Recently we got a taste from secular names Kelly Price, Dave Hollister as well as R&B husband-wife duo Kenny Lattimore and Chanté Moore. Now here comes yet another secular artist tossing herself into the tranquil that once was the Gospel music industry.
 Widely known in the R&B world as Coko, Cheryl Clemons formerly of the group Sisters With Voices (SWV), is set to storm the scene with her debut Gospel album, Grateful.
Grateful, a 12-track album produced at Light Records, a division of Artemis Records, finds Coko partnering with the prolific production talents of Warryn “Baby Dub” Campbell, Shep Crawford, as well as husband
Big Mike Clemons to come up with the exciting album.
Coko’s Grateful is a mix of Gospel with an upbeat R&B flavor album, and features American Idol Season 3 winner Fantasia Barrino, Faith Evans and Lil Mo on Endow Me, a remake of the Clark Sisters’ Gospel classic. Some other songs include I Get Joy, Clap Your Hands and I Wish, and listeners will no doubt want to look out for Mighty God; a collaboration with the singer’s mother.
Born on June 13, 1974 in, New York, Coko was raised by her mother in the Bronx, growing up an active member of Lord’s Church in their neighborhood. She started singing at a tender age of 12 years and she was a member of her local church choir and assisted in the church‘s nurse unit. Coko later joined Hezekiah Walker’s Love Fellowship Crusade Choir, from where she teamed up with Tamara Johnson (Taj) and Leanne Lyons (Lelee) to form the ground-breaking r&b girl group SWV.
The all-girl unit was discovered by Alexander Morgan, who went on to produce their 1992 debut album It's About Time. The album went on to secure double platinum status within its first year of release.
SWV went on to produce a series of top 10 hits on the U.S. Billboard and R&B Charts, making them one of the most successful and popular urban groups of the 90’s.
In total, SWV recorded five albums, Its About Time and 1994’s Remixes, 1996’s New Beggining and 1997’s Release Some Tension. They followed this up with The Best of SWV in 2001.
Though she was an ardent R&B artist, Coko was always eager to venture into Gospel and her fans at the community church always pushed her to do so.
According Cocko, she has a place in the Gospel field and all naysayers who often treat Gospel the genre like a country club has these to say to them:
"Anyone who has a problem with any of us showing this extension of ourselves should read 1 Corinthians 4:3 in the Bible"
Read it!
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