CoCo Brother first came to Atlanta, GA after graduating from high school in Nashville, Tennessee, marking the start of his career in radio. Click here to learn more about Coco Brother.

Lonnie was surrounded by gospel at a very young age due to the fact that his mother was a popular background singer for many of gospel music’s legends during his youth. She passed on to be with the lord on Lonnie’s 8th birthday. It was at this time that he became determined to carry out her legacy.

Lonnie graduated from Western IL.University with a Bachelors in public administration/public relations. After working in the public sector, Lonnie started hunter communications group. Training corporate management teams in areas such as cultural awareness/ diversity, effective communication skills, effective leadership, time and stress management.  As CEO of Hunter Communications Group, Lonnie earned the pinnacle award of achievement for black owned companies. Awarded by the Gellett corporation.

A stellar award nominated artist, Lonnie recorded and produced 3 cds with the voices of St. Mark, on the Malaco record label with hits such as “even me” ,“lets dance”, and “there’s power in his name”.

While earning his degree, Lonnie served in the u.s air force for 5 years earning an honorable discharge as a high ranking sergeant.

Lonnie spent 3 years as a runway/ print model for luster hair care products male texturizer campaign and continued to do what god had commissioned him to do in the gospel music industry.

For 4 years Lonnie was the host of the #1 gospel radio show in Chicago. Ruling the morning drive time mon-fri 6am-10am on WGCI am. While at the same time serving as dean of students for one of the largest school districts in the suburbs of Chicago.  Now a resident of New Jersey, he serves as Pastor of Worship at Bethany Baptist Church a 23,000 member mega church in Lindenwols NJ, where Bishop David G. Evans is the Pastor.

Lonnie can now be seen weekly as the male face of The Word Network, and heard as the host of “real christian radio” Mon – Friday on praise 103.9fm. A Philadelphia Radio-One station.

As a husband, father, mentor, artist and business man, Lonnie lives by Phil.4:13 “ I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me.”

She’s a native Houstonian with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Secondary Education.  Nzinga is married to her high school sweetheart, King Kamau Rideaux a marriage of over Twenty Years

Her passion as a life coach and encourager is to help nurture and train young married women in their roles as helpmates unto their husbands. She loves working with young student athletes, speaking at women conferences, youth events, and serving as mistress of ceremony for special events.

Nzinga serves in ministry at her church Windsor Village UMC.

She is a native Houstonian the youngest of six children and a product of the North Forest Independent School District. In 1987 Nzinga graduated Cum Laude from Paul Quinn College, after attending for four years on a women’s basketball scholarship, with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Secondary Education, her Major was in Physical Education and her Minor was in History.

Nzinga has coached through out the Greater Houston Area for over twenty-eight years. Presently she serves as the Founder and CEO of Fundamentals Ink, Incorporated, a faith based non-profit organization that offers character development programs to female youth through athletics and educational activities. The organization Motto is: “Helping Young Dreams Mature into Reality” and since its 1994 inception the organization has worked with over Sixteen hundred youth through out the Greater Houston Area. The organization has given out 16 Scholarships and over Two Hundred and Fifty young women that have come through Fundamentals Ink,Incorporated programs have graduated from college. The long-term goal is to establish “The Fundamentals forLife Girls Empowerment Center and Academy”. One special moment was taking a group of 14 girls to the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta Georgia.

Nzinga is the Director of Constituent Services & Communications for the District D Council Office of Houston City Council Member Ada Edwards. The District serves a constituency of close to Three Hundred Thousand with in a one hundred and forty four square mile radius that has been said to be the size of the City of Atlanta. She also, works part time at Praise 92.1 FM hosting a weekly Radio Program on Sunday mornings, “Sunday Morning Praise” from 8:00 – 10:00am.She also assists in the Promotions and Production departments. Nzinga is the former Program Manager and Co – Host of the “Wake Up and Worship Morning Show” once heard on KYOK 1590 Amen.

Nzinga serves on the Board of Directors for the South Central YMCA and Access Health Inc, is an Advisory Board Member for SHAPE Community Center and former Advisory Committee Member for the Houston Community College Central Campus Transitional Team. She also helps sponsor the South Houston Office of The Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

In addition to these responsibilities, Nzinga serves in ministry at her church Windsor Village United Methodist Church under the leadership of Senior Pastor Kirbyjon Caldwell. She volunteers with the Kingdom Builders Prayer Institute, sings in the Anointed Women’s Chorus and is a member of the Kingdom Players Adult Drama Ministry. Nzinga is also a life coach and an avid volunteer in the community, her service in the community, has better equipped her to empower others to walk by faith and not by sight. The Lord called Nzinga to have a heart for ministering and the mentoring of young women. Nzinga has passion to help nurture young married women, and those thinking of marriage in their roles as a helpmate unto their husbands. She loves working with young student athletes, speaking at women conferences and youth events, and serving as mistress of ceremony for special events.

