Music Style Hip Hop influenced Gospel music

Musical Influences Stevie Wonder, The Crusaders, Edwin Hawkins, The Winans, Al Green

Artist History I truly cannot recall a day growing up when there was not music playing at my house, says Gospel Artist, Marty Kizer. I was exposed to everything from classic jazz like Duke Ellington to gunfighter ballads from Marty Robbins and I absorbed it all. I am extremely grateful to my parents for exposing me to the Crusaders who to this day are my favorite musical group and influence my music the most. The U.S. Navy petty officer currently stationed at FTC Mayport Florida, is currently one of the most downloaded Gospel artists on the internet. The fact that his songs are downloaded hundred of times a day is evidence that Marty has taken his early music exposure and successfully developed his own individual style. His beat heavy, hip hop influenced Gospel music has formed a solid fan base all over the world as evidenced by e-mails he has received from places as far away as Italy and Spain as well as from all over the continental U.S. and Canada in response to his music. Starting as a DJ in 1989, he soon started making his own music after his wife, Renita bought him a keyboard for Christmas. He started buying more equipment and soon had a full fledged studio centered around a hip hop fundamental piece, the AKAI S-950 sampler. He started producing beats and writing rap lyrics. Soon, he and a shipmate formed a rap duo that recorded and performed in the Hampton Roads, Virginia area. He later took a back seat and worked as a producer and advisor to another rap group that was chosen in part because of his excellent production work to showcase at the highly esteemed Philly Music Conference, a gathering of music industry professionals and hopefuls. After being transferred to San Diego in 1997, Marty made a decision to give up music. That lasted for about a week. Drawn back to his craft because in his words, I simply could not live without music in my life, he put hip hop to the side and started writing and singing. The decision to perform Gospel came shortly after he was transferred back to the east coast 11 months later and really was not his. I was walking down the passageway on the ship I was attached to at the time, and a song popped up in my head. It took me a minute or two to realize that I had never heard it before. After that I was surprised that it was a gospel song. I walked around with that song in my head for about two weeks before I wrote it down and it was another month before I recorded it. He was very reluctant to record and perform Gospel music. Even though he has a strong belief in God and had been Born Again since childhood, he felt that my lifestyle at the time was not that of the model Christian. Who would want to listen to what he had to say? After much prayer and soul searching he finally recorded the song. God helped him realize that Gospel music is about teaching and learning and by putting successes and failures to music, he saw that he could help others see how Jesus has helped him. That first song, Love Always (He Told Me) has become one of his most popular. After recording Love Always, the gospel music started flowing out of him like water. He recorded song after song and then looked for an avenue to showcase the new music. He discovered music on the internet. He had heard so much about mp3s and the controversy surrounding them at the time, he wanted to see what all the fuss was about. He found the website mp3.com and listened to some of the songs on the site. Some were very impressive and some were amateurish. He had found his venue. He felt his music fit in somewhere between the two extremes, plus he was intrigued by the fact that he could develop and design his own CDs, price them, and offer them for sale on his own site. So he found out how to format my music and upload it to his own webpage. Success happened quickly. Songs from the CD, Little Green Books rocketed up the mp3.com gospel charts. One song in particular, Jesus Is Love (Ill Do Anything) rose all the way up to number four on the charts sitting immediately behind songs by gospel legends Shirley Ceasar and James Cleveland for a week and stayed in the top ten for over a month. Another, Old Wayz a rap piece, rose as high as number 5 and has consistently been in the top 40 of the Christian Rap charts since it was uploaded. Deeper Into Thought, a song recorded with his brothers, Paul and Percell, as Gospel Rap trio, Gospel Infusion (www.mp3.com/gospelinfusion) rose to number three on the Spiritual Rap Charts.

Group Members solo artist

Instruments Akai S-950 sampler, Zoom 1201 effects processor, Fruity Loops pro, Magix Studio 5.0, Hercules Game Theater Xp sound card, Alesis Minitor One studio monitors, Alesis ASR16 drum machine/midi controller, Yamaha keyboard

Location Jacksonville, FL - USA

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