Montell Jordan

BONUS:
Listen to: The You In Me (featuring Bishop Eddie L. Long) from Montell Jordan's new self-titled album.

Montell Jordan. Many of us know the name from R&B circles. Those of us who flip to an R&B station every once in a while may remember his mega-hit, This Is How We Do It or Get It On Tonite. I’m sure you’re asking, "What does Montell Jordan have to do with gospel music?" Well, I’m glad you asked. You may not know this, but Montell Jordan is saved. He is a saved, sanctified, spirit-filled man of God as well as a father and husband. And you’ll probably be surprised to know he’s worked with some big names in the gospel arena.

As we talk with Montell, you’ll find he’s not unlike many R&B artists, getting his start in the church. At a young age the church helped to transform him to become the man he is today. The church served as a training ground, helping him to hone his musical talents at a tender age.

An excellent songwriter in his own right, he’s written songs like, Incomplete by Sisqo and the enormous hit, Nobody’s Supposed To Be Here by Deborah Cox. Although admittedly, he is not a gospel artist, he feels passionate about where God has him. His calling isn’t typical of most artists out there, but he believes he’s in the vineyard just the same. Montell pulls no punches and he tells it like it is.

Although he’s worked with the best in the mainstream world, we won’t focus on his secular accomplishments, the millions of records he’s sold and the international tours. Montell is here to talk about the one that is the most important to him - The Lord Jesus Christ. See what Montell Jordan has to say.

Andrea Williams: Can you tell me about your background and what it was like for you growing up?

Montell Jordan: Well, I am from South Central Los Angeles, California. Born and raised there, oldest child of four. I was raised…of course…. brought up in the Baptist church in Los Angeles. I grew up during the time when gang violence was sort of rough. Because of that, I spent a lot of time in church (laughs). It was a refuge from the street, if you will. If you were around the church doing stuff there, the gangbangers and thugs would usually leave the church kids alone…. as much as they could. I was trained in music by an old Mississippi Baptist preacher who used to sit me in church (with a couple of other people) and teach us in the summertime how to play music. That’s where I learned how to play piano. And I really didn’t sing until I was a lot older. When I started out, I was just the church pianist. As I began to get into my teens, that’s when I started to sing and the reason was because being in Los Angeles, a lot of older kids I looked up to became victims to gang violence, drugs or prison. Because of that, the male role models I had started to disappear. There came a time where I was the musician over a choir and there were no more (or very few) males left in the choir. Because of that, we had many female vocalists leading songs. I had to start leading some of the songs. [Around that time] you had songs from the Mighty Clouds of Joy, the Winans, and Commissioned. We wanted to do a lot of these songs because they had male vocalists. And that’s when I started singing.