The New Life Community Choir

The New Life Community Choir is an award-winning gospel ensemble known for incorporating elements of hip-hop and modern R&B into their songs of praise. ∙ Choir founder James P. Kee was a child prodigy who mastered the piano, flute, and drums while still in elementary school, and who performed with Cameo and Donald Byrd as a teenager. ∙ Kee founded The New Life Community Choir in the mid-’80s, with the choir’s original membership largely composed of former addicts and criminals who had turned their lives around. ∙ Their third LP, 1991’s Wash Me, spent 40 weeks on Billboard’s Top Gospel Albums chart, eventually peaking at No. 2. ∙ Show Up! sold more than 500,000 copies—an impressive number for a gospel album on a small independent label—and won the 1996 Soul Train Music Award for Best Gospel Album. ∙ The ensemble was voted Choir of the Year at the 2002 Stellar Awards. ∙ In 2005, Kee was inducted into the International Gospel Music Hall of Fame, as well as the Christian Music Hall of Fame in 2007, in recognition of his work with the NLCC and as a solo artist.