Edited by Azizi Powell
Latest revision- April 15, 2024
This pancocojams post showcases a YouTube video of John P. Kee's 1991 Gospel song "Jesus Is Real".
This post presents some information about John P. Kee and includes the lyrics of that song.
This pancocojams post also presents an excerpt of the transcript of Dara Starr Tucker's 2024 video entitled " John P. Kee - The Man Who Changed Gospel Music".
The content of that post is presented for religious, historical, and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to John P. Kee for his musical and religious legacy. Thanks to the New Life Community Choir for their musical and religious legacy. Thanks also to Dara Starr Tucker for her video on John P. Kee, and thanks to all those who are quoted in this post. Thanks also to Jules Kain Music for publishing this video on YouTube.
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Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2024/04/jesus-is-real-to-me-1952-gospel.html for the pancocojams post entitled " "Jesus Is Real To Me" - 1952 Gospel Recording By Brother Joe May & The Sallie Martin Singers (with lyrics)".
Also, click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2024/04/yes-god-is-real-1944-gospel-song.html for a pancocojams post entitled ""Yes, God Is Real" -The 1944 Gospel Song Composed By Kenneth Morris (sound file, information, & lyrics)."
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INFORMATION ABOUT JOHN P. KEE
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_P._Kee
"John P. Kee (born John Prince Kee on June 4, 1962) is an American gospel singer and pastor.
Kee has been active for more than 35 years in the music field. He is primarily known for mixing traditional gospel with modern contemporary gospel, and for having a soulful husky voice. Kee is also known as "The Prince of Gospel Music".[1]
Music career
In the mid-1980s, Kee formed a community choir in Charlotte
known as the New Life Community Choir or "NLCC". Over time, the choir
grew in popularity, and has continued to travel throughout the area. The choir
also included Kee's own children.
In 1990, Kee founded the Victory in Praise Music and Arts Seminar Mass Choir, or "V.I.P." to fellowship with various ministries, songwriters, musicians and choir directors from all over the country.
In 2007, Kee was inducted into the Christian Music Hall of
Fame.[3]"...
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SUMMARY STATEMENT
From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zN2cFHgK2ME "John P. Kee - The Man Who Changed Gospel Music" published by Dara Starr Tucker, Premiered Apr 4, 2024
John P. Kee doesn't always get his just due as the father of
modern gospel music. He built on the legacy of pioneers like James Cleveland,
Edwin and Walter Hawkins and Andrae Crouch, and leveled-up that innovation for
a new era. He ushered in 90's choir music with an energetic sound and look that
hearkened back to the innovative spirit of his predecessors.
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TRANSCRIPT EXCERPT
From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zN2cFHgK2ME "John P. Kee - The Man Who Changed Gospel Music" published by Dara Starr Tucker, Premiered Apr 4, 2024
[This transcript excerpt from that YouTube channel and is given without time stamps. I've added capitalization, spelling corrections, and punctuation.
"There was a seismic shift that happened in gospel music right around the early 90s that not many people seem to acknowledge unless you grew up with the music you may not even be aware of it
for several decades. Mass Choirs had held a singular place in gospel music directors like Thomas A Dorsey, James Cleveland, Dr. Mattye Moss Clark, Milton Brunson, and Thomas Whitfield had helped
to define the sound of gospel and legendary choirs like Georgia Mass, Mississippi Mass, and Walter Hawkins Love Center Choir were responsible for many of the songs that we consider to be staples in gospel music today. But by the late 80s the Gospel choir had come to be associated with a sort of traditionalism that was regarded by many to be out of step with the times but very soon a handful of artists would succeed in rejuvenating ensemble-based gospel music by reintroducing the configuration that had helped to redefine the genre a generation before. And that charge would be led by an unlikely General a man whose past as a drug dealer and user and a strip club owner would make him an ideal bridge between the church and the world that he had been called to reach.
I'm Dara Starr Tucker and this is The Breakdown.
[…]
this was the late ' 80s and John P. wasn't super well known at the time but he was starting to develop a pretty strong local following in North Carolina.
[....]
[He was] also writing some of the songs that he would become known for...[such as]
"Jesus Is Real" which he initially wrote with what he called a New York feel just right for a burgeoning choir director out of New York looking for new material, a guy named Hezekiah Walker. But when but when John P. Kee realized how good the song was, he knew he wanted to record it and release it himself so he had to take it back....
John P. Kee had put out a couple of albums in the late 80s that didn't quite bring him National Acclaim but his 1991 album Wash Me was his breakout project turns out that his instinct to save "Jesus Is Real" for one of his own projects was spot on. Every choir everywhere was singing "Jesus Is Real" and it wasn't just the song that brought him attention. John P was someone who consistently filmed his live concerts. His choir was as much a visual experience as it was a listening
[Music]
experience. Though he frequently performed with the full New Life Community Choir, he would often be seen with a smaller more agile group that he called the New Life Singers or simply New Life. This configuration worked better for tour dates and television appearances...-just a small Ensemble of 15 to 20 singers.