“I decided to record in Detroit after much prayer. I put a lot of thought into the cities we record,” Donnie shares.  “My mentor Andrae Crouch made one of his best CDs live in London, so I did the same thing some 20 years afterwards (resulting in  the platinum Live in London…and More CD which included Donnie’s now classic anthem “We Fall Down”). I recorded my CD Again in California because my first time ever being given a platform in someone else’s church was 1982 in Los Angeles at West Angeles Church of God and Christ. Recording in Detroit this time goes without saying because that’s home! I was there for 13 years and was a charter member at Perfecting Church which was founded by Marvin Winans. Even with Detroit’s tough transitions and hard situations, the church has always been the mainstay that holds everything together.  By bringing this recording to Detroit and bringing the churches together there, we can aid in the healing of that city.”

The themes of the 12-song We All Are One are of unity and tolerance.  Donnie explains, “Jesus said, ‘A house divided against itself cannot stand,’ yet we remain disconnected: Republicans and Democrats, Blacks, Whites, Yellows and Browns, Baptists and Methodists, Lutherans and Episcopalians… Where is the unity? Coming from a religious background, I was taught to judge harshly, but my thinking now is, ‘Let God do the judging so that I may learn how to love and understand the ways in which we are all connected.’ I believe that lesson of compassion and fellowship will ultimately be learned by the young ones coming behind me. For my song ‘We All Are One,’ I brought in Asaph Ward – one of the greatest producers in gospel music – and we came up with a ‘World Beat’ to unite the masses. At the end of the song, adult voices fade into children’s voices singing, ‘We all are one in The Lord,’ driving home the point that you have to come to Him as a child.”

We All Are One (Live in Detroit) is a boldly eclectic collection from McClurkin, moving from the powerfully opener “Trusting in You” and the lilting call and response vibe of “You Are My God and King” (featuring a playful battle of the choir sections on the “Reprise”) to the soul-soothing “Let the River Flow” and a duet with the ever-amazing Karen Clark-Sheard for “Wait on The Lord.”

Donnie enthuses, “On ‘I Choose to Be Dancing,’ we incorporated many different feels – hard rock with the guitars and strings for the culture sound, but we kept the rhythm section urban. And on my praise and worship ‘Halleujah Song’ – which God gave me on a Sunday when we were all up in church praying – the idea of praising God in a succession of different languages just came to me at the last second! We sing in Dutch, Spanish and the African language Yoruba. Oshe ba ba means ‘Thank you, Father.’ ”

Among the most profound songs on We All Are One is the piano and strings meditation “All We Ask,” on which Donnie weaves the testimonies of three different people, verse by verse, immortalizing them in song. Donnie explains, “The first verse is about a young man who came to me trying to find his place in life, the second verse is from my personal story, and the last verse is about my older sister Olivia, who was dying at the time that I wrote the song. She is now deceased.  I wouldn’t let anyone else play the piano on it because I knew exactly how I wanted the music to be interpreted, but when my sister passed I did not have the strength to use my voice. So I turned ‘All We Ask’ into a feature for my background singers who have been with me faithfully since 1996 (in order of appearance: Duwane Starling; Donnie’s younger sister Andrea Mellini; Sherry Maghee and Nancey Jackson –Johnson).

An undeniable standout is “When You Love” which transcends the church to speak about love on an earthly plane. “That’s one of my favorites,” Donnie shares. “We must remember that God didn’t just make us spirit. He made us body, mind and spirit. The song is inspirational – derived from the gospel – but based solely on love…how to love, what to do when you love, how to act when you’re in love… It lifts men and women out of the lust that’s all over the radio and into commitment, romance, even respecting your elders – the whole gamut!  I had to get the ladies CeCe and Yolanda, along with Erica and Tina of Mary Mary, to help me. It’s a beautiful song without any risqué, ambiguous or alternative messages. This is simply about the heart of God and how He wants us to learn to love purely.”

McClurkin’s pure love for the Lord has grown through crippling adversity that ultimately fortified his faith ten-fold. Born November 9, 1959, in Amityville, New York, his childhood home was mired in domestic violence and drug abuse until an aunt who sang with the great Andrae’ Crouch introduced him to the musical icon who in turn introduced him to his future. Young Donnie played keyboards with his church youth choir before forming the McClurkin Singers with relatives and friends in 1979. Following a calling to preach, he never loosened his grasp on music. In 1989 Donnie started the NY Restoration Choir and recorded the album I See A World, which contained the classic “Speak to My Heart.”

Two near-simultaneous events changed McClurkin’s life forever. Just as he was appointed as an associate minister at Marvin Winans’ Perfecting Church in Detroit, he also learned that he’d been stricken with leukemia. While battling the disease, Donnie was signed to Warner Alliance Records as a solo artist where he recorded his pivotal self-titled album, marked by a smooth sophistication in the production that couched his soaring tenor for a series of soul-stirring numbers. Through BeBe Winans, media mogul Oprah Winfrey learned of Donnie’s music and struggle, invited him on her top-rated TV show , a golden opportunity that catapulted his CD to #4 on the gospel charts, recognition beyond the church world and gold + sales. Donnie soon after signed to Verity Records where his first CD, Live in London and More, would far surpass his solo debut thanks to secular radio embracing his gracefully reassuring “We Fall Down”.  The song met with international acclaim, made the Top 40 of Billboard’s R&B chart and rocketed past platinum sales of over one million copies sold instantly making Donnie among gospel’s best selling artists.

