At the 31st annual Stellar Awards this weekend, Derek Minor won Rap/Hip-Hop Gospel CD of the Year for his fifth studio album, Empire.
Empire received the nod over five other nominees — Trip Lee’s Rise, KB’s Tomorrow We Live, Flame’s Forward, Gemstones’s Blind Elephant and Dee-1’s 3’s Up.
Congratulations to @thederekminor winner of the Rap Hip Hop CD of the Year Award for EMPIRE! #StellarAwards pic.twitter.com/36PTdpBnjZ
— Stellar Awards (@TheStellars) February 20, 2016
Empire peaked at No. 54 on the Billboard 200 after Reflection Music Group released the LP on Jan. 27, 2015. This was the first project he put out on RMG since 2010, rather than Reach Records, which had released his previous efforts Dying To Live and Minorville in 2011 and 2013.
Empire Tracklist:
- Intro
- All Hail The King (feat. Deraj & nobigdyl.)
- Empire (feat. Traneshia “Truth” Chiles)
- Who You Know
- Babel 1
- Kingdom Come
- Slow Down (feat. Tony Tillman & Tedashii)
- Stranger (feat. Roz)
- Last Forever (feat. B.Cooper & Leah Smith)
- Save Me (feat. J.Paul)
- Babel 2
- Fly (feat. Colton Dixon)
- Oceans (feat. Move Aside)
- Right By My Side (feat. Chad Jones & Anthony Evans Jr.)
- Party People (feat. Social Club)
- Until The End of Time (feat. Lecrae & Canon)
Empire was also nominated for Rap/Hip-Hop Album of the Year at the 2015 Dove Awards but lost to Lecrae’s Anomaly, which won Rap/Hip-Hop Gospel CD of the Year at last year’s Stellars. In Anomaly‘s victory, though, Minor also earned a Dove for his production on the project.
