Every year Rapzilla names 15+ new and upcoming artists to our freshmen class. These artists range from moderately known and on the rise to, unknown and about to blow. Well, this story focuses on a duo comprised of brothers Jacob and Manwell Lundy known as the group – Lundi.
You may not have heard of Lundi yet, but we believed wholeheartedly in 2021 and beyond, you would definitely get to know the name. So far, they are on that trajectory. Despite having only four singles out, they managed to ink a distribution deal with V. Rose’s Indie West and even nabbed a track with Wande of Reach Records.
Oh yeah, and they received a 10 from OB on Critique Friday’s for their song “Drama Queen.”
Another thing to note about Lundi is they are very much “new hip-hop,” meaning they fall somewhere between R&B and rap. They lean more toward and embrace the R&B side.
For the brothers, music started in 2008 when they joined their youth group. Both of them developed a love for leading worship.
“I learned guitar at the age of 15 and never stopped,” said Manwell. “Jacob learned drums.”
He continued, “As the years passed we cultivated our gifts. We’ve always had a love of R&B and grew up on that and gospel.”
Friends began to encourage them to go and make music. In 2020 they mixed and mastered their own first single “Drama Queen.”
The feedback they got from that first track fueled them to push on.
“Maybe we can actually do this if we tried…” Manwell said. “A year later V. Rose found us on Instagram. She heard the one song and said ‘I want to work with you guys, you guys have potential’. She was interested in our work ethic.”
V. Rose created Indie West for them. She always wanted to have a label and it was them being implemented into the system.
“It’s a launching pad for artists like us who produce their own content. It’s for exposure and connections,” explained Manwell.
Jacob felt led to submit “Drama Queen” to Critique Fridays and they wound up winning. “Before we knew it, we wound up being nominated as Freshmen,” said Jacob.
Jacob, the older brother, explained “we always worked together and give each other melodies and do worship together.”
“I wouldn’t ever want to do this independently,” Manwell chimed in.
The bros are also cognisant of the long path ahead of them if they ever want to go full-time.
“We eventually want to have a lot of support behind us because it’s really hard. I think the opportunity would have to present itself,” said Manwell. “The door has to open to where we can walk through and dedicate all of their time that we’d use for a job to put toward the craft.”
Jacob stated, “Just waiting on God to open that door.”
As of right now, the pair is sitting on a lot of unreleased music that will become a project at some point. The two of them have to come together on their opinions plus factor in their 9 to 5 jobs, and it makes for some challenges.
“We got some songs in the chamber right now. It’ll be soon. Right now, think late Fall early Winter,” said the younger of the two.
“We have a lot of songs we actually wrote,” said Jacob. “We’re very picky, so it’s just a matter of singling certain songs out and releasing it.”
With the release of more music and the dreams of going full-time, there has to be an idea about touring and playing more shows. Obviously, the matter is complicated with COVID-19 protocols still deciding much of that.
“We were talking about doing shows with George Rose,” they said. Rose is also a member of the 2021 Freshmen class and was part of the concert and BBQ event in Atlanta a few weeks ago.
Lundi says that watching indie tribe. do their album rollout in addition to doing the Holy Smoke! Festival sets a “dope example of taking their careers into their own hands.” For Jacob and Manwell, they’d love to create those opportunities for themselves too.
“We live in a small town in Texas. A lot of people have the dream of making music and turning it into a career. We knew we had the talent we just didn’t know how we would do it,” said Manwell. “If God can take two dudes from Abilene, Texas and elevate them so much in a year…we’ve taken a lot of steps really quickly, it’s nothing we’ve done, it’s the favor of God granting us elevation at a super speed.”
He continued, “Just know that when it’s your time, the Lord is going to elevate you and He’s faithful to do that. He’ll take you at the right time. Keep trusting Him. Keep remaining faithful to your craft, as long as you’re doing it for the right reasons, doing it because you want to bless people, God is gonna open up the door.”
Lastly, Jacob shouted out, “We need more R&B in CHH!”
Lundi along with another freshman in this class, Saint James, are going to help do just that. Expect to see Lundi doing great things within the Christian hip-hop community for years to come.