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.

AW: So you have very strong spiritual roots?

MJ: Oh, absolutely, absolutely, it was amazing. I was brought up Baptist, went to a Catholic high school and a Church of Christ college. So I’ve seen a whole lot (laughs).

AW: I know you have a song on your upcoming project with your pastor Bishop Eddie L. Long. How did that come to be?

MJ: Well you know, corporate anointing is something that’s pretty interesting. When we moved to Atlanta, we moved to New Birth Missionary Baptist Church under the headship of Bishop Eddie L. Long, who by the way happens to be a fraternity brother of mine; he’s a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. I was drawn to him. I like being under his covering, my family and I. He’s a prosperous man and his teaching is just so phenomenal I just wanted to be close to him, to know a man like that. It can only enhance and make you a better person. So initially, even before we tried to do a song together, he used to joke about it. [He would say,]"When are we gonna do my song? When are we going to do a song together?" I wanted to do some ventures with him, with the record label and a lot of things in the future. One day he was joking and said, "When are we going to do my song together?" I went to my manager and said, "You know, I think Bishop is serious. I think he really wants to do a song together because he keeps asking about it." So we went and put a song together. We all flew out to Los Angeles and we recorded it. And Bishop came in. He’s really funny. Before he went into the booth, he said, "Montell, come here." I walked over to him and he said "Let me see your hand." He held my hand up and put it on his head…. like I was going to lay him out or something (laughs). It was really, really funny. What Bishop does is that he speaks and reaches a certain audience of people. What I’m trying to do is to bring him a little closer to the audience that I’m reaching and I think he’s doing the same. Allowing me to touch the audience he reaches.

AW: The name of the song is called, The You In Me?

MJ: Yes, correct.

AW: Have you done any other gospel songs on your other projects?

MJ: Yes, pretty much on every album. I did a song with Bishop Clarence E. McClendon called, I Say Yes from Church of the Harvest in Los Angeles. I did a song with Shep Crawford called God Will Do Anything For You. I recorded songs on Ametria’s project. I’ve done stuff with Pam & Dodi. They’re very talented. I’ve had my hand in [the gospel music industry] for a long time. I’ll be working with Darwin Hobbs on his upcoming project. I went out on a gospel play this past summer called, I worked with Lamar Campbell and Desmond Pringle. I’ve done gospel songs on all my albums.

AW: So you are really already in the gospel music industry. I’m sure a lot of people don’t know that.

MJ: This is my background, my upbringing. I don’t know how aware people are of it, but I think for me it’s more for people to look at my lifestyle as opposed to looking at what particular music I’m making. And that’s the whole key. My bishop said it well. I don’t think it’s necessary for me to become a gospel artist to get the message across. I think God is definitely looking for those right now who can go into the world and reclaim what belongs to Him and what belonged to Him all along. The whole "this is gospel music" and "this is secular music" [thing] to me is….there’s a real sketchy line there. To try to determine if my music is gospel music or if it’s secular music. I don’t think Yolanda Adams’ song, Open My Heart, is a gospel song. To me, it touched too many people to be considered just a gospel song. It’s almost like saying, "This is just my Jesus and Jesus is only for church people". And I don’t believe that. I believe Jesus is more for the people that aren’t in church than for the people in church. I think music like the kind Yolanda Adams does, and stuff we’re hearing today needs to go out more to the people who hear that aren’t in the church.

AW: Do you think you’ll do an all gospel project at some point?

MJ: I think so….somewhere down the line when it’s appropriate. A lot of artists have done that. I think Al Green and Gladys Knight….there’s a lot of people who have done that.

AW: Going back to what you were saying about the differentiation between gospel and mainstream (or secular) music…. some people feel that it does not mix. They feel to have a gospel song on a project and other more "worldly" songs on the same project is light mixing with dark. What do you say to that?