He earned a trophy case full of Dove and Stellar Awards plus other honors including an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Gospel Artist. In 2001 Donnie graduated to establishing his own Perfecting Faith Church in Freeport, New York, all the while continuing to release the magnificent musical works Again (2003) and the double-CD Psalms, Hymns & Spiritual Songs (2005) each one garnering the coveted Grammy Award.

Today, McClurkin’s commitment to spreading God’s word far and wide is most evident in a last minute addition to the We All Are One album titled “Purple,” composed expressly for Donnie by Darren Atwater and performed by his truly inspiring Soulful Symphony in Baltimore, MD. “I’ve known Darren for years,” Donnie states. “I was doing a concert in Baltimore with him last year as a guest with his 40-piece orchestra. During rehearsal he introduced this new song of praise and the minute I heard it I went to hollerin’! I asked him what it was. He told me it was called ‘Purple’ and he’d written it just for me. I loved it so much that even though we were 90% finished with the album, I made room to add this song, which Darren produced himself. Darren Atwater is a genius as an arranger and conductor – manifesting real cultural exchange by bringing classical culture into the gospel environment. He also leads workshops that introduce young African Americans to acoustic instruments and the works of Chopin and Bach without a Pro Tools in sight! It gives them inspiration to maybe pick up a viola or a cello that they may never have experienced within their monoculture.”

Still, at the end of the day, Donnie McClurkin has been and always will be a, card carryin’ member of the Church of God and Christ (COGIC). Donnie bears witness to this fact via the unfiltered jubilance of his soul on the CD’s most exhilarating number, “The Great I Am.”  “Holy Ghost revival songs are our specialty,” Donnie shouts! “I was just over here teaching some of the church members that stopped by how to ‘church dance’…and THAT is the song I played! There was a Bishop by the name of Gilbert Patterson who would always bring the old songs up at praise time. I wanted to write a song just like that, so I sat down to the piano, started playing an old-time gospel feel and this song just leapt out of me! When I got to the studio, the group was like, ‘This is so corny,” but I told `em, ‘Just sing what I tell you to sing!’ That night after Asaph got a hold of the music, and Trent Phillips and the band played it like second nature, the energy in the room just exploded!”

“I’ve always been in awe of God,” Pastor Donnie McClurkin concludes. “I didn’t want anything on my latest offering, We All Are One, to reflect suffering or ‘climbing up that mountain’ in the way to which traditional Black gospel is accustomed. I wanted to luxuriate in and celebrate in the greatness of God.”

Praise Man is a member is a member of the Fort Bend Church Pastor Byron C. Stevenson where he is a member of the male chorus and works with (J-mob) the junior men of the bend. He is a member of Masonic Lodge # 329. He is married to Nakeysha Washington.

Praise Man is currently on the air waves for KROI – Praise 92.1 FM Radio, A Radio-One, Inc. Station, Monday through Friday from 1pm – 6pm and Saturday from 10am to 2pm.

Praise Man motto for life is:
love and hate can never be friends

and you know I love you and there is nothing you can do about it

Her solid church background and love of all kinds of music, which she says: “was inspired by family- everything from Stevie Wonder to Beethoven,” left her with a respect for traditional musical hues, as well as a desire for more contemporary interpretation. “Too many times we’re put in a box by musical labels,” she says. It was while she served as a lead singer with the Southeast Inspirational Choir that Yolanda caught the eye of the prolific composer/producer Thomas Whitfield. He guided her first album, Just As I am for Sound of Gospel Records.

Yolanda went on to sing for the Tribute label in 1990, and was soon hailed as the most versatile contemporary gospel singer since Aretha Franklin. Her brilliant follow-up albums, 1991′s Through The Storm , and 1993′s Save The World won several Stellar awards, Gospel’s highest accolade. 1995′s More Than A Melody propelled her into the world of R and B Gospel, with hit singles such as “Gotta Have Love, ” and “Open Arms.” The disc won a Soul Train Lady Of Soul award, earned her a Grammy nomination, and unforgettable live performance spot on the 1996 Soul Train Music Awards telecast.

Her album, Yolanda…. Live In Washington, snagged her yet another Stellar award, and another Grammy nomination. Her “bring-the-crowd-to-their-feet” reputation has now become the stuff of pop legend. In fact, it was after seeing Yolanda live in New York ‘s Beacon Theater that Elektra’s Chairman Sylvia Rhone (co-executive producer of the new album) decided to sign the vocalist.

Yolanda Adams can now be heard on KROI – Praise 92.1 FM Radio, A Radio-One, Inc. Station, Monday through Friday from 5am – 10am. The Yolanda Adams with Bro. Larry Jones is syndicated in over ten (10) markets.