Derek Minor 'Empire' & Marz Ferrer 'Blur' Albums Charting on iTunes

Today two highly anticipated albums, Reflection Music Group artist Derek Minor's 'Empire,' and Marz Ferrer's 'Blur' have made their way onto the iTunes charts. Currently Derek's new album 'Empire,' which is scheduled for it's full release on January 27, 2014, has climbed up to the #10 spot on iTunes Top Hip-Hop/Rap Albums chart off pre-orders alone, and Marz Ferrer, who you've heard on Andy Mineo's latestNever LandEP and a few other features, has landed her solo debut Blur at #13 on iTunes' Top Alternative Albums chart.

Congrats to both artists.

Pre-order Derek Minor's Empire on iTunes and buy Marz Ferrer's Blur on iTunes aswell.

LECRAE NOMINATED FOR MULTIPLE 2015 GRAMMY AWARDS

Lecrae has been nominated for multiple 2015 Grammy awards. What may be most impressive is that one of them is in a mainstream category, “Best Rap Performance.” His track, “All I Need Is You,” is up against Childish Gambino’s “3005,” Drake’s  “0-100/The Catchup,” Eminem’s “Rap God,” and Kendrick Lamar’s “i.”

“All I Need Is You” was produced by Dirty Rice and Joseph Prielozny.

Lecrae was also nominated alongside Erica Campbell for his feature on “Help” for Best Gospel Performance/Song. The other nominees in that category are as follows:

• Karen Clark Sheard – “Sunday A.M.” [Live]
• Mali Music – “I Believe”
• Smokie Norful – “No Greater Love”
• The Walls Group – “Love On The Radio”

The Reach Records emcee even sparked a nomination under the Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song category for his song “Messengers” featuring Australian brother-duo for KING & COUNTRY. Below listed are the other nominations in that category:

• Francesca Battistelli – “Write Your Story”
• Crowder – “Come As You Are”
• MercyMe – “Shake”
• Needtobreathe – “Multiplied”

Lecrae now has five Grammy nominations overall on his resume. [2011 – Rehab/2013 –Gravity/2015 – “All I Need Is You,” “Help” (Erika Campbell’s song], “Messengers” feat. for KING & COUNTRY]

He won the Best Gospel Album Grammy in 2013 for his project Gravity.

In addition to his nomination for Best Gospel Performance/Song, Mali Music also received a nomination for Best Urban Contemporary Album against Jhene Aiko’s Sail Out, Beyoncé’s Beyoncé,Chris Brown’s X, and Pharrell Williams’s G I R L. On another note, Natalie Lauren has also had some contributions to a Grammy nominated album as a writer for select tracks on Iggy Azalea’s The New Classic, which was nominated for Best Rap Album.

The 57th Annual Grammy Awards will take place on February 8, 2015 from the Staples Center in LA and broadcasted live on CBS.

Lecrae's Anomaly Charts #1 iTunes Overall & #1 Amazon Overall

Lecrae and Reach Records had a huge day with the release of their latest release - Anomaly! Lecrae charted at #1 on the iTunes Hip Hop chart and fought hard for #1 Overall but despite a rare top banner takeover, he could not get past the English-Irish pop boy band, One Direction.

Buy Anomaly on iTunes or buy the CD on our store now.

Lecrae Takes Over iTunes Hip Hop

Lecrae's new album Anomaly released today and can be found on the iTunes homepage, Music page, Hip Hop genre, and Christian genre pages. On the Hip Hop genre page you can find Lecrae's discography owning all of the available top banners. This sort of takeover has been reserved for artists that have sold large amounts of records such as Jay Z and Eminem. Congratulations on infiltrating hip-hop, Lecrae and Reach!

Buy Anomaly on iTunes or buy the CD on our store now.

Lecrae and Bart Millard of MercyMe to Host 45th Annual Dove Awards

The Gospel Music Association (GMA) announces multi-Dove Award winning powerhouses Bart Millard of MercyMe and Lecrae as co-hosts for the 45th Annual GMA Dove Awards. The Dove Awards will take place on Tuesday, Oct. 7 at Allen Arena on the campus of Lipscomb University in Nashville, TN and will air on the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN). 

