For those who aren’t familiar, Bishop Walter Hawkins passed recently, and he was a prolific and legendary Gospel artist and songwriter. He opened a lot of doors and set a lot of standards in terms of how Black church and choral music are written and produced in my opinion. His passing was a great loss to the Gospel music community at large. The tribute service was held yesterday (7/20) in Oakland, and will be airing on Sunday on the GMC (Gospel Music Channel). Many luminaries and Gospel “stars” were in the house to pay tribute to this great man, and I look forward to watching it on Sunday night.

However, someone got a video of blog favorite Ledisi singing one of his signature songs “Be Grateful”, and when I tell you, for someone who isn’t a strictly “Gospel” singer, she absolutely did her BEST singing on this song! She just to’ this up and sent it up to Heaven. Walter is playing this video on his iPad. I promise!

That’s a TRIBUTE. That’s what I expect! Not what Chris Brown did at the BET Awards. THIS.

And I love Ledisi and ya’ll know she can almost do no wrong in my book.

RIP Walter Hawkins!