Kerry Douglas was an outsider who became the ultimate gospel music insider and star maker as the founder and CEO of Black Smoke Music Worldwide.
Over the last 25 years, the Houston, Texas native has taken unknown artists and turned them into Billboard number one acts. The list is potent: Grammy® nominee, James Fortune; stratospheric crooner Earnest Pugh; Quartet Queen Evelyn Turrentine-Agee; breakout artist Pastor Mike, Jr. and the prodigious Zacardi Cortez.
Billboard Magazine recently announced that two of the dozens of songs Douglas has promoted – James Fortune’s “I Believe” and Earnest Pugh’s “I Need Your Glory” – are on the prestigious publication’s Hot Gospel Songs of the 2010s decade-end chart. Furthermore, one of the most viewed YouTube videos from a Gospel artist is from Black Smoke Music– Greg O’Quinn’s “I Told The Storm” has been viewed more than 50 million times. It is a testament to Douglas’ tenacity and creativity that he is able to consistently compete with major recording labels and give his artists top market presence.
Douglas has a drive for success that is rooted in his childhood. Raised by a single mother, he had to work hard for everything that he had. After a little time in college, Douglas began working as a car salesman. In order to attract more customers, he staged R&B and rap concerts in the parking lot. His sales doubled. Soon Douglas quit the dealership and began promoting R&B concerts fulltime. After a near death situation, he became a born-again Christian and decided to use his sales and marketing skills to build the careers of some of the Houston-based gospel artists he had met – and Black Smoke Music Worldwide was born.
The label’s first hit was the late Rev. E. Stewart’s "I Believe" project in 1997. From there Douglas signed Keith "Wonderboy" Johnson & the Spiritual Voices. They laid out a string of quartet-styled smashes including “Hide Behind the Mountain,” “Send A Revival,” and “Let Go and Let God Have His Way.” Douglas then dusted off Evelyn Turrentine-Agee’s 20-year old tune “God Did It,” remixed it and sent it out to radio. Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) cited it as the most played gospel song of 2000. Douglas has been breaking hits ever since.
Concurrently, Douglas created The Gospel Truth magazine which, at its height, had 250,000 regular readers and was an influential vehicle for launching the careers of independent gospel artists. Douglas later created another marketing masterpiece with Kerry Douglas Presents the Gospel Mix series of CDs that were the catalyst to breaking artists such as James Fortune & FIYA and Earnest Pugh. With nearly a dozen volumes produced, these sets have included now household names such as Tamela Mann, Le’Andria Johnson, and Jermaine Dolly.
James Fortune & FIYA would become the first contemporary gospel success story for Black Smoke Music Worldwide: the ensemble’s smash “I Will Trust You” spent 28 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Gospel Songs chart. That kicked off six number one hits for Fortune – including his current No. 1 hit, “I Am.” Douglas also discovered a retired military man who had tried to break into the music industry for years but never broke through a door until Douglas broke it down for him. That artist is Earnest Pugh, for whom Douglas muscled both “Rain on Us” and “I Need Your Glory” to the top of the charts for multiple weeks.
While Douglas formerly only promoted Black Smoke artists, over the last few years he’s taken on several artists for major labels. In 2018, Douglas gave gospel legend Bebe Winans the first No. 1 hit of his solo career with “He Promised Me.” Before that, he took Ricky Dillard & New G to the top of the charts for the first time with “Amazing” in 2014.
However, Douglas’ favorite thing is building an artist from scratch as he’s recently done with Birmingham’s Pastor Mike, Jr., New York’s Edwrin Sutton and also with the Indianapolis-based group, Demetrius West & the Jesus Promoters.
Douglas loves his work. “I’m the happiest I’ve ever been because I’m doing what I love,” he says. “Helping artists nurture their God-given talent and then helping them spread their musical ministries around the world is the best gift and I’m grateful that God has given me this mission in life.”
