Music World Gospel- In A World of Trouble

August 27, 2012

By Hasan James

I am sure you have all heard by now that Mathew Knowles and Music World Gospel may be closing its doors or at the very least selling the label. AlwaysAList.com broke the story last week and it has been a huge buzz around the industry for quite some time that the label is in trouble. It basically all started when Mathew Knowles joined forces with Cathy Hughes and TV One to air the Essence Music Fest over the next four years and albeit an exclusive agreement, Knowles decided to sell the rights to Viacom owned stations, BET, MTV and VH1. Did he think that Hughes wouldn’t find out? Anyway, Hughes, who is notorious for black balling if you cross her, blocked all Music World artists from a cluster of Radio One stations (which she also owns) across the country. That means since December 2011, you have not heard Le’Andria Johnson, Amber Bullock, Brian Courtney Wilson, Trinitee 5:7, Juanita Bynum or Micah Stampley on any of her 52 Radio One stations.

Le’Andria Johnson may be going elsewhere

Although Music World artists like Le’Andria Johnson released three albums in a 10 month period, won a Grammy and sold upwards of 200,000 units, it is still not enough because what artists need is radio airplay and because most gospel stations throughout the U.S. are Radio One owned and operated, Cathy Hughes has single-handedly took down a record label. Le’Andria Johnson has been very vocal about jumping ship (See Le’Andria’s Twitter rant below) and Trin-I-tee 5:7 has decided to depart from the label just two weeks ago. According to AlwaysAList.com, at this year’s BET Awards, where the group was nominated for Best Gospel Artist, the duo was left outside of the Shrine Auditorium ticket-less because “Mathew used their tickets at the last minute without telling them.” Trin-I-tee 5:7 did ultimately get into the show, but only because a BET employee came to rescue them after a “long and embarrassing” ordeal.

I guess we should have saw the signs of trouble when Beyonce (Mathew Knowles’ daughter) decided to cut all ties with Music World a few years back.

Will they go or will they stay? Trinitee 5:7

I particularly feel bad for artists like Brian Courtney Wilson, who was a mainstay at Radio One events and whose songs “Already Here” and “All I Need” both shot to the top of the charts on the strength of Radio One placing those songs in Heavy Rotation. Even Amber Bullock, whose latest album “So In Love” is already considered a classic, has to feel cheated due to the lack of airplay her songs are receiving due to one man’s greed.

Will one of Gospel’s premier male voices be silenced? Brian Courtney Wilson

I am very curious to see the fate of the next winner of Sunday Best who will be crowned this Sunday. The winner will receive a recording contract from Music World and a new car but something tells me that the car may be more of a thrill than the record deal.  I think it will be a matter of time before Sony Music purchases the label and puts most, if not all, of the Music World artists under the Verity roster. What do you guys think?