WATCH | MAJOR. Talks Love, Legacy, And The Power Of Soulful Music - video Dailymotion

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Our Chief Content Officer Michele Ghee sits down with MAJOR to discuss his award-winning career and how his soulful music continues to inspire love around the world.   Director: Stephanie Duncan  Production Manager: Kendoysa Pratt Entertainment Editor: Okla Jones  Director, Post Production: Stephanie Duncan Filmed at: ESSENCE Studios  Want to see the latest stories on ESSENCE.com ►► https://www.essence.com/bio/  Get the best of ESSENCE delivered right in your inbox ►► https://www.essence.com/newsletters/?source=header_nav%C2%/A0 Want to hear more from our editors? Subscribe to the magazine ►► https://subs.essence.com/pubs/EV/ESS/Self_Gift_subscriptions_Site_Dec_2024.jsp?cds_page_id=281821&cds_mag_code=ESS&id=1737493737517&lsid=50211500278059927&vid=6  Download the E360 App ►► https://apps.apple.com/us/app/e360-app/id1382387491  ESSENCE YouTube Channels:  ESSENCE GU: @girlsunitedbyessence9585 Afropunk: @afropunk Beautycon: @BeautyConTV NaturallyCurly: @naturallycurly   Want to see more Essence Videos? Subscribe to our channel!! http://www.youtube.com/subscription_c...  Connect with Essence Facebook:    https://www.facebook.com/essence Twitter:     https://x.com/Essence Youtube:     //www.youtube.com/@ESSENCEMAG TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@essence?lang=en

Transcript

00:00but you know a little song about love 160 million views yeah yeah that's the and that's on on on

00:07youtube alone for that for that this is why i love you come on yeah this is why i love this is like

00:17no no you gotta put essence in this you yes this is why i love yeah right because you customize it

00:25for your wedding so i want a little customization listen essence i just gave it to you okay this is

00:31why i love you since oh man that's so good

00:39so welcome to our home yes in brooklyn yes so i wanted you to walk through major because you've

00:54been a major part of our family but you haven't been to this location and the first time i got

00:58to this location i walked through and it's so such an honor to be able to come to work every day with

01:04no mask on being able to be yourself so i hope you felt the love i did it's a lot of great energy here

01:10you can see everybody working at their stations in their respective areas it's a lot of love

01:16and uh i i i would only expect that especially with you being here because that's what you bring

01:23you you bring light you are light and um and you're going you're going to accept the compliments

01:29on this because you've been rocking for a long time michelle the people need to know essence

01:34powerhouses like this is why we have the production and the movement that is essence i appreciate i have

01:40an amazing team and this is amazing family right that we get to work for so you said the word love

01:45so our cultural affirmation is we love us i like that i love that because if nobody else is gonna

01:50love us we're gonna love ourselves and i think we show up every day with the content the stories we

01:56tell the people that work here but you know a little song about love 160 million views yeah yeah

02:04that's and that's on on on youtube alone for that for that this is why i love you come on

02:11this is why i love you this is why no no you gotta put essence in this

02:18you yes this is why i love you yeah right because you customize it for your wedding so i want a little

02:25customization listen essence i just gave it to you okay this is why i love

02:31oh man that's so good that's so good so listen it has been a journey essence was one of the uh

02:44first publications to show me love for that song eight years ago and to be here now uh with you all

02:52and able to say that it's since gone platinum it has changed my life mr stevie wonder said i believe

03:00this will be the wedding love for you wedding love song for years to come and sure enough it has

03:05been that um so many beautiful women in the black community have embraced the song as their anthem

03:12of learning how to love themselves uh just as much as they give it so it's it's a beautiful thing

03:18yeah you know so let's are in 2025 true a lot of things happen already active 2025 already active we had

03:26we had an inauguration yes we did we don't even need to get into politics but can i just say this

03:31that you're also prophetic because you created a song talking about praying for people yeah right and

03:41can i tell you that this country literally needs that right now yeah um and i love the fact that you

03:47pray and i love the fact that you're being recognized for because oftentimes we're saying don't bring

03:51prayer into work people don't want to recognize prayer but you're being nominated for an naacp image

03:56award true true true uh this this is actually i prayed for you is the name of the song um and i'm

