Pastor Mike Jr.

Whether delivering contemporary R&B- and hip-hop-informed songs or preaching alongside a more-traditional church choir, Pastor Mike Jr. brings a powerful voice to his eclectic contemporary gospel fare. His solo debut album, 2019's Live Free, went to number one on the Billboard Top Gospel Albums chart. He followed it with the Stellar Award-winning I Got It: Single's Ministry, Vol. 1 in 2021, featuring the gospel airplay chart-topper "I Got It." EPs Winning and I Got Away, as well as the LP Impossible, followed.

The son of a Pastor Michael D. McClure, Sr., Pastor Mike Jr. hails from Birmingham, Alabama. As leader of the Rock City Church in Forestdale, Alabama, he released his first solo single, "B!g," in mid-2019. It eventually made it into the Top Three of Billboard charts including Hot Gospel Songs and Gospel Airplay, where it spent ten weeks at number one. He followed it with the full-length Live Free on the Black Smoke label in September 2019. The record went all the way to the top of the Billboard gospel albums chart that October, also reaching the Top 20 of the Independent Albums chart. He had a Top Three gospel song and number one gospel airplay hit with "I Got It," a bonus track from his next album, August 2021's I Got It: Single's Ministry, Vol. 1. Less than year after its release, Pastor Mike led the list of winners at the Stellar Awards, taking home six, including Album of the Year and Artist of the Year. In 2022, he released the EP Winning, following in 2023 with the full-length Impossible, which featured Tamela Mann and others. Another EP, I Got Away, arrived in 2024. ~ Marcy Donelson