“I can't wait to be a part of what I believe will be a historic evening,” said rap and hip hop recording artist Lecrae. “Co-hosting with a great friend and talented artist makes it even better. Be careful though, who knows what will happen when Bart and I get together.” 

Says Millard, "I'm so excited to be part of this year's Dove Awards. The Doves are unique because they bring all styles of Gospel music together. Lecrae and I are just a small example of how different and yet unified this community is in sharing a message of love and hope through music.” He jokes, “To prove how unified we are, I will be freestylin' my fresh rhymes while Lecrae sings the chorus to ‘I Can Only Imagine" over and over!” 

Performers and current nominees will include Natalie Grant, Hezekiah Walker, Matthew West and Erica Campbell. In addition, Capital Kings, Olympic Gold Medalist Scott Hamilton, author Karen Kingsbury and Bill Gaither are confirmed as presenters.

Lecrae 'Anomaly' Production Credits Revealed

Reach Records revealed the production credits for Lecrae's upcoming album Anomaly to be released September 9th.

1. Outsiders - Produced by Dirty Rice, Joseph Prielozny, Street Symphony
2. Welcome to America - Produced by S1, J. Rhodes
3. Say I Won't ft. Andy Mineo - Produced by 808XEliTE, GAWVI, Andy Mineo
4. Nuthin - Produced by GAWVI
5. Fear - Produced by Dirty Rice, Joseph Prielozny
6. Anomaly - Produced by Nate Robinson
7. Timepiece - Produced by Mashell
8. Dirty Water - Produced by Derek Minor
9. Wish - Produced by S1, Vohn Beatz, Joseph Prielozny
10. Runners - Produced by Lasanna "Ace" Harris, GAWVI
11. All I Need Is You - Produced by Dirty Rice and Joseph Prielozny
12. Give In ft. Crystal Nicole - Produced by GAWVI, Alex Medina
13. Good, Bad, Ugly - Produced by Jaquebeatz
14. Broken ft. Kari Jobe - Produced by Dirty Rice, Joseph Prielozny
15. Messengers ft. For King & Country - Produced by Dirty Rice, Joseph Prielozny, Street Symphony

Pre-order Anomaly on iTunes now.

What producers do you wish were on Anomaly?

HillaryJane's Stix and Stones Peaks at #3 on iTunes R&B

Infiltrate Music’s newest signee HillaryJane, released her debut solo project entitled Stix and Stones today. The 7-song EP, on its first day of release, has reached the number 3 spot on the iTunes R&B/Soul charts.

HillaryJane, as of late, has been no stranger to charting. Her song "Celebrity", the last single released preceding the full release of Stix and Stones, climbed all the way to number 9 and held for the last 2 weeks on DJBooth.net's R&B/Pop chart. Her single "Chimneys" is also currently #1 Most Wanted on RadioU.

Stix and Stones has made its place between a multitude of successful and even Grammy award wining artists within R&B/Soul. HillaryJane’s debut solo project falls one spot below Trey Songz's Trigga and two spots above 9-time Grammy award winning artist John Legend, who released Love In The Future.

HillaryJane's EP features only two other artists, who compared to other projects released this year, may be out of the ordinary. The song "Celebrity", guest starring the St. Louis native and Full Ride Music Group’s Thi'sl, is one of the two songs on HillaryJane's EP to feature another artist. The other is a remix, which features a little known producer by the name of HXLY KXSS, entitled "Shotgun".

"I really wanted to offer people me, and not a project that stands on the shoulders of other artists", says HillaryJane in an interview with Rapzilla earlier this year.

Production for "Celebrity" and the majority of Stix and Stones, with the exception of "Shotgun", can be accredited to 808xEliTE. 808xEliTE has produced tracks for the likes of 2Chainz, Lecrae, Papa San, Meek Mill, and Andy Mineo and has acquired over the course of their career both Grammy and Dove Awards.

You can support HillaryJane’s newest project Stix and Stones by purchasing it on iTunes or Amazon Music today.