MJ: To me the best way I can explain it is this: If you have a light on in the room and you put darkness in the room, it will dim the light. But if you have a darkroom and you put any light anywhere in the room, it lightens the darkness. As far as I am concerned, God gives us the gift of music. He gives us the ability to create songs, to create music that create a lot of different emotions in people. I heard a preacher say once, "When I want to make love to my wife, I don’t go and put on a gospel album. I’ll go put on a Jodeci album." I think that’s because music does what it’s supposed to do. It’s supposed to inspire emotion. So you have to look at what the person’s motive is behind what they’re trying to inspire. I think there are songs I make that will make you want to cry. Whether you cry or not is up to you. I’m trying to evoke a certain emotion in you. I may make a song that may make you want to dance. I may make a song that may make you want to shout. I may make a song that might make you angry. I may make a song that may make you want to fall in love. I can make a song that might make you feel lustful. I can make a song that may make you feel spiritual. I think when you’re dealing with emotions, you can’t just say I’m just going to deal with this emotion. I think it’s up to the artist to represent which emotion they’re trying to pull from different individuals.

AW: Being part of the mainstream music industry and being a Christian, I’m sure you have to deal with a lot of temptations, a lot of uncomfortable situations. How do you handle that?

MJ: Very difficult to do. I think if I wasn’t in the music industry, just being a regular person in life, and being a Christian and going to work everyday….I believe it’s the same task. Being a deacon in the church, you have to go to your job on Monday where people curse talk, smoke and they do whatever they do, and you have to assimilate into regular society. Do you walk into your job and say, "Praise The Lord. Hey, everybody, I’m a Christian. I’m going to my desk now." I think it’s a matter of your walk. It’s about action now. I think it’s when people see what you do. And because of that, I think I’m altering people’s view of who they think Montell is and what he has been and what he’s becoming. I think it’s possible to be in the world and not of the world. It’s not an easy thing to do. There are still the same pitfalls that plague any person. Being in this industry it’s probably twice or ten times more prevalent…the drugs, the alcohol, the women and things like that. They’re all more accessible so you have to be called to a higher spiritual maturity to exist in this business.

AW: What do you think God’s mission is for you being in the music industry?

MJ: I think He has me in the music industry because it’s a desire of mine. God knows the desires of my heart. I don’t know if it’s His desire for me to do what I do, but I know when it’s not anymore He’ll take me out of it. I think it’s His desire for me to be a light in the world. I think it’s His desire to create some things that may change lives. It’s His desire for me to be able to reach children and talk to students in colleges. I think He wants me to minister (not as a preacher), but in my field of music. I’m making and creating songs that will minister to people. Not necessarily in a get saved way (it may do that too), but more in a way of "here’s how you fix your marriage" and "here’s how you treat your woman right" and "here’s how God wants you to love your spouse". I think there’s a ministry in what I do. I want people to look at my life and say, "Man, you were there! How did you get to this point?" I’ll be able to say, "By the grace of God, this is how it’s done. This is how you save your marriage. This is how you treat your woman right. This is what the Bible says. This is what thus saith the Lord." I think the only way I can do that is to put bait on my hook. You can’t catch a fish with nothing on your hook.

Whereas Bishop can reach the saved, I think part of what I do is plant seed for the unsaved so they can hear something a little different. I’ve gotten e-mails; I’ve gotten letters from hardcore Negroes saying, "Yo, Montell, I love your album. I got a whole lot of booty to your last album and I want to say, yo. That little gospel joint that you put at the end was really cool, man. Man, I didn’t know it was okay to be a nigga and love Jesus." It reaches somebody that you might not expect it to reach. That’s one of the best things in the world.

That’s my prayer everyday - that someone who doesn’t know God will come to know Him, or want to know Him, from seeing or meeting me. That’s where the song, The You In Me came from. When you look at me and see me singing, This Is How We Do It, that’s fine. But when you look beyond me, is there something else you see? When I speak, is there something else you hear? When you look beyond the man and the material, you see the wife and a daughter. You see his demeanor and you see his integrity. You see the things he’s writing. You see the fruits of his labor. When you see those things, then you’ve gotta recognize there’s something greater there than me.