Brent Jones

Californian gospel songwriter Brent Jones first emerged as the leader of Brent Jones & the T.P. Mobb on Motown's 1994 compilation Motown Comes Home. The comp featured such Motown luminaries as Smokey Robinson and the Temptations, as well as Jones' composition "Spirit Control Me." The sound the group came up with was a more street-minded take on gospel, intertwining R&B influences in the same way as contemporaries like Kirk Franklin. The group issued its self-titled debut in 1999, dressed on the cover in gangster garb but offering over a dozen selections of hopeful devotional fare, delivering Jones' songs with a hybrid of mellow R&B, West Coast hip-hop rhyme routines, and traditional gospel choir arrangements. The group returned in 2002 with Beautiful, an album that scored a massive hit with "Midnight," a tune featuring SWV member Coko. Third album The Ultimate Weekend was released in 2007 and, after a hiatus, Jones returned in 2014 with the softer, more soulful tones of Joy Comin'.