Macy Gray

The ability to compose refreshingly candid music that resonates deeply with listeners is a rarity in music. Few artists possess this tool, however, R&B/soul singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer, Macy Gray, is one of them. With her vivacious voice, unshakable grip on soul, and funky spirit, Gray knows how to wield the power of music, which sets her apart from her contemporaries.

Originally from Canton, OH, Gray came to Los Angeles to attend USC for scriptwriting. While in school she started to write songs for her friends and found her voice when the singer scheduled to record the demos did not show up. That fateful day, a legendary career was born.

Gray broke into the music scene in 1999 with the release of her debut, triple-platinum album, ON HOW LIFE IS, she has become a powerhouse of R&B and Soul. She has amassed a devoted global fan base and sold over 25 million total albums globally. A five-time GRAMMY® Nominee, Gray received the GRAMMY® Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance in 2000 for her iconic song “I Try” and has received two BRIT Awards.

Now two decades into her storied career, the fully formed, multi-tiered artist has collaborated with brilliant musical mavens including Bobby Brown, Ariana Grande, and Galactic – just to name a few. She continues to be a force of nature on tour, as well and sells out venues in nearly every corner of the globe. Her talents also resound beyond music. She starred in Tyler Perry’s Black Reel Award-Winning Film For Colored Girls and has graced screens everywhere with her appearance in the show Brotherly Love and Cardboard Boxer and NETFLIX’s hit show Fuller House. Moreover, she made a now-legendary appearance in Training Day alongside Academy® Award winner Denzel Washington — one of many on-screen hallmarks.

Gray continues to bring her lofty goals to life and has exploded back onto the music scene in 2024 with her newly released single “I AM’,” a duet with BIG FREEDIA. Making yet another bold stamp on music, the duo created an all-inclusive, positive, anthem for the ages. In the tradition of bounce music, this bass pounding, booty shaking track will get you out of your seat and onto the dance floor shaking what the “good Lord gave you” before you know it. The positive message will vibrate through your soul and become your mantra…”I AM WHO I AM” reinforcing with everyone within earshot that they are enough and should be proud of who they are. “Imagine a world where you can be. Be who you are and let me be me. I’m telling everybody. I am who I am” Gray released The Reset with her band The California Jet Club in 2023, with hopes to create further discussion about what is happening in today’s world and will help redefine what Pop music should be while still providing music lovers with amazing music, good times and a great message. The first single from the album, “’Thinking of You’ is a song of resilience and is heavily inspired by what we as a nation have learned over the past 12 months undergoing the pandemic,” says Gray about her new single. “It encompasses my revelations about the power of human connection, self-love, and celebrates the sheer spirit and courage we as a country have demonstrated in the fight to overcome the virus.”

The album is titled The Reset because Macy, like so many of us, feels like that’s what this awkward, often painful period is like to live through. “God is telling us to rethink the things that we are doing… How we’re livin’. Like Pandora’s Box, a lot of things have sprung out that people had stopped paying attention to. The world is having a reset. Whether it’s a good one or a bad one, we’ll find out. I use to believe everything happens for a reason. Now…I just don’t know.”

Among the most striking of the new songs is “America,” a song like all of Macy’s lyrics, that came to her while she was on the mic, spontaneously inspired by music from her band. “I just remember feeling really let down by my country. I don’t know if I’d ever felt that before… like, walking around telling everybody. ‘I live in the greatest country in the world’ then being hit with the thought, ‘Maybe I don’t.’

Having a president that was really negative and very divisive, and that being o.k. with so many people. Your neighbors revealing where they’re really coming from. I know America has flaws and we have a long way to go. But I don’t remember ever feeling this disappointed. Putting all of that into words didn’t come to me until I was on the mic and my drummer started playing that beat. I started singing then Billy and Alex started working on it. That song was written pretty fast.”

