been a host of artists who have been pushing out creative music with this sound as far back as 2012 and before. In recent years, we have seen new artists jumping into the genre style with a fresh take merging Gospel and Christian R&B together!
Following in the steps of recent collaborations from artists like Erica Campbell and Jordan Armstrong and more, Jekalyn Carr and Mike Teezy are continuing the trend of Gospel + Christian R&B artists coming together for a new era of Gospel music!
Watch the video below, then scroll down further to watch clips of the artists behind the scene on the set of their video recording:
WATCH FULL VIDEO HERE:
WATCH BEHIND THE SCENES OF THE VIDEO RECORDING ON OUR IG PAGE:
LISTEN 24/7 TO DISCOVER NEW INDEPENDENT ARTISTS ALONG W/ YOUR FAVORITE MAINSTREAM ARTISTS!
Justin Timberlake and Tobe Nwigwe recently performed on Saturday Night Live debuting Timberlake’s newest single “Sanctified”. Prior to this performance, only a short portion of the song had been previewed in an NFL Wildcard ESPN commercial. Now that the full song has been released, fans are sharing their love and a few concerns. Considering the Christian references throughout the song, Christian fans are sharing their thoughts as well. While some major websites such as Rollingstone have reported the two artist’s collaboration as a Gospel release, a close listen to the lyrics from fans is bringing a new response that is correcting that perspective.
.
How Are Fans Responding?
The response from fans so far depends on the audience. Most agree that musically the song hits! Everything was done extremely well! With Adam Blackstone involved in combination with all of the artists featured, that was almost a guarantee. But, lyrically is where the divide comes in from the faith based audience and the general mainstream audience.
While it’s clear that the song has a strong sexual connotation, some from the Faith based community specifically feel that the correlation to the crucifixion and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and the Glory of God might be taking things too far. It has also been stated that the song might have originally been created as a love letter to his wife Jessica Biel as the lyrics also seem to point to the Trolls star feeling grateful for someone who has led him through a dark time:
“You take all of my wrongs, move right along, take mе and fix my mess / Get me up whеn I’m low, hand on my soul, like you see right inside,” Timberlake sings. “I come out a new man, no blood on my hands, sanctified.”
– Excerpt from Justin Timberlake’s “Sanctified”
Knowing that the song might be a love letter to his wife, what do you think of the lyrical direction? Was it still too much? Scroll down to read the lyrics and to see the performance in full. Then, share your thoughts with us on Instagram via the link below: We want to hear from you!
Watch The Full Performance Here
Read the Lyrics to the Song Here
Join us on Instagram below and let us know your thoughts in the comments!
LISTEN 24/7 TO DISCOVER NEW INDEPENDENT ARTISTS ALONG W/ YOUR FAVORITE MAINSTREAM ARTISTS!
CLICK BELOW TO FOLLOW OUR PLAYLISTS ON SPOTIFY!
Looking for more new music? DOE just released her latest single “Holy Hands” and she shared a few words with us about what she loves about it the most!
Doe is signed to Jonathan McReynold’s label Life Room Label and has been making waves since the release of her first project under the label.
Doe continues to expand her sound collaborating with Christian artists like Wande, Donald Lawrence, Johnathan McReynolds, Orlando Palmer and more! Partnering up w/ artists from various Christian genre styles continues to expand her audience while exposing them all to new sounds in the process!
We’re excited about this single and about everything she has coming up next!
Mike Teezy and Jekalyn Carr’s Release New Video for Single “Hands On Me”
Fans Give Mixed Reviews of New Justin Timberlake and Tobe Nwigwe Collab
Doe Releases New Single “Holy Hands”
K-Ci of R&B Group Jodeci Shares Near Death Experience & How His Faith Helped Him Recover
NEW MUSIC: Stream Derek Minor’s New Single, “Take Off” (Ft. KB, Canon & Ty Brasel)
Author Kenyatta Scott Is Doing More Than Selling Books. She’s Making A Difference!
-
New Music4 years agoK-Ci of R&B Group Jodeci Shares Near Death Experience & How His Faith Helped Him Recover
-
New Music7 years agoNEW MUSIC: Stream Derek Minor’s New Single, “Take Off” (Ft. KB, Canon & Ty Brasel)
-
ArtSoul Spotlight4 years agoAuthor Kenyatta Scott Is Doing More Than Selling Books. She’s Making A Difference!
-
Events5 years agoFormer “Forever Jones” Artist “DOE” Releases New Music
-
Entertainment3 years agoJonathan McReynolds Lands Lead Role in New BET+ Original Movie
-
Entertainment3 years agoChina McClain Quits the Black Lightning TV Series & Dedicates Her Career to God
-
Chicago Events8 years agoPropaganda & Murs Kick Off The Unlimited Up Tour in Chicago-July 15th!
-
News8 years agoJamie Grace No Longer With Gotee Records | Announces New Music