Mervin Mayo – the singing cop – is back on his beat, the music beat that is. He has dropped a new track, “God Did It” (Mervin Mayo Productions / God’s Glory Music Group / Tyscot Records), on all digital music platforms. Producer DJ Timpusha (Chuck Brown, Christopher Williams) has created an upbeat, track with subtle elements of Trap and R&B that lies beneath a hardy message of faith. Mayo’s voice – an aggressive old school baritone in the mold of The Dells’ Marvin Junior or The Dramatics’ LJ Reynolds – permeates the groove. It’s a contagiously feel-good track that’s perfect for warm nights and sunny days. Link: https://li.sten.to/goddidit
In 2020, Mayo, became a viral sensation when his performance of a gospel song garnered over a million Facebook 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, over two million from the Pandora® music app alone.
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.” Some of those kids are featured in the new “God Did It “ music video.
