“I would describe
my music as timeless. It comes at a time when there’s a lapse in the voice of
everyday people. I think I’m kind of their voice right now.”

Somewhere, there
are members of Arrested Development smiling at the way this 26-year-old
describes his music. The musician named Lyfe Jennings (“I chose the name ‘Lyfe’
because that explains what my music is about.”) is influenced by all that has
gone on in his young life. From church pews to prison blues, you hear it all in
his debut release, Lyfe 286-192.

The singer,
songwriter, and producer’s music has been dubbed everything from folk to
r&b and hip-hop to ghetto gospel. He grew up in Toledo, Ohio, which “hasn’t
really blown up yet,” he says. “There’s just a lot of grinding going on right
now, a lot of rap.” With that influence on the one side, the church helped
round out his voice.

But a young start
in the church choir did not keep Jennings out of trouble. He got caught up with
the law and smacked with a 10-year prison sentence. While paying his debt to
society, he decided to spend his time constructively — and creatively. “I needed
something to be doing. So, I found the music again.” He went back into it 100
percent, teaching himself how to play guitar and writing songs.

“I delved into
that,” he says. “I just used it as an outlet. I spent a lot of time doing it, a
lot of time praying on it.”

Prayer: one thingJennings learned young that was
reinforced in prison. Though he’s not heavily religious (“I think everything
should be done in moderation”), Jennings used to sing a lot of church songs at
the prison’s religious functions. But it was when he was sharing some of his
r&b work with fellow inmate performers at a secular function that he was
inspired to write one of the most controversial and impactive songs on the
album.

“One of the
ladies from the church service got up in front of everyone, being real hard on
me,” he says. “She said, ‘You’re singing for the devil!’ and all that stuff to
me. So, I went back that night and wrote that song.”

“Made Up My Mind”
speaks directly to the churchgoers he has a problem with: “If you speak about
it, you should be about it. Not just preach about it all day / Cause if you do,
you run the risk of chasing some of the most beautiful people away.” He also
speaks candidly to God, asking: “Did they really think that they could pull the
wool over your eyes, Lord / Did they really think that by faking they were
saved that they would get the same reward?”

Jennings began to look at the future
while he was still in prison. “I started seeing a lot of people doing a lot of
time and going home to nothing,” he says. So he took his destiny into his own
hands, celebrating his December 2002 release with a studio recording session
two days later and a club gig the following day.

He won over one
of the toughest crowds, Amateur Night at Harlem’s World Famous Apollo Theater.
And then he won four more times in a row. After selling thousands of copies of
the work he recorded shortly after his release and getting regular airplay for
two singles, he was signed to Sony Urban Music, who released his album last
year.

Jennings looks
forward to a long career, but his goals for his music are more than melodic.

“I think that my
career is going to lead me to speak at different functions for kids, adults, or
whatever,” he says. “I think it’s also going to help a lot of other artists
coming out who tend to shy away from talking about real situations.”

Maybe practicing
what he preaches is what got Lyfe Jennings where he is today and directs where
he’s headed. So what is the bottom-line message of his sermon? “Basically,
everybody goes through the same things on one level or another. And, you can
definitely come back from any problem that you’ve ever had in your life.”

True words spoken
by the voice of everyday people.

Lyfe Jennings | Sunday, July 17 | 4
p.m.

This article appears in Jul 13-19, 2005.