Lee Vasi is an Atlanta-based Christian R&B artist with a soulful, contemporary sound and an empowering message. She found mainstream success in 2024 with the release of the Billboard-charting single “Teach Me. “Vasi‘s Puerto Rican-Dominican and African American heritage provided her with an expansive set of musical blueprints to work from, and by the age of ten, she was writing her own songs and appearing in the Broadway production of The Lion King in the role of Young Nala.

In 2018, Vasi was a contestant on the 16th season of American Idol, making it into the Top 50 but unable to advance to the final 24. The experience led to a period of personal evaluation that found the young singer-songwriter embracing her Christian faith. 2023 saw the release of “My Bad,” which gained social media traction after her bilingual rendition of the song went viral. “Teach Me” appeared the following year and proved Vasi‘s first chart success, reaching number two on the Billboard Gospel Digital Song Sales chart and number 21 on the Hot Gospel Songs list.

^{Written by James Christopher Monger}

Atlanta-based Christian rapper, author, and pastor William Lee Barefield III is best known to music fans as Trip Lee, modernizing messages of faith with sleekly produced commercial rap tracks. Lee‘s energetic and spiritually driven albums have regularly found their way onto various Billboard charts, with 2012’s The Good Life cross-pollinating gospel and rap charts, and the subsequent 2014 effort Rise even breaking into the top 20 of the Billboard 200. In 2022, Lee released his sixth studio album, The End, and followed the next year with the mixtape The Epilogue.

Lee was born in Dallas, Texas, where in his teenage years he was a founding member of the Southern Christian rap collective 116 Clique. Lee moved from Dallas to attend various Christian universities, first in Philadelphia, then in Louisville, Kentucky. He made his full-length album debut in 2006 with If They Only Knew. His second album, 2008’s 20/20, featured guests and Reach Records labelmates Lecrae, Tedashii, and Sho Baraka. Not only did it break into the Billboard Top 200, but it also broke into the Top Ten of the Christian albums chart.

His success continued with Between Two Worlds in 2010, his first to top the Billboard Christian charts. His second chart-topper, The Good Life, arrived two years later and also broke onto the rap charts. Lee published a book of the same name months later before announcing his intention to focus his message on ministry. He continued writing and became a pastor. In 2014, he released his fifth album, Rise, his highest-charting Billboard 200 entry (number 16) and his third Top Three Christian chart entry. A second book, Rise: Get Up and Live in God’s Great Story, was released in 2015. Lee‘s mixtape, The Waiting Room, appeared near the end of 2016. In 2022, the sixth album, The End, was released, featuring guest appearances from Taylor Hill, KB, Wande, and others. The next year, a companion mixtape entitled The Epilogue came out, this time with contributions from Madison Ryann Ward and Kirk Franklin.

Childlike CiCi, though a native of Brooklyn, New York, was raised in North Carolina. She released her first Christian single, “Souls,” in March 2022 and followed it with her first gospel-rap song a few months later, in October. Although music has been her lifelong passion, she initially kept it a secret. It wasn’t until her senior year of high school that people outside of her family started to find out about her talent.

Even though she was raised in a faith-based family, life challenges led Childlike CiCi to temporarily drift away from her beliefs. Her journey took a turn when she attempted to make secular music, a decision that ultimately led her back to Christ. Despite gaining attention from unworldly artists and record labels, in 2019 God intervened and made it clear that her lifestyle and music were doing the enemy’s work. She realized that she could not serve two masters; she then deleted her social media accounts and wholeheartedly surrendered her life to Christ. The following years were spent strengthening her relationship with the Creator. She also reconnected with a high school acquaintance, who she later married.

It wasn’t until January 2022 that she felt the call to return to music, the way God originally intended. Since then she has been actively pursuing music professionally as a gospel-rap artist.

At just 19 years old, Me’Kayla is poised to revolutionize the Gospel music landscape with her unique blend of a remarkable voice and soulful melodies from a Gen-Z perspective. Hailing from a small town with big dreams, Me’Kayla’s passion for music ignited at an early age, drawing inspiration from the rich traditions of Gospel, Jazz and Blues, while infusing it with the vibrancy and relatability of her generation.

What sets Me’Kayla’s music apart is how she speaks directly to the experiences, challenges, and triumphs faced by her generation. She seamlessly weaves together timeless messages of hope, love, and redemption with modern rhythms and melodies, creating a sound that’s not only spiritually uplifting but also speaks to the realities of the digital age.

Me’Kayla’s musical inspirations are varied and range from Little Richard, Ray Charles, Luther Vandross, Dawkins & Dawkins, and The Clark Sisters, to Jazmine Sullivan and Kim Burrell. In fact, it was Kim Burrell who discovered her on Instagram, and called Harry Connick, Jr. to rave about her. Connick then reached out to a top executive at Motown Gospel, who promptly signed her while she was still in the 12th grade.

The Tennessee State University co-ed is a majorette dancer in the Aristocrat of Bands, as well as a featured vocalist on the bands’ GRAMMY-award winning LP, The Urban Hymnal, which won Best Roots Gospel Album at the 65th GRAMMYS®.

Produced by Sir The Baptist, Aristocrat of Bands is the first collegiate marching band and the first HBCU marching band to ever win the accolade.

Me’Kayla is a name to remember, a voice to cherish, and a beacon of light for all who seek meaning, purpose, and a deeper connection through the universal language of music.