Author: Damon Percy
Published: November 21, 2005
Tool: [ email ]
While the gospel music industry has become big business, many involved have forgotten that the primary focus should be concerning the move of God and bringing people to Christ, while being an example of what you are singing about. So there are always truly anointed artists bubbling under, waiting for God to elevate their gifts in His name.
VaShawn Mitchell has quietly made a career for himself in gospel over the last decade - writing, singing, producing and being diligently dedicated to the ministry he has been called to do. Mitchell, a Chicago native, is the Minister of Music at Sweet Holy Spirit Church helmed by Bishop Larry Trotter, is hoping that his latest project “Believe In Your Dreams,” will bless everyone and help the gospel music industry see the need for real music and real worship.
“I’ve been waiting for a few years to come out with my new project. I’ve been trying to learn more, so I can last and endure in this industry,” says Mitchell. “Everyone is recording and it’s a lot of competition, so I’ve just prayed and asked God what is He saying to me at this day and time.”
Because VaShawn is such a prolific and anointed songwriter, he has been able to write and produce for such artists as Smokie Norful, Karen Clark-Sheard, DeAndre Patterson and the GMWA Mass Choir. Most recently, he completed a tour with Kurt Carr, Smokie Norful and Rizen.
“I am trying to write songs that will equip the nation and last forever. I want people to be able to pull back my songs in 10 years and still go to them.”
On Believe In Your Dreams, Mitchell is proving himself as a worshipper and not your ordinary gospel artist. This is the season that more praise and worship collections have charted and been released in the last 5 years, than during any other time of the industry. Here there are so many inspiring tracks and beautiful anthems of worship. Mitchell’s favorite cut is “No Way” because it says that “no matter what you go through and experience, no weapon formed against you or me, just won’t work.”
“People think that by looking at me (in reference to his urban flavored CD cover) that my music is specifically for young people, but it’s not, I write a broad range of music the young can relate to, as well as the old.”
While there are a group of artists who have excelled to the stratosphere of being called by their first names, there is always a small collective present in every change, which is slowly but surely helping to break through the wall.
“I would love to be considered in that group (those artists who are set here in raising up the next level of gospel music). It is definitely about God for me, about God getting the glory from me. Artists back in the day like James Cleveland, Albertina Walker, didn’t do what they did for a check, they drove across the country to sing His praises, because they were about ministry and their calling.”
Mitchell, like most artists, is concerned about the state of gospel music today, and the future of the industry. Because the business side has snowballed into such a huge success, music to help those in need and reach them to Christ is getting buried under slick production, banal lyrics and presented with a lack of anointing and/or talent.
He says that “We are experiencing hurricanes, low employment, and people need music that will help them endure the trials of this time. I want people to be able to pull back my songs in 10 years and still go to them.”
In the last decade, since VaShawn on the path of stardom, the image of gospel music has changed from just merely singing in churches and having your music centralized to a particular group or area. Some artists are being marketed like their secular counterparts, which can be both a blessing and a curse. Many attempt to keep up with what is popular in order to get a hit on urban radio or an appearance on an award show. Seemingly the most simplistic songs are the ones that get the people, but those of us who are more immersed in the music and church, opt for those with a deeper testimony.
“The community has done it to us, with the marketing of CD’s,” says Mitchell. “We used to buy CD’s and just bought them because they were there. Now the industry is becoming so business oriented, that if you are not among the elite, then you really have to hope that you CD will sell. CD sales are at their lowest across the board for everyone.”
One of the best things to know about VaShawn Mitchell is that he is someone that wants to help everyone.
“It gets harder to decide who to produce and what projects to take on,” he says. “ I am trying to intercede and pray for a spirit of discernment. But you sometimes you have to take risks and pray about the situation.”
Even though he is not the biggest gospel artist around, he is already thinking of ways to make the road easier for those who are coming after him. In addition to producing for Lucinda Moore, (Tyscot Records newest artist), he is planning on starting a new artists conference where those who are getting into the industry can learn from each other and support each other in their various ministries.
He says “there has to be a new generation of artists to carry the mantle of the music. If not we will be lost when Yolanda, Kirk and Donnie retire, or if Smokie stops singing. It’s a scary place to be in gospel music today and the industry needs to do something about that.”
VaShawn has created a melodious choir sound that is purely worship, but infused with the contemporary feel, but set apart from the traditional Chicago sound – that hard vibratic, very rounded vocalizing, complete with high energy. That ability has allowed him to lend his talents to different projects and allow his voice to be heard in a series of versatile settings and venues. Under Bishop Trotter’s leader, he has been the Minister of Music of Sweet Holy Spirit for the last five years, he has been able to constantly perfect and refine his sound and says that Bishop Trotter has “helped me become the man I am today.”
“People have always said that I don’t fit in here and yes, I love Chicago and the Chicago sound, but don’t necessarily utilize it. Understand for a long time, Chicago led the sound,” he notes. “The mantle has been passed and I don’t think people realized that it has been passed. For a while Chicago Mass Choir, Ricky Dillard and The Tommies (Thompson Community Singers) were the leaders in gospel and now it’s Donald Lawrence, Kurt Carr and Fred Hammond. They are what the radio industry and people are used to hearing and we cannot keep re-inventing the wheel.”
In a few years, VaShawn Mitchell will have been elevated to the status of “go-to guy” in the gospel music industry. As a producer, songwriter and anointed musician, Mitchell has all the right components to ascend to the household name status, and while many doors have been opened for this man of God, we haven’t even begun to see where he is really going.
