Fred Hammond and Marvin Sapp

Fred Hammond’s journey to musical acclaim started age 12 when he began singing in his local church choir. In his 20s Hammond joined the gospel and R&B crossover band the Winans playing bass and providing vocals. During his tenure with the Winans, Hammond earned his first taste at recognition, which led the singer to form the gospel group Commissioned along with five other members in 1985.

In addition to Hammond’s powerful and often intense vocal delivery, the group’s music showcased the musician’s production and arranging talents. From 1985 until 1991, Commissioned released seven studio albums including “I’m Going On”, “On The Winning Side”, “Ordinary Just Won’t Do”, and “Number 7”. The gospel singer began releasing music as a solo artist in 1991 with the album “I Am Persuaded” followed by “Deliverance” in 1993. It wasn’t however until 1994 that Hammond broke into the charts with his contribution to the Commissioned album “Matters of the Heart”.

In 1995 the singer and bass player formed the gospel group Radical for Christ, through which Hammond witnessed his greatest commercial and critical success to date. Radical for Christ released four albums from 1995 which consistently were awarded Gold certifications. Notably, the album “Pages of Life: Chapter 1 and 2” went double platinum and won the group two Dove Awards for the singles “Let the Praise Begin” in 1998 and “Power” in 1999.

Hammond continued to release a string of albums into the new millennium including “In Case You Missed It… And Then Some”, the festive-themed “Christmas… Just Remember”, “Somethin ‘Bout Love”, the Grammy-Award winning “Free to Worship”, and “Love Unstoppable” – the latter of which topped the Gospel Albums chart in 2009. The album’s successor “God, Love & Romance” once again topped the Gospel Albums chart and charted at No. 8 on the Billboard 200 in 2012. 2013 brought the singer’s eleventh full-length album issued on Verity records, followed one year later by the RCA issued album “I Will Trust”.

Sapp was born in Grand Rapids in Michigan, USA on 28 January 1967. He spent his childhood and teen years singing with at church with various gospel groups. In 1991 he was asked to sing with the gospel group Commissioned. He sung with the group until 1996 and appeared on three of their albums, which were called ‘Number 7’,’ Matters of the Heart’, and ‘Irreplaceable Love’. After he quit the group, he decided to establish himself as a solo artist of contemporary gospel music.

As of 2014 he has recorded seven studio albums and achieved enormous success in his genre. Whilst his music is Christian at its core, and he sings songs of worship, his music also contains crossovers with R&B and Hip Hop. His 2007 hit ‘Never Would Have Made It’ earned him his first dose of real fame as the song was a crossover of the genres. It peaked at number 14 on the R&B/ Hip Hop US chart and at number one on the US Gospel chart. The song featured on his 2007 album ‘Thirsty’ which sold over half a million copies during the time of its release, making it his best-selling album ever.

Sapp has won several awards, most notably his seven Gospel Stellar Awards and two BET Awards.