Hezekiah Walker

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Hezekiah Walker

Background information
Birth name	Hezekiah Xavier Walker, Jr.
Origin	Brooklyn, New York
Genre(s)	Gospel
Occupation(s)	Songwriter, choral director, minister
Years active	1985-present
Label(s)	Benson Verity

Hezekiah Xavier Walker, Jr. (born December 24, 1962 in Brooklyn, New York^[1]^[2]) is a Grammy Award-winning gospel music artist and pastor of prominent Brooklyn, New York megachurch Love Fellowship Tabernacle. ^[3] ^[4]

1 Musical career
- 1.1 Discography
2 Personal life
- 2.1 Rumors and allegations
3 External links
4 References

[edit] Musical career

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (April 2007)

Hezekiah Walker has released several albums on Benson Records and Verity Records as Hezekiah Walker & The Love Fellowship Crusade Choir.

In 2001, Hezekiah & The Love Fellowship Crusade Choir were nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Best Gospel Artist, Traditional on the strength of the album Love Is Live! The group has won Grammy Awards for Best Gospel Album By Choir Or Chorus twice: once for Live in Atlanta at Morehouse College (1994), and once for Love Is Live! (2001).

Separate from The Love Fellowship Crusade Choir, Walker's LFT Church Choir released an album entitled Recorded Live At Love Fellowship Tabernacle in 1998. LFT Church Choir was more youthful and hip-hop leaning ensemble than its predecessor and its album hit the Top 5 of Billboard's Gospel Chart^[5] and was nominated for a Grammy Award the same year.^[6].

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

I'll Make It (Sweet Rain, 1989)
Oh Lord We Praise You (Sweet Rain, 1991)
Focus On Glory (A&M, 1992)
Live In Toronto (Verity, 1993)
Live in Atlanta At Morehouse College (Benson, 1994)
Live In New York By Any Means Necessary (Benson, 1995)
Live In London (Verity, 1997)
Presents The LFT Mass Choir (Verity, 1998)
Family Affair (Verity, 1999)
Hezekiah Walker Presents LFT Church Choir: Love Is Live (Verity, 2001)
Family Affair, II: Live at Radio City Music Hall (Verity, 2002)
20/85 The Experience (Verity, 2005)

[edit] Compilations

Gospel Greats (Benson, 1995)
Hooked On The Hits (Verity, 2003)
The Gospel Soundtrack (Verity, 2005)
Essential Hezekiah Walker (Legacy Recordings, 2007)

[edit] Notable singles

"99½" (Benson, 1995) - Cassette Single
"Let's Dance" (Jive/Verity, 1999) - CD Single/12" Single

[edit] Personal life

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (April 2007)

Walker is sometimes affectionately referred to as "the Hip-Hop Pastor" due to the number of high-profile secular hip-hop recording artists who attend his church, such as Foxy Brown and Sean "Diddy" Combs.^[7]

[edit] Rumors and allegations

On February 15, 2006, an article entitled "Prominent Black Minister Is Gay" appeared on Media Take Out's website. According to the story Pastor Walker's divorce was caused because he wanted to get his wife and children out of the house so he could carry on an affair he was having with an unnamed cross-dressing man. This turned out to be completely made up. However, before the truth was established, the story was picked up by many sources on the internet, including Musicnewsweekly.com. This prompted a statement by Hezekiah Walker explaining about the story that "it’s all lies...it’s completely false and not even remotely true" ^[8] Tim Hunter, founder of Music News Weekly, later appoligized in a public post entitled "Hezekiah Walker and Gay Affair Story False". Although this rumor has proven to be baseless, it still lives on as an urban legend, particularly in web postings and on blogs.