There was something energetically different about this choir. They were young they practically danced
when they sang. They didn't wear robes and you would often see them in funky matching outfits doing coordinated dances to Gap Band or Stevie Wonder groves. They were different than the Mass Choirs that had dominated the previous two decades. It didn't feel like their very existence was necessarily tethered to church. They were bringing that street vibe to the church while at the same time bringing the church to the streets.
This lighter midsized ensemble hearkened back to a time when the sound of gospel music underwent a similar shift a generation before Edwin Hawkins burst onto the scene with his midsized ensemble The Edwin Hawkins Singers in the late 60s and changed not only what gospel sounded like but what it looked like these weren't swaying saints on risers and robes. Suddenly gospel music was youthful. It was modern. And Walter Hawkins and Andre Crouch took that sound into the 70s by combining funk and soul grooves with messages of evangelism. And soul winning leaders like Richard Smallwood and Bobby Jones took this ensemble concept into the 80s, but they adhered to a much more traditional sound. The '90s however brought a full-on sound revolution led by John P. Kee that brought a youthful invigoration back to contemporary gospel that has dominated the genre ever since. Groups like [?] and Kirk Franklin and The Family owe a huge debt to John P. Kee. Kirk Franklin owes a huge debt to John P Kee. It's impossible not to see John P's influence on Fred Hammond and Radical for Christ and for that matter Kanye's Sunday service choir directed by Jason White.
In the wake of John P's success even large scale choirs like Hezekiah Walker, and The Love Fellowship Crusade Choir, Ricky Dillard and New G, and Oranda Draper and the associates were all presenting charismatic energetic contemporary Concepts and pushing the boundaries of what modern gospel choirs could do. It's no coincidence that films like Sister Act 2, The Preacher's Wife, and The Fighting Temptations were huge successes in the '90s and early 2000s. Choirs were hot and John P. had a lot to do with ushering in that phenomenon.
I recently watched a documentary on the history of gospel music that barely mentioned John P. Kee. And that's a shame because those of us who were there remember what he meant to the music and those of us who have followed him throughout his career know what but a generous Spirit he still is like the greats that preceded him he probably wouldn't put up a stink about his accomplishments being minimized but those of us who know the truth we will put up a stink we do not take his influence for granted and we will not allow the name of Pastor John P Kee to be forgotten.”…
LYRICS - JESUS IS REAL
'(John P. Kee): Put your hands together if you know God is
real, yeah!
Mm hmm
Listen to this, Jesus is real!
(New Life): Jesus is real
I know the Lord is real to me!
Jesus is real
I know the Lord is real to me!
Sometimes when I'm feeling low, no where to go
Jesus comes along and He makes me strong
For I know, oh
Jesus is real!
Jesus is real
I know the Lord is real to me!
Jesus is real
I know the Lord is real to me!
Sometimes when I'm feeling down
No one around, Jesus is a friend, I've found
For I know, oh
Jesus is real
I can feel Him in my hands
I can feel Him in my feet
I know that the Lord will, take good care of me
For I know, oh
Jesus is real
I can feel Him in my heart
I can feel Him in my soul
I can even feel Him, from the crown of my head to my toes
For I know, oh
Jesus is real
Oh yes, hallelujah!
How many know without a doubt in your mind that the Lord is
real? Whew!
Stand up and put your hands together
I know He's real!
I know He's real!
New Life say: REAL
Real!
Real!
Real!
Real!
Real!
Oh, yes He's real!
Yes, He's real!
I know He is
I know He is
I know He is
I know He is
I know He is
I know He is
Oh, yes He's real
Yes, He's real
Say yeah!
Yeah!
Yeah, Lawdy!
Yeah!
Yeah!
Yeah
Yes, He's real!
Yes, He's real
I know He is
I know He is
I know He is
I know He is
I know
I know He is
For I know, oh (3x)
Jesus is real
Stand up and put your hands together
Give God some praise in here!
Hallelujah
God is not a myth
God is not a fairytale
But I know without a doubt in my mind
God is real!
Come on stand on your feet everybody
Put your hands together, c'mon, here we go
I don't know what you problem might be
I don't know what the situation
But I come to tell ya, after trying everything else
God is real!
He's real!
He's real
The Lord is so real (4x)"
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https://genius.com/John-p-kee-jesus-is-real-lyrics
The words in italics are sung by the lead singer)
This concludes Part I of this pancocojams series.
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