By Amanda Baldwin // Music // EEW Magazine Online

It’s hard to think of Naomi Raine without connecting her melodious voice to Maverick City’s No. 1 singles, “Jireh” and “Promises.”

Though the Grammy-winning worship leader may have been introduced to millions through worshipful melodies, as she gears up for the release of her debut album, Journey, the Queens, New York native is reintroducing herself.

The daughter of two worship leaders, who recently dropped her first single – fittingly titled “Not Ready” – is aware that some may not be ready for the new sound and vibe she is serving up.

"It is a little bit daunting to release this type of music after now so many people know me for Maverick City and for just worship music, because this is not worship music in the genre sense,” Raine told The Christian Post. “It's more life music. It's real stuff. It's the stuff that I talk to Jesus about from Monday to Saturday. I think what most people have heard is what I'm talking to Jesus about on a Sunday.” 

Raine, who has been featured on numerous projects with some of gospel music’s most acclaimed artists like Israel Houghton, JJ Hairston, and Todd Dulaney, is prayerful that her audience will be open-minded and receptive.

"I hope that people don't get stuck in worship mode and feel like, ‘Oh man, I can't listen to this music because it's not worship,” she said. “I pray that they can hear the songs for what they are. It is art.”

The singer, songwriter, and guitar player, who had already written her first song by age seven, has always found it easiest to communicate with people through lyrics and melodies. This is the way she has connected with God, too.

"I just pretty much grew up in rehearsal and in church for my whole life, groomed in music, groomed to go after the presence of the Lord,” she told CP. “When I was 11, I got filled with the Holy Spirit and that started my relationship with the Lord, just a time of devotion.”

As a child, she was so devoted to her faith and fellowship with God in fact that she spent lots of time holed up in her closet, “praying in the Spirit, listening to music and singing to God.”

But as she matured, Raine confessed, “I then got interested in boys and got a little distracted.” When she became pregnant outside of marriage, she was relieved of her worship duties, or in her words, she “got sat down.”

During that time, Raine did plenty of self-reflecting and grew hungry to know God better — not “just about His presence, but about who He is,” she said.

Raine realized that God’s grace could not be earned through good behavior and that “my righteousness is as filthy rags.” The revelation, which was freeing for her, was not just for her own benefit.

According to the artist, God gave her a command: “I want you to tell everybody about my goodness, and my grace, and this gospel that's bigger than you and it's bigger than our works and what we try to do. Tell people that I came to save them.”

Her enlightenment and understanding now permeate her music and message and are responsible for the genuine, authentic, and anointed artist Raine is today.

Though Journey falls outside the worship genre, the musician on the rise still aims to touch the soul, just with a new sound. Her songs, which deal with broader topics like mental illness are “about facing the truth. It's about facing yourself,” she said.

Since Raine has done the work of facing herself, she is now ready to face everyone in a more raw, honest, authentic way through art that is more reflective of her life.

Watch her official music video for “Not Ready” below.