Teen idols come and go.
They have the looks, the hits,
and the adoring fan base to
propel them to superstardom,
but it’s all a man-made illusion: As soon as the music
fades and the machine behind them ceases to operate,
they quickly die out, their
lifespan reduced by the sinking sand on which they’re
built.
ing a casting call in their native
Detroit, then-hopefuls Evin
Martin, Torrence Greene, and
Jor’el Quinn were three strangers chosen on the basis of
their faith, as well as their singing and dancing abilities.
Sensing the young men had
great potential, and acutely
aware of the short shelf life of
assembled, teen-based urban
acts, the PAJAM team—Paul
“pda” Allen, Walter Kearney,
Then there’s 21:03. Unlike the and J Moss—went to great
scores of teenage heartthrobs lengths to groom 21:03 into
before them, the group is
something more substantive:
cut from an entirely different a trio that could really leave
mold. Total Attention, their
a long-lasting imprint for the
head-turning second album, Kingdom.
proves that their rise to the
top rungs of faith-based R&B To that end, the production
wasn’t manufactured, but a
supergroup intentionally
direct result of their rock-solid subjected their recruits to a
foundation and exponential
six-month entertainment boot
growth as artists, performers, camp—a grueling period of
and ministers.
artist development that harkened back to the glory years
When 21:03 first hit the urban of Motown. After an intense
gospel scene with its waterseason of vocal, physical, and
shed debut, PAJAM Presents
spiritual formation, PAJAM
Twenty One O’ Three, they
finally cast the definitive vision
were slowly finding their
for its protégés on January
voice and place in an already 21, 2003—the fateful day that
cluttered marketplace. With
inspired 21:03’s moniker.
Total Attention, the trio cements its identity, assuring
As Evin, Torrence, and Jor’el
the world they’re not a flash
matured in their faith and as
in the pan. They’re here to
performers, it wasn’t long until
stay.
they realized that three passages taken from the beginThings were rough at first.
ning, middle, and end of the
Handpicked by production
Bible—Genesis, Psalms, and
supergroup PAJAM from
Revelation 21:3, respectivehundreds of candidates durly—provided a deeper look
19
It’s Christ Or Nothing
into their mission. The nearprophetic verses reinforced
in them that their purpose
wasn’t to just sing, dance,
or entertain, but to actually
minister and impart truth to
anyone with ears to hear.
“We’ve grown spiritually,” Evin
says of the period between
their first album and Total
Attention. “We have a better
sense of our ministry and our
call. We know that there’s a
dying world that needs Jesus
and they need to see him in
music, in the media, in the
church, and in us. We want to
be those examples.”
To get to that point, 21:03
faced its share of uphill battles, but none was bigger
than the one Evin had to
weather. Unexpectedly, the
21-year-old looked death
straight in the eye when he
confronted the back-to-back
loss of both of his parents—
his mother succumbed to
multiple sclerosis right as the
trio’s debut released, and his
father lost his bout with cancer in the months leading up
to Total Attention.
“The loss of one parent can
be crippling. But the loss of
two is devastating,” Evin says.
The singer was not left alone:
His unwavering faith in Christ
and the unending spiritual
and emotional support of
his 21:03 and PAJAM brothers carried Evin through the