Sir William James Baptist (better known by his

stage name A stage name is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. Such professional aliases are adopted for a wide variety of reasons and they may be similar, or nearly identical, to an individu ...

, Sir the Baptist) is an American multi-disciplinary contemporary artist and songwriter. He has worked as producer and writer on two GRAMMY Award winning albums, two GMA Dove Awards winners, two Stellar Awards winners a

BMI Award The BMI Film & TV Awards are accolades presented annually by Broadcast Music, Inc., honoring songwriters, composers, and music publishers in various genres. Based in the United States, the awards include the BMI Christian Awards, BMI Country Awards ...

as songwriter, and is BET Award-nominated artist, As a

humanitarian Humanitarianism is an active belief in the value of human life, whereby humans practice benevolent treatment and provide assistance to other humans to reduce suffering and improve the conditions of humanity for moral, altruistic, and emotional ...

, he builds luxury mission homes for Missionaries of the Christian faith. He is the Chaplain of Innovation, the majority shareholder and architect of Christian website tymple.

Early life

Baptist was born William James Stovall, and raised in the Bronzeville neighborhood on Chicago's South Side as the 20th child of the late family patriarch, Dr. James Benton Stovall. His father was born in 1924 on the land his family farmed and owned slaves, he later became a traveling pastor and Christian apologist, during the Great Migration. His mother Patricia Ann Harris, is a transatlantic missionary from roots of Sierra Leone who served communities in 17 countries with Baptist as he toured America and Europe.

Name

Born into the Stovall lineage, his name, "Baptist" was adopted as a ceremonial name deriving from his father’s occupation as a Baptist preacher. His name, Sir, was ascribed during his parochial school years at Saint Leo Catholic. Professionally, the

epithet An epithet (, ), also byname, is a descriptive term (word or phrase) known for accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage. It has various shades of meaning when applied to seemingly real or fictitious people, di ...

"Sir the Baptist" was used because his model for evangelizing Jesus Christ in the wild was adopted from the prophet, John the Baptist. Sir practiced ritualistic baptisms at music festivals in America and at 22 shows across Europe.

Baptism tradition

Baptist was the 13th generation to be baptized. His ancestors practiced the Baptist tradition on their transatlantic journey during the English Separatist movement in the 1600s. With his Stovall bloodline, the Protestant Reformation to the Church of England ( Anglicans) during the separation from the Roman Catholic Church can be traced back for centuries. The first recorded baptism in Baptist’s bloodline can be traced to George Stovall II in the year 1555, in Guildford, Sussex Co., England.

Career

Baptist worked as Director of Digital Marketing and Media for McDonald's campaigns at Leo Burnett Company, Inc. His work ranged from digital marketing, to writing music scores for a film that featured

Meghan Markle Meghan, Duchess of Sussex (; born Rachel Meghan Markle; August 4, 1981) is an American member of the British royal family and former actress. She is the wife of Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, the younger son of King Charles III. Meghan was ...

, to jingles with Ira Antelis ( Be Like Mike). After a dispute over the ownership to his publishing rights with the agency, he became homeless, and drove for Lyft until he signed a deal with

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most i ...

/ Warner Music Group in New York City with Craig Kallman,

Julie Greenwald Julie Greenwald is an American music industry executive. She is the chairperson and CEO of the Atlantic Music Group. Early life Julie Greenwald was born in the Catskill Mountains in New York. She graduated from Tulane University in 1992 with ...

and Michael Kyser. Baptist's conversion to Christianity was due to a

marijuana Cannabis, also known as marijuana among other names, is a psychoactive drug from the cannabis plant. Native to Central or South Asia, the cannabis plant has been used as a drug for both recreational and entheogenic purposes and in various tra ...

experience, and that his debut release ''Saint or Sinner'' was a blueprint to the urban Christian believers. He has toured Europe with

Nelly Cornell Iral Haynes Jr. (born November 2, 1974), better known by his stage name Nelly, is an American rapper, singer, actor and entrepreneur. He embarked on his music career with the hip hop group St. Lunatics in 1993 and signed to Universal ...

, Mary J. Blige, and August Alsina.