04:04super excited about it because it's an anthem that literally can soundtrack you just getting back to

04:11the wind and the remembrance that you're not alone it's a love letter that i wrote to the ones i love

04:18into the heart of this world that we're gonna be all right life lives that's one thing we can depend

04:25on life doing life in and um and it comes with the ebbs and the flows the good and the bad the trials

04:32and the triumph and it's just a choosing of joy a choosing of hope that keeps us anchored in the midst

04:40of it all and so i prayed for you is that love letter it's a message of encouragement of i saw you

04:47i talked to the lord on your behalf yeah that's yeah and it's and it's special a lot of people are

04:53embracing it the fact that the image awards have nominated me for outstanding gospel christian song

05:02is big because you know i sing at the intersection i'm a mainstream soul singer that also happens to be

05:09from the church which most soul singers are ray charles you know aretha franklin major you know

05:15it's um it's it's pretty special because uh image awards is showing me a lot of love

05:24and this is my ninth nomination so what i'm praying for is my first win yeah you know what and it's

05:32going to happen because we're going to manifest that it says we're two or more gathered let's go

05:35it's going to happen right now we're two or more vote also vote dot naacp image awards dot net vote

05:44major i prayed for you is that how well yeah so they're going to have a call to action and we

05:48so we're going to tell our whole community to first of all listen click and then vote because we have

05:54the power to elect president so i know we have the power to elect major as his first image award winning

06:02moment please do that for your good brother we're going to we're going to ask our community to do

06:07that so something is special no and we're not we don't hear some of it but but i want to talk about

06:12this because i didn't i didn't know this and then you know i'm googling what's going on in la of course

06:16we're covering it we're talking about it and you got an evacuation notice the same day that you got

06:23not to the naacp more specifically this was on tuesday we find out you know the image awards uh

06:32the nominations i'm excited i'm grateful to be in the number to hear my name called and then

06:40less than 24 hours later the wildfires wow it's it was heart-wrenching gut-wrenching to see

06:49um so many uh devastated and impacted by this and of course i did what every hope dealer does

06:57because i'm my mama's favorite no no yo that's what your mama calls you yeah yeah i'm the hope

07:02dealer uh but i did what you know what just came natural and i'm encouraging people and i'm letting

07:08them know you know listen uh make a to-go bag uh remember all of your essentials and i'm saying all

07:14this less than 24 hours later after that we get the evacuation uh notice a mandate in our area and

07:22it was it was it was pretty scary but um me and my wife were prepared to get on the road and thankfully

07:29we were able to return to a community that wasn't uh devastated by the fires but la is hurting right

07:37now altadena pasadena palisade so many have lost so much and um i'm just showing up to be helped so

07:47this it's been a bittersweet time because i want to celebrate this nomination but i'm an empath so i

07:54feel the pain and the heartbreak and the heartache of so many and i just got to show up you know yeah

08:01you know what's been really interesting is i didn't know all of the history right and through tragedy

08:06there's always awareness and awakening information and what i'm dina yeah yeah and what i love about

08:12this community is we're not gonna allow each other to fail it's just we're not gonna do it

08:15now i really believe community just just like essence because essence is truly community yes it's

08:23it's it's the richness of community but i believe community is the expression of god's heart concerning

08:30us it's the hands and feet at work and so i'm just encouraging people to continue to show up for

08:38one another yes life is hard and rough for everybody but when we realize that we're not

08:45alone in this we can get through it together yeah i love that so i only have one more question i don't

08:52want listen you're on your way to the airport i appreciate you stopping through oh for having sake

08:57to make we try to make this home place where people can come and share and be loved on and let

09:04you know that we're loving you and we can get you voted in um so what else are you working on i i was

09:10my family knows i love to watch a christmas movie and i was flipping i turned on i said is that my

09:17friend major in this christmas movie it was so good it was so a heart for christmas you and your

09:24co-star was up to some some uh fully wang some yeah yeah it was it was it was a good time uh a

09:29heart for christmas is still streaming for everybody that hasn't taken down their christmas tree

09:34or their christmas lights for those that wait till easter to take them down it's still up it's

09:41streaming a heart for christmas on amazon prime to be so good pluto tv check it out it's got some

09:48amazing talent in it it's really good and and what else are you working on what else because you listen