For a cover tune, the band landed on the minefield “Cop Killer,” a controversial heavy metal song remembered from that time when rap star Ice-T decided he wanted to front a band – the Black Rock septet Body Count. Macy was there. That was 1992. Thanks to the need for a Black Lives Matter movement today, it’s still hella relevant 30 years later. “Wildly enough, my first manager had me on the road with Body Count way before I got discovered,” Macy confesses. “He took me on tour with them, so, I heard that song all the time. What everybody misses about that song is that it is beautifully written. Ice (Tracy Marrow) covered so many perspectives regarding people’s relationships with cops. He was so good at exposing the range of emotions beneath the surface. It’s eloquent in the weirdest way. I love our version better simply because I’m not a huge thrash metal fan. I hope ours introduces the lyrics to a wider audience.”

Escapism as a theme shows up in two key songs on The Reset. The moodier one is “Alien” which poses the intergalactic inquiry, “Where can you go where you can just live?” Macy muses, “Sometimes I feel like we all got bamboozled into working our whole lives – struggling past 60 to pay your dues! I just wonder, ‘Was that really the master plan?’ If so, why can’t I just ride off into the sunset without all that?”

For those that don’t have Jeff Bezo bucks for space travel, the next best place to land is at da club – offered up retro style by The California Jet Club via “Disco Song.” Macy brightens, “2 Chainz posted a clip on Instagram of a girl playing classical piano while twerking. It was Jhonni Blaze (from the “Love and Hip Hop” TV show). I reposted it, tagged her and she DM’d me like, ‘Oh, My God, I would love it if we could just meet one day!’ I was so down to meet her, too, so she came to Cali from Atlanta. I had this song ‘Disco’ that I liked the track but thought my lyrics were awful! I asked her, ‘Do you hear anything for this?’ She totally saved me from sounding like an old person on my own song! Tommy came up with the vamp hook (‘All I need is / A little bit of bump and grind / Do me `til I’m satisfied / F’ around and do a line’). I wrote the verse and chorus.” Another song with a colorful twist is the second single, “Undone,” a celestial pop-blues ballad of Shirley Bassey proportions penned for Macy by producer Tommy Parker (a.k.a. Thomas Lumpkins) and his niece, Nakiesha Marie Pick. “He had never produced a live band, so it was a situation that we could all learn from,” Macy states. “Tommy’s mainstream vibe (Ariana Grande) mixed with what we do came out really nice. He already had the song tricked out at his house. I went in and did the vocals on my own. I felt like it needed strings but it was too late (11pm) to call in any players. So, I called my friends Maiya Sykes and Whitey to see if they could sound like strings. They did the big opera backgrounds.”

The cherry on top of “Undone” is the video (premiered at trendy Soho House in West Hollywood) starring drag performer Frankie J. Grande. “The video came about by default,” Macy explains. “I was scheduled to be in Australia to do ‘The Masked Singer.’ I had been following Frankie on Instagram. During the pandemic, he was doing this series where he would be in his bathroom, get out of his tub and sing songs. He’d have on makeup and be topless – some very strange theater. I thought, ‘What about Frankie in a bathroom, taking his clothes off (chuckles) and singing?’ The director, Guido, brought the choreography and lighting. And we got this amazing editor I went to USC with – T. David Binns. The edit is incredible and what really makes the video work.”

Prior to the debut of “Thinking of You”, Gray released her tenth full-length album, RUBY [Artistry Music/Mack Avenue], which earmarked yet another creative high point in her career. Channeling the spirit of the “grimy” R&B and smoky jazz music she holds close to her heart, Gray leaped forward by looking back to formative inspirations. However, she updated those elements with enriched and enigmatic soundscapes brought to life by producers Johan Carlsson [Michael Bublé, Maroon 5], Tommy Brown [Jennifer Lopez, Fifth Harmony, Travis Scott], and Tommy Parker Lumpkins [Janet Jackson, Justin Bieber].

Macy Gray, the renowned artist, actor, activist and strong woman, is no stranger to saying what needs to be said and acting on her words. The musical bodies of work Gray has produced throughout her career are a testament to her exquisite vision and unyielding devotion to her craft. Her sleek, sultry, and mature take on R&B draws from decades’ worth of history. Yet, her ability to still sound forward-thinking and fresh is what reaffirms and reasserts her as a signature rarity in music who millions continue to treasure.