Shei Atkins’ letter to Da South.com announcing her departure out of Gospel music to R&B, read like an exit letter to the church. Clearly trying to scorn the churches perception of what Gospel music should be. The edited, primed, and prepped letter got me stirring as I tried to reason with an artist that clearly had one foot in and one foot out of Gospel music her entire career.
There are a lot of factors surrounding Atkin’s departure of Gospel music, (and I will allude to some of those in a moment) but Shei seems to rationalize the industry in a manner that seems oppressive to Christian artists.
“The messed up thing about the Christian community is that there is a religious and judgmental mentality inside of it that holds us back and keeps us from loving people when it comes to music,” writes Shei Atkins.
From an industry perspective Shei Atkins was appreciated, but yet justifiably wrong as it pertains to her marketability in the genre. Furthermore, criticism of the church, Christians, her fans, and the industry were a stretch at best.
Shei Akins was celebrated in the Gospel community for such songs as “He Can Fix It” and “Lord I Love You,” which garnered much radio play, she also received backlash for songs that weren’t Gospel radio-friendly.
The local Houston product Shei Atkins is admired by many in the city of Houston where she resides. Often singing and ministering to youth ministries across the country. I Attended several engagements in which she ministered at and you can tell that she has a real passion for the Lord. However, I’ve listened to several songs that she was featured on that made me wonder if she was ever a Gospel artist at all. Even hearing her boast about the songs and secular artists she worked with in front of Christian teens.
At the same time Shei was being marketed to the Gospel community, Shei was furthering her secular brand by singing with secular rap artists like LiL Flip promoting trunk banging, cars, and a secular lifestyle. Shei throws many scriptures around in her letter below, including Luke 5:10 that says, “Fear not, from now on you will be fishing for people.” Another scripture I want to share with Ms. Atkins is “Come out from among them, and be ye separate.” -2 Corinthians 6:17. That’s what we as Christians are called to do. Come out from the world! You can’t insult the intelligence of radio programmers and radio hosts by playing Gospel music from artists that will cause the station un-wanted backlash. You can look no further than Tonex, AKA “B-Slade” as a prime example. After his industry hating rampage, almost all of his music was pulled out of rotation with the exception of “Make me Over” which is such a powerful song it’s hard for radio to let it go. Lead industry executive and Vice President of Verity Records Jazzy Jordan said, “Tonex made the decision easy.” When talking about Verity’s decision to drop Tonex from the label when he famously publicly said to Path MEGAzine that he was not a Gospel artist. Jordan paraphrases that he signed up to promote a Gospel artist, and since Tonex was not that the decision was made.
So my question is what did Shei Atkins expect to happen? Gospel sales through the roof, and a budding secular fan club? That’s not how the industry, God, or the fans work. The equation that this adds up to is confused fans + hesitant industry executives = ministry showing little fruit. ie: low sales.
Shei Atkins is no stranger to either industry doing background vocals for Kelly Rowland (formerly of Destiny’s Child) and making music with big names over the last decade. It’s not within reason to believe that Shei could leave Gospel and have a flourishing and rewarding R&B career. Her talent is amicable. It’s also within reason to believe that she will be effective ministering in the world of R&B with both R&B and inspirational tracks on her album. But in Gospel, love tracks and Gospel tracks on the same album don’t traditionally go over well with listeners. I like music that talks about the beauty of love, and see nothing wrong with it. However if I’m in worship or reflecting on my problems in a biblical manner, I don’t want the next track to be about a women scorned by her unappreciative lover. I’m just saying!
When I let go of my secular business aspirations and put God first that was when God prospered my business. I understand Shei feels this is her calling and I wish her the best, but don’t go out in a blaze of glory with a letter that asks for love but yet it’s wrapped in anger.
Gospel must continue to be separate from the world, saying the word “Jesus” in its merchandise and performances. It’s viability and creditability depends on it. Fred Hammond, Bishop T.D. Jakes, Take 6 and others have sought love projects and thats fine. BUT they were entirely love projects and there were no surprises as to what you were buying.
You can read an excerpt from Shei’s letter below, and read the rest on DaSouth.com by clicking here.
Shei Atkins Letter Excerpt:
My music can’t be put in a box. When it comes down to business, labels want to know how they will be able to market you and make money with your product no matter what your personal vision is. My tolerance level was getting low with the judgment. I had fans who loved me on one side and people condemning me on the other side calling me worldly, pulling me to the side at some of my shows about my hair color, sending in mean letters, etc. I understand that everyone wouldn’t see my vision, but it got to the point to where I just wanted to give up. I wasn’t doing anything wrong, BUT I wasn’t embraced by gospel all the way, and looking back, I can see where the confusion came in.
The messed up thing about the Christian community is that there is a religious and judgmental mentality inside of it that holds us back and keeps us from loving people when it comes to music. When I took my time off to pray and get clarity of my purpose, God reminded me that romance is His idea and He led me to the Book of Song of Solomon in the Bible. Song of Solomon is a book of love songs and poems from Solomon & His bride to each other. It’s very romantic. They even praise each other and their body parts in the book. That showed me that God didn’t have a problem with romance and love songs, it’s man. The mentality that someone is compromising or backsliding for singing other genres’ was passed down in the church from generation to generation and that is not true. If the truth be told, there are some good and bad apples in gospel as well as other genres’. Because of my purpose, when it comes down to marketing and promotion, Shei Atkins is best marketed as an R&B artist. Why? Because doing R&B allows me to make the music God put in me to make and be free without boundaries of what I can and what I can’t talk about. Does this mean I will never make a gospel album or sing gospel songs? “No, thats not what that means”. I can’t sing about life, love, and relationships under the Gospel title. It’s not because I don’t want to. It’s because of the mentality a lot of Christians have about music.
Although I love God’s people, I can’t waste years trying to break this mentality and use that as an excuse for not doing what God told me to do. We have the part where we accept Him in our life and become saved. Then we have the part where Christianity needs to be applied. That’s where my music comes in. I deal with life, love and relationships. I can’t speak for anyone else, but that’s my call. Just because you’re saved doesn’t mean you know how to be a wife or a husband. Just because you’re saved doesn’t mean you’re a good parent. If you’re not good with money, it doesn’t matter how saved you are, you won’t pay your bills on time and your bank account will be in the negative, etc. This thing doesn’t stop after salvation. We need wisdom and we need to learn certain principles to apply to our life on earth so that we can live the abundant life God wants us to live and be successful in every area of our lives. But there are so many people without that revelation because we’re so focused on a genre. People write me every day about how to handle different situations in their marriage and relationships or just letting me know how my music has helped their life and relationships. People need what God has put inside of me. Do you know that about 50% of CHRISTIAN marriages end in divorce? But I was judged for singing songs that spoke life into people.
Read the full letter by clicking here
