Lavish Records artist Tracy Randall isn’t supposed to be here. In 2006, he was diagnosed with acute blastic leukemia and after aggressive rounds of chemo and radiation therapy, his doctors gave up and in February 2007 told him to go home and prepare to die.
“The doctor told me to get my affairs in order because he didn’t know if I had 3 months or 6 months to live,” Randall said in a news release. He left the office that cold, rainy afternoon and started walking.
“I began to pray and talk to God not about me but about my family and their survival because I’m the breadwinner,” as he walked past the 42nd Street subway where he usually caught the train and kept walking, talking. “By the time I got to 96th Street, this voice said, `You’re going to be okay.’”
Randall fought his illness back with his renewed faith and improved his diet. He also began an expensive medical therapy that isn’t covered by insurance.
“I don’t want people to think that I no longer have the illness,” Randall says. “I have pain and depression. There are times that I don’t sleep for days because I am afraid to sleep. However, my faith has grown tremendously. I am still growing, and I still get mad and ask God, ‘Why me?’ Yet, He touched my soul, and I am still here.”
It’s against this backdrop that Randall wrote his new radio single, “It Feels Good,” a bouncy track guaranteed to make the stiffest body move.
“I opened up my eyes and thanked God for a new day,” he sings on the up-tempo beat. “I’ve been blessed in so many ways if I wanted to write ’em down there wouldn’t be enough pages.”
The song is the latest single from Randall’s sophomore CD “Troubled Times” that features 14 tracks of what he calls rhythm & gospel.
“It’s gospel music,” Randall said. “But it has that urban R&B beat.”
He just wrapped a new concept video on the track and has now incorporated pop radio with his inspiring tune “I Am All You Need” debuting at No. 36 on the Top 40 Main chart this week with almost a 50 percent increase in spins.
The Lake Charles, La., native grew up on a musical diet of Donny Hathaway and Stevie Wonder. After completing his undergraduate degree from LeMoyne-Owen College in Memphis, Randall was signed to the Isley Brothers’ T-Neck/Island Records label. After Universal/Polygram took over the company in 1999, he left to start Lavish Records. He released his first gospel CD “Sinners Have Souls, too” in 2007 and has done a lot of behind the scenes work in the music industry.
Randall co-wrote four songs on Shaggy’s Grammy Award nominated “Summer in Kingston” CD that reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Reggae Albums chart in 2012.
