Born in the suburbs of Nashville, TN, raY’mond found a love for singing at a young age. Soon thereafter those that were closest to him started to see the ability the he harnessed. But it was not until 13 years of age that he wrote and recorded is first song in a small studio.
raY’mond has sung with choirs, quartets, duets, and has done some stage plays. One of the most memorable stage plays that he has to date is; “Dying to Live”, a play directed, produced, casted by Sheri Fayton of H4C Production Co. out of Clarksville, TN.
¬¬He released his first project entitled” The Underground Studio Project “in 2003. This was a project that he considers the “introductory project” into the hustle of the music world. Though his genre can be classified as Contemporary Gospel, he says we would rather not be put into one category or another. raY’mond calls his music “real music”. When asked about this title, he stated” I talk about real issues and you could easily find yourself in one of my songs”. His sophomore project released in the later part of 2005 entitled “The Words the Pen Didn’t Write”. This project had considerably more success than the preceding project. Covering a geographical span of the South, and the Midwest, he successfully toured with this CD for two years.
Between the times that he was working on his own projects he sang behind the likes of Norman Hutchins, Marvin Sapp, Judith C. McAlister, and was momentary mentored by Lamar Campbell, Jerome Robertson, and Marc Harris.
The well anticipated project ,“ The Anatomy of the Spiritual Man”, from those that follow his work have found console in the new single “Wanna Be Real With You”, which has been sprinkled throughout the middle to Northern Tennessee area. raY’mond states that this is the basis of his life being real with those he comes in contact with, himself, and God, his maker.
The projects aforementioned are his solo projects, but raY’mond has done production for a poet and area know publisher: Timothy O. Bond, author of “Charge the Walls”, and his new release: “Fall in Love with the Struggle”. All production, and vocal arrangement was done by raY’mond for the project. Other works stem back to the first poetry CD for Rhea Sunshine out of Knoxville, TN. He also had two songs on a compilation CD for Darklight records, one being a song that is on his new CD entitled: “Revolution”.
His sound has been linked to various artist during his tenure as an artist, the most notable is; John Legend, with his strong but raspy vocal rendition on the single “Surgery” from his new CD. He has shown similarities of the hip-hop legend, Common in some of his lyrical clinics with how he puts words together in a relevant fashion. His vocal range and stage energy has been compared to the today’s gospel icon: Dietrick Haddon.
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