Kelly Price Sang "As We Lay" at a Black Gospel Expo and the Saints Were Not Pleased
If you've ever stepped foot inside of a Black Christian church, then you know that The Saints will be the first to tell you they strive to do things "decent and in order."
Kelly Price might have strayed out of that territory by singing her 2000 hit "As We Lay" at an event that turned out to be the IBE Gospel Explosion in Indianapolis, Indiana over the weekend.
The song is a remake of the Shirley Murdock classic from 1986. It is not in fact about laying prostrate before the throne of the Lord, but chilling in her lover's marital bed. So, not a hymn.
Price performed an A and B selection for the crowd. She began with "It's My Time" an uplifting, vaguely spiritual song from her 2014 album Sing Pray Love Vol. 1. But things turned quickly.
Kelly Price is known for power vocals, and she delivered. The crowd, however, wasn't quite feeling it. Things got awkward when she held out the microphone so the audience could join in with her and received dead silence.
The video picks up the confused murmurs from the audience. It's safe to say things could've gone better.
Organizers were, apparently, not pleased with the selection and made it known. Price took to her Twitter and Instagram accounts to blast her reception saying she wasn't asked to sing gospel and called out the program's emcee for her comments.
"I think this type of ignorance and this type of church bigotry is ridiculous and it's the reason why people won't come to church," she said.
Kelly comes from a family of pentecostal preachers, but made a name performing secular music. She says her calling is to shed light on those who misrepresent Christianity.
"A part of my assignment is to expose that which isn't authentic," she explained. She went on to say that those who talked about her negatively were "not really exemplifying the love of Jesus Christ."
A video posted by Kelly Price (@mskellyprice) on
Organizers of the event responded on their Facebook and acknowledged that she was not meant to be a part of the Gospel Explosion, but a scheduling error may have given that impression.
Truthfully, Kelly's right. There's no reason why anyone at the event should have shared their concerns about the performance publicly. It's just plain rude. Not to mention the fact that there's a good chance that the offenders have bopped to a Kelly Price song at some point in their lives. It's like our grandmas used to say. We ain't always been saved.
.' The acapella tempo and rhythm changes are dope.