Brent Jones

Gospel vocalist and songwriter Brent Jones intertwines R&B and hip-hop influences and his stylized take on gospel has led to collaborations with artists ranging from Vickie Winans to Childish Gambino. After crossing over to both the Billboard gospel and R&B/hip-hop charts with his group Brent Jones & the T.P. Mobb's self-titled debut in 1999 and Beautiful in 2002, he reached the gospel Top Ten with the softer, more soulful solo release Joy Comin' in 2014. Open Your Mouth and Say Something consolidated Jones' success in 2018, setting the stage for "a quadruple release" of four new albums in 2024.

Los Angeles native Brent Ray Jones began studying the piano at the age of six and was appointed music director of his church by his mid-teens. As an adult, his group Brent Jones & the T.P. Mobb made their recording debut on Motown's 1994 compilation Motown Comes Home. The comp featured such Motown luminaries as Smokey Robinson and the Temptations, as well as Jones' composition "Spirit Control Me." The group issued its self-titled debut in 1999, offering over a dozen selections of hopeful devotional fare with a hybrid of mellow R&B, West Coast hip-hop rhyme routines, and traditional gospel choir arrangements. They returned in 2002 with Beautiful, an album that scored a hit with "Midnight," a tune featuring SWV member Coko. Their third album, The Ultimate Weekend, was released in 2007 and, after a recording hiatus, Jones returned in 2014 with the solo LP Joy Comin', featuring the Orange County Gospel Choir.

In 2016, Brent Jones & the Best Life Singers provided choral accompaniment for multiple tracks on Donald Glover's 2016 Childish Gambino album, "Awaken, My Love!" Jones' solo follow-up, Open Your Mouth and Say Something, reached number three on the Billboard gospel chart upon its arrival in 2018. That album was so successful that it spawned a singalong version in 2019 and a deluxe edition called Open Your Mouth and Say Something 2.0, which arrived in 2021.

Jones appeared on the soundtrack for Trolls World Tour in 2020, then returned with the full-length Nothing Else Matters (Instead of Complaining, Praise Him) in 2022; it won a Stellar Award for Choir of the Year in 2023.

Jones embarked on an ambitious 2024 set, "A Quadruple Release," consisting of four separate albums. The first of these was Brent Jones Presents The Fire, which introduced a children's gospel ensemble. Open Your Mouth (The Sermon) arrived next, followed by Live Your Best Life! and The Praise & Worship Songs of Brent Jones. ~ Fred Thomas & Marcy Donelson, Rovi