09:54you're acting yes of course i'm an actor um and uh on uh nbc found uh next um thursday um it's going

10:04to be i'm a guest starring in the tv series found um and so i'm super super excited about that that

10:11that show is about missing brown and black kids uh that go under the radar it's a drama um a black

10:18lead who's brilliant named shinola she's amazing i was honored uh to be a part of that production

10:25shout out to nkeche who actually is the creator of the show but also the creator of all american

10:32and it's a black woman doing her thing so it's it's a beautiful thing essence is everywhere of course

10:39we are so final question you've been how many times you've been to essence music fest with the

10:45other 400 000 500 000 amazing black women that descend upon new orleans probably 10 10 years

10:54engaged with essence fest 10 years yeah because even before why i love you um my first essence fest

11:02was singing background for michelle williams no and it was a last minute fill-in because one of

11:09her background singers on the way there ended up having a flat tire so i had to step in

11:14and she also featured me singing a song on a stage and we got highlighted for for uh top 10 moments of

11:23essence fest and and for some reason i keep getting these top 10 moments these these moments on the

11:30essence fest recap so i've done the name stage i've done the main stage remember our sister

11:35ivan was one of the producers i think that's how did we meet through ivan we no we didn't meet directly

11:41through ivan we met through uh bet because okay people need to know my sister started

11:47bet her oh my god okay okay she's been about this black female excellence back to you back to you

11:57back to now that's major no but essence fest is always a good time i encourage anybody who hasn't

12:05gone to make sure you are there it is a reunion it is it is a connection now it ain't just a girl's

12:13trip yeah y'all get to do your thing but they got plenty of stuff for us guys because we have a good

12:18time everybody coming together the community coming together it's a big family reunion it is

12:23it is yeah y'all get to do your girl's trip thing and that's absolutely because will pack is a friend

12:28of mine you know i want to do yeah i see that i see that and and he's my fraternity brother so you

12:32know salute and he's got his new book that he's killing it and so um but his brother has a new song

12:39called i pray for you zoom in you're welcome um this is a stress ball that i'm giving you

12:46and in case you ever needed the reminder when stuff gets crazy body it won't hurt just say i prayed for

12:53you i'm praying for you that's great yeah that's that's for you this is for me i think this is for

12:59you listen that's you know i'm an independent artist whose mama named a major so i gotta i gotta

13:04promote us well we're gonna help you get that name so listen i'm gonna say thank you now but i'm

13:10gonna move out the way okay because i would love for you to have an unplugged moment oh and do a little

13:17i pray for you for all the millions of people that are gonna see this excellent okay i'm gonna go

13:23all right so beautiful people it's a whole lot going on in the world and i know sometimes it feels

13:32lonely when life does what it's gonna do life i'm the hope dealer more specifically my mama's favorite

13:41hope dealer and to have a song that i wrote as a love letter to the ones i love and to the heart of

13:47this world that we gonna be all right it's called i prayed for you i'm gonna do a little acapulco

13:54but i hope you listen to these words and to every woman listening every black woman watching

14:04know that i prayed for you says i said a prayer for you i said a prayer i said a prayer for you i said this

14:19prayer i prayed you take the moment i prayed you take the time to see that you were special

14:29and always on my mind i prayed for you i sang a song for you i sang this song i sang a song for you

14:42i sang this song as the flowers fill the garden and the oceans greets ashore the horizons of the sunshine

14:54that of you i do adore i prayed i prayed for you i spoke a word for you i spoke this word

15:06i spoke a word for you i spoke this word i said end this senseless violence but arrest a prideful gain

15:19there's a message in the silence that can heal our earthly pain i prayed i prayed i prayed for you

15:27holy waters

15:29sons and daughters

15:32revive our land

15:37that we may rise

15:39again

15:40holy waters

15:43sons and daughters

15:45re-fire the land

15:47so i prayed

15:52i prayed

15:55you take the moment

15:56i prayed you take the time

15:59i prayed you take the time

16:01to see that you were special

16:05and always on my heart and my mind

16:09made you pray

16:11yeah

16:16we gonna be alright y'all

16:19I prayed for you

WATCH | MAJOR. Talks Love, Legacy, And The Power Of Soulful Music

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