Artist collaborations

Baptist has collaborated with musical artists Anthony Hamilton,

Donald Lawrence Donald Lawrence (born May 4, 1961, Gastonia, North Carolina) is an American gospel music songwriter, record producer and artist. He is best known for his Grammy Award-nominated songs "The Blessing of Abraham" and "Encourage Yourself". He studied ...

, Kierra Sheard, Killer Mike, Twista, Michelle Williams, Tony Bennett,

Pharrell Williams Pharrell Lanscilo Williams (; born April 5, 1973) is an American record producer, rapper, singer, and songwriter. Alongside close colleague Chad Hugo, he formed the hip hop and R&B production duo the Neptunes in the early 1990s, with whom he ...

, Musiq Soulchild,

Brandy Norwood Brandy Rayana Norwood (born February 11, 1979), better known by her mononym Brandy, is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, actress and model. She is known for her distinctive sound, characterized by her peculiar timbre, voice-layer ...

, Estelle,

Tori Kelly Victoria Loren Kelly (born December 14, 1992) is an American singer-songwriter, and voice actress. She first gained recognition after posting videos on YouTube as a teenager, and made it through to Hollywood week on the ninth season of ''Americ ...

, Elle Varner, DC Young Fly,

Brand partnerships

Baptist has partnered with companies, agencies, and lifestyle brands Facebook, Apple, Google, Lexus, Glenfiddich, Samsung, McDonald's,

W Hotels W Hotels is an American upscale lifestyle hotel chain owned by Marriott International that is marketed towards a younger age group. History W Hotels was launched in 1998 with W New York, a conversion of the former Doral Inn hotel on Lexington ...

, Lyft, WeWork, Toyota, Tidal, Yeti, Converse, Vans, Macy’s, The Chicago Bears, The Recording Academy, VH1 Save the Music Foundation, Fat Tire and

Pandora In Greek mythology, Pandora (Greek: , derived from , ''pān'', i.e. "all" and , ''dōron'', i.e. "gift", thus "the all-endowed", "all-gifted" or "all-giving") was the first human woman created by Hephaestus on the instructions of Zeus. As Hes ...

Discography

Singles

*Creflo Almighty Dollar (feat. Twista & ChurchPpl) – 2015 *Wake Up – 2015 *Raise Hell (feat. ChurchPpl) – 2015 *What We Got (feat.

& ChurchPpl) – 2016 *Movin – 2017 *He Heard My Cry – 2018 *I Still Love You – 2019 *Me & God – 2019 *Bossa Nova – 2019 *Switched Partners – 2019 *Kingdom Come – 2019 *Can't Help Myself (feat. Saint Ashleey, Estelle, MC Lyte, Syleena Johnson, Ann Nesby, & Boys & Girls Clubs of the Gulf Coast) – 2020 *Scream & Shout – 2020 *Jesus In The Ghetto (feat. Anthony Hamilton) – 2021 *Adam & Eve'n (feat. Saint Ashleey) – 2021

Albums

*Saint or Sinner – 2017,

*Godfidence: Kingdom Bae – 2020
tymple

Awards

Political views

Baptist supported Hillary Clinton in the

2016 United States presidential election The 2016 United States presidential election was the 58th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 8, 2016. The Republican ticket of businessman Donald Trump and Indiana governor Mike Pence defeated the Democratic ticket ...

. In August 2016, Baptist taunted a Donald Trump impersonator on stage for his Afropunk Festival performance in Brooklyn. He has also been quoted saying that Donald Trump is "way out of touch" with the African American community. Baptist has partnered with the Boys and Girls Clubs of America,

VH1 VH1 (originally an initialism of Video Hits One) is an American basic cable television network based in New York City and owned by Paramount Global. It was created by Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, at the time a division of Warner Commun ...

Save the Music, and

Global Citizen Global citizenship is the idea that one's identity transcends geography or political borders and that responsibilities or rights are derived from membership in a broader class: "humanity". This does not mean that such a person denounces or waives ...

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sir the Baptist Atlantic Records artists Musicians from Chicago Living people Year of birth missing (living people)