Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: One of my favorites in the whole wide world. On the phone with me right now, J.J. hairston. How are you?
[00:00:07] Speaker B: I'm great, Randy. How are you?
[00:00:09] Speaker A: I'm doing so good now that I'm talking to you. A lot of stuff going on in both of our lives. You got a whole church you're running, your music and your family. I follow you on social media, so I know you've been busy.
[00:00:25] Speaker B: You know I've been busy, but never too busy to talk to Randy Miles. I'm gonna tell you right now, you are one of our favorites in the so thank you so much for always supporting us. And the fact that you're following us and we're following each other after all these years just brings our heart so much joy.
[00:00:40] Speaker A: Absolutely. You posted something a while back when we were talking about the Soul Train Awards and everybody was up in arms and you had something so profound about supporting gospel music and kingdom music and how important it is to do so so that we don't have instances like that that happens.
[00:01:03] Speaker B: Absolutely. I think that, you know what, what we fail to want to admit is that some of these award shows are drawn to influence. They're not drawn to, you know, godly character or good music, as much as we would love for that to be the draw, but they're drawn to what's going to influence and draw and draw viewers and listeners.
So those people who win these awards are the ones who they feel are going to draw the most views. So we have to show that we are just as interested in seeing our.
Our people on those platforms by supporting them when they're not on those platforms. Buy their music, stream their music, watch their videos, watch their YouTube videos. So that will show that these people have influence and they'll want them to be a part of their shows.
[00:01:49] Speaker A: Absolutely. Amen. And amen. Well, you have. Speaking of new music, you have a brand new project out and the new single is called Lift It Up. How is that going?
[00:02:01] Speaker B: So I love this song. It's called Lift It Up. It's from our new project that just released called Youthful the live Reunion.
Randy, all, literally all the members of Youth Appraised. I mean, from day one all the way to those who just joined, all came together and did a live recording and just we redid a lot of our old songs and we were also recorded some of our new music. And I love the way it came out. And Lift it up is the lead single from that project.
[00:02:28] Speaker A: Oh, my goodness. Yeah. I was telling you off the air, I really loved that song. That I forgot about that. I remember when the E blasts were going out about the live recording and how many people actually showed up to do this.
[00:02:42] Speaker B: Yeah, it was crazy. Tamela, man, she's a part of it. Melvin Crispell, Tim Bowman Jr. All some of my friends and favorites came together just to like really celebrate what God has done for us over the last 25 years. We've been recording music for 25 years now.
[00:02:59] Speaker A: Come on. You making me feel old.
[00:03:01] Speaker B: I hate saying it.
Our first record released in the year 2000. So we decided to do a 25 year reunion. And the good thing is we're showing that we're still releasing new music, which is what? Lift it up is one of our new songs. And I'm so proud of the way it came out. Even my cousin Pamela Hairston leading the song with me.
[00:03:22] Speaker A: That is so cool. Hey, listen, was it Incredible God? Incredible Praise was the first hit.
[00:03:28] Speaker B: No, that came from our third record. The first record had a song called awesome God. God is an awesome God. Our choirs were singing it. And then in 2005 we released live the Praise of worship, which had incredible God on it. So we released 13 albums now, Randy, it's crazy.
The time has flown.
[00:03:49] Speaker A: Yeah, I have to see if I can find a video and send it to you. But my granddaughters learned praise dance to Incredible God. Incredible praise.
[00:04:00] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:04:00] Speaker A: Performed it to me on FaceTime. I was like, oh my gosh, JJ needs to hear about this.
[00:04:07] Speaker B: Yes, I'd love to see it.
[00:04:09] Speaker A: Well, let's listen to the brand new single. It's called Lifted up on the Detroit Braids Network.
[00:04:14] Speaker B: Clap your hand, Joaquin High and the theater.
[00:04:21] Speaker A: That is the brand new single, Lifted Up. JJ Harrison and all the youthful praise.
[00:04:27] Speaker B: All the youthful praise. Exactly.
There was 65 of us on stage, Randy, so that's what you hear. It's that big sound.
[00:04:35] Speaker A: I love it. I absolutely love it. It's a difference between when a Praise team is eight people, then 65 for sure.
[00:04:43] Speaker B: Absolutely. You know, it's so funny. I love praise teams. You know, I passed our church, obviously, and we have multiple praise teams. But I was not content even with our church until we had a church quiet. Because I just believe there's something special about having a large group of people coming together and being sync and worshiping and praising together. So as much as I love praise teams, I'm so proud of that. The youthful praise is you might see us come out with eight or nine singers or six singers even. But when it's time for us to record, you'll See all of us together.
[00:05:14] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. It's a big deal. And I know that that's near and dear to your heart because of your background with Triumph Church coming in and a resident for us. And I truly appreciate the choir. And that's another thing that we can get into, but we won't because.
[00:05:32] Speaker B: We'Ll get no trouble.
[00:05:34] Speaker A: I still love hard singing. I don't care what anybody.
[00:05:39] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:05:40] Speaker A: Well, listen, how's the church going for you?
[00:05:43] Speaker B: The church is amazing. I'm just so grateful for the fact my wife and I get to pastor these people together. And I say all the time, when we travel, when we travel as youthful for age, you know, I'll exhort. I'll get to minister a little bit. And prayerfully, we're planting seeds. And, you know, those people will be able to, you know, grow in their own spiritual walk in there, several destinations and churches. But at my church, I get to plant seeds and watch them grow.
[00:06:09] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:06:10] Speaker B: So it's just been amazing to see people come in one way and gradually become something new.
[00:06:16] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:06:16] Speaker B: It's the greatest joy that I can't explain. And I have. I'm just so honored that God has trusted us in this way.
[00:06:22] Speaker A: Yeah. Both of you all, I love watching your video clips because both of y' all preach your faces often.
I absolutely love it. Well, where can we find Lifted up and all things JJ Harrison and youthful praise?
[00:06:38] Speaker B: So lift it up and the entire record, the live reunion are on all digital platforms now. You can go to YouTube and all of the. There's a video for every song there. But of course, Apple Music, itunes, Amazon, all those platforms have our music. And you can follow me on social media. My Instagram is @jj Hairston on tick tock is JJ Hairston as well. I'm posting videos of songs and preaching clips there. And even if you want to follow our church pages at Gathering Place DC On Instagram.
[00:07:10] Speaker A: Absolutely. Well, I follow all of that, and I appreciate what you all do for the kingdom of God. And, you know, it's a pleasure always talking to you. I love you and Trina so much. So thank you so much for taking some time out with me.
[00:07:26] Speaker B: We love you. Thank you so much for having me, Randy.
