Mervin Mayo – the crooning cop – is back on his beat, the music beat that is. He has dropped his first album, “God Did It” (Mervin Mayo Productions / God’s Glory Music Group / Tyscot Records), on all digital music platforms. The nine-song set features Mervin’s old school R&B styled approach to gospel music. The songs range from poignant ballads such as “Even in the Midnight Hour” and “Running Back to You” to mid-tempo grooves such as “Steady Walking” and the Top 30 title cut, “God Did It.” Listen Link: https://lnk.to/MMGodDidIt
“I am excited to get my ministry out to the world,” Mayo says. “My album is a roller-coaster of praise, confessions, disappointments, and gratefulness. All I can say is God did it and He keeps doing it.”
In 2020, Mayo, became a viral sensation when his church rehearsal of a gospel song became an unexpected viral hit and generated millions of social media views. The surprise feat also earned him coverage on CNN’s Headline News channel. In 2021, Tyscot Records signed him to a joint venture contract. His first single under the deal, “The Best Friend,” was released in spring 2022. The soulful ballad has garnered millions of streams.
In a time when many law enforcement officers are vilified for the bad actions of a few, Mayo is one of the good guys. He grew up in Richmond’s tough Creighton Court housing projects. “There was a lot of drugs and a lot of killing around me,” he recalls. “I could be out sitting on the porch, and somebody was just shot down the street. I just thought that was normal. When I look back, I grew up in the Wild Wild, West, but I didn’t know it was.” A neighborhood police officer, Curtis Simmons, became his role model. “There was an organization called the Police Athletic League,” he recalls. “They would pick kids up from the neighborhood and take us to basketball games, and new places. Curtis kept me out of trouble. He spent a lot of time with me, and I said if I ever become a police officer, I want to do for others what he did for me.”
Mayo’s been with the Richmond police department since 2005 but has been a school resource officer for the last 15 years. “I worked the streets 3 years and then I applied to work with the youth in the schools,’ he recalls. “It‘s not a school for bad kids but a school for kids who made bad decisions. They can relate to me because I’ve been where they are. I want to stop that school-to-prison pipeline. I’m here to make things better.”
