Exclusive: That Grape Juice Interviews Mary Mary

With Grammy, Stellar, Dove, NAACP Image, Soul Train, and a host of other awards lining their joint and individual shelves, Mary Mary continue to drive the bar higher for what it means to be a gospel superstar in 2017.

Never wavering from their delectable recipe of Urban/hip-hop infused brand of inspirational music, the sister duo have seen their likenesses plastered across record shelves, radio stations, product endorsements, and, of course, television shows (namely their eponymous WEtv reality series).

Now, as they bring their stint in reality TV to a close to continue focus on their respective solo careers, the ladies sat down with That Grape Juice (before the Donald Trump hoopla) to discuss what those moves entail.

Read it all inside:

TGJ:  First, we want to congratulate Tina for the release of your sophomore album, ‘It’s Still Personal’ (in stores now).  Tell us more about it:

Tina:  I have the single out now, “Its Too Hard Not To.”  I’m going on tour a couple of weeks after that.  I’m super duper excited to be bringing music that I know is life changing, life giving, it’s motivational, and it’s inspirational.

TGJ:  We hear the similarities, but how is ‘It’s Still Personal’ different from its predecessor, ‘It’s Personal’?

Tina:  I only released my first album on two digital outlets:  Amazon and Itunes. I didn’t stream it, I didn’t make it available everywhere, I shot a whole bunch of videos, but never put them out. I didn’t have a plan or strategy and I wanted to get back to the main thing which is serving God and Shining for him.

I didn’t care about stats or teams and it still sold well! So, that’s how you know that God is with you! You ain’t tried to do nothing and you just did.

TGJ:  People really follow you!

Erica:  Right.  People pulled me to the side to say, “ Please tell your sister she saved me life and please tell you brother-in-law they saved my relationship.”  This album has gone so much further than I think even she [Tina] knows.  I’m so proud of her to be able to give this music.  I mean who is singing about forgiveness?  Nobody.

Tina:  That’s wonderful that she [Erica] supports me.  She gets on her radio show [‘Get Up! Mornings with Erica Campbell’] and talks about this album.  To know my family believes me, that they look at me and be like: “No, she is what she says.” That matters a lot.

TGJ:  Erica we’re loving your new single, “Well Done,” as well.  Should we expect news on your new album soon?

Erica :  This is a single driven market now. People will go to the album and pick what songs they want to buy. So, we just wanted to put something out there for the radio.

The message of the song is why it was really chosen, because we get our focus off onto the wrong thing. We focus on people, and on gaining tangible things down here [on Earth] and not realizing when life is over and we get to heaven, we really do want to hear God say “well done.”

TGJ:  We look forward to that.  Now, lets shift gears to your reality show, ‘Mary Mary.’  Why do you feel season 6 is the time to close and bring things to a wrap after 5 years of a pretty successful reality series?

Erica:  You know sometimes you just feel it. I think people have seen us stand on our own two feet as solo artists and in this season you see us sing together a lot, even though there is not a new record.

Tina:  And, you have to allow yourself to grow even if that means walking away from what “used to be” and to walk into “what can be.”

TGJ:  What will you miss about this experience?

Erica:  Umm….probably nothing (laughs).

Tina:  We’ve made some great friendships and partnerships and there’s been some wonderful things about it.  But, we’ve been in this business for countless years, so we’ve gotten accustomed to meeting people, having them in your life for a season, and then moving on.

Erica:  Let me explain my answer a bit more.  Sometimes people do a reality show because there’s not much else going on with them.  That’s not our story.  We didn’t require the show to give us life.  So, since it’s the sixth season, I think it’s a good time to wrap it up.

TGJ:  And, you guys are leaving while you’re on top. You’re ahead of the game, so it’s a good time to bow.

Erica: I receive that in Jesus name!

Special thanks to:  That Grape Juice NY correspondent Richard Pittman [interviewer]

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