Reflections: How he does it…now

In 1995, Montell Jordan had a huge hit with “This Is How We Do It.” It remained No. 1 on the national R&B and Pop charts for an amazing seven weeks, and he had a number of additional successes.

He announced in 2010 that he was leaving R&B and moving into church work and gospel music. In 2011 he had an album titled “Shake Heaven” that is still on the charts. He is the worship minister at Victory World Church, in Atlanta.
Jordan, whose real name, by the way, is Montell Du’Sean Barnett, is very smart and highly educated. He has a bachelor’s degree in communications from Pepperdine University.

Over the years, a number of R&B recording artists have made the switch to gospel, including Stacy Lattisaw, Shirley Murdock and Táta Vega.

NOW FOR something far removed from the kinds of things Montell Jordan is doing.

From the “Hair Wars” organization comes word that a young lady from Detroit who calls herself Kristina the Hair Tech was first place winner in the Fantasy segment of the Bronner Bros. International Hair Show that took place recently in Atlanta.

It’s easy to see why she won. This hairstyle is wild and unlike anything anyone had ever seen (well, hardly anyone). Kristina sure has a vivid imagination!

Kevin Carter, also from Detroit, placed first in the Battle Royal Competition.

Congrats to both!

AS YOU may have heard, comedian/actor D.L. Hughley will be among the contestants when ABC’s enormously successful “Dancing With The Stars” starts its 16th season on March 18. That should be interesting.

Hughley will be dancing with Cheryl Burke, who won the mirror ball trophy with light-on-his-feet pro football player Emmitt Smith in season three.

Chris Brown was petty and juvenile to not applaud when Frank Ocean was announced as the winner of the Best Urban Contemporary Album at the recent Grammy Awards ceremony. Brown thought he should have won. The two young stars have been feuding, and at one point it even got physical.

It is ironic and, of course, sad that two former members of the Temptations, Damon Harris (1971-1975) and Richard Street (1971-1995) died within nine days of each other. Both departed the group following conflict with leader/co-founder Otis Williams. Also strange: The Temptations have a higher mortality rate than any Motown group.
VH1 IS making a movie about the career and lives of TLC, the group consisting of Tionne Watkins (“T-Boz”), Rozonda Thomas (“Chilli”) and Lisa Lopes (“Left Eye”) who had so many hits in the ’90s. It’s titled “Crazy, Sexy, Cool: The TLC Story.”

It would be difficult to believe that Jermaine Jackson changed his surname to “Jacksun” for any other reason than to generate publicity, even though he says it was done “for artistic reasons.” Over the years he has proven to be very good at getting spotlights pointed in his direction.

Kerry Washington, star of the hot series “Scandal,” says that after reading the script, her agent said, “It’s almost as if Shonda Rhimes wrote this script for you.” Rhimes is also the creator of the long-running “Grey’s Anatomy.” (Can’t you just imagine the size of her paychecks!)

IT IS interesting that not many women are really into jazz. Most believe that it is because women want words and jazz is usually instrumental. I remember going to a Miles Davis concert at Masonic Auditorium and the audience was about 80 percent male.

Mary J. Blige’s next project will be a movie for the Lifetime network titled “Betty and Coretta,” about Betty Shabazz, wife of Malcolm X, and Coretta Scott King, wife of Martin Luther King Jr. Blige will portray Sha­bazz.

I don’t understand two things: why Fantasia got so bent out of shape about Jet magazine using an old picture on the cover, and so many being upset about some of Seth MacFarlane’s jokes throughout the Academy Awards, which he hosted. True, some jokes were lacking in taste, but the talented and “outside the box” MacFarlane was just being himself.

BETCHA DIDN’T KNOW…that Smokey Robinson once wrote a song strangely titled “Our Lips Just Seem to Rhyme Every Time.” It was released on a Marvelettes album.

MEMORIES: “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher” (Jackie Wilson), “Dance With My Father” (Luther Vandross), “You Brought the Sunshine (Into My Life)” (the Clark Sisters), “Sweet Baby” (Stanley Clarke and George Duke), “A Penny For Your Thoughts” (Tavares), “Shackles” (R.J.’s Latest Arrival), “When She Was My Girl” (the Four Tops), “You Should Be Dancing” (the Bee Gees), “Tonight I Celebrate My Love” (Roberta Flack and Peabo Bryson), “What Does It Take (To Win Your Love)?” (Jr. Walker & the All Stars.

BLESSINGS to Ken Donaldson, Larry Demps, Marie Bryant, Gerald W. Smith, Dorothy Simpson, Jim Campbell, Arma Suggs, William Andrews Jr., Carol Prince and Andrew Humphrey.

WORDS OF THE WEEK, from Paul McCartney: “You’ve got to get it, just in case it doesn’t come around again.”
Let the music play!

(Steve Holsey can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and PO Box 02843, Detroit, MI 48202.)

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