Tye Tribbett stands in front of his Camden Walk of Fame plaque.Charles Giddins III
Tye Tribbett says his love of performing and gospel music helped him win three Grammy awards.
But his induction into the Camden Walk of Fame was more meaningful than any award he’d ever won.
“To be honored in your hometown is a big deal to me,” said Tribbett, 49. “To literally be cemented in the grounds of the foundation of the city [where] you grew up in an honorable way, and not like a tombstone, is really a feeling of gratitude that I really can’t express.”
On Sept. 22, Tribbett became one of 15 Camden natives honored by the Camden Walk of Fame with a plaque on MLK Boulevard near the Jersey Joe Walcott Statue in Wiggins Park.
“It is very difficult to win a Grammy. He’s won three,” said Yocontalie Jackson, the founder of the Camden Walk of Fame and a Grammy-voting member. “Tye is a great example of a young person from Camden who had done a lot musically.”
Tribbett was raised in Camden and spent much of his time at El Bethel church, where his father was the pastor and his mother, the first lady, served as choir director. It was there that he discovered his love of music.
“We were there almost every day of the week, so I had a whole lot of time to just jam and kick it,” Tribbett said. “I didn’t realize I was honing a skill or developing a craft or nothing like that. I was just enjoying being able to create music.”
By the time he turned 18, he knew he wanted to pursue music.
Tribbett remembers thinking, “I want to play for Hezekiah Walker or Walter Hawkins.”
Walker’s upbeat, energetic performance style especially inspired Tribbett.
Walker’s “from New York, so he had that Northeast swag, like I had when I was creating music,” Tribbett said. “He was definitely one of my main mentors from afar.”
Eventually, Tribbett got a group of singers together and began recording songs and albums in Philadelphia. He toured as a backup vocalist with artists like Faith Hill, Usher and Justin Timberlake. He later went on to win three Grammy awards – one in 2013 for Best Gospel Song, “He Did It Before [Same God]” and another for “Greater Than,” a critically-acclaimed album, which won the Grammy for Best Gospel Album. Then, in 2024, his album, “All Things New,” won a Grammy for Best Gospel Album.
“It was surreal,” he said. “I was just so grateful to God for the opportunity.”
In that time, Tribbett also married his wife, had two daughters, and launched an anti-bullying initiative called “An-Tye Bullying.”
Tribbett was bullied from 6 to 16 years old.
“You’re dark skinned. You’re Black. You’re buck-teethed, skinny,” were some of the remarks other children jeered at him, he recalled.
“I was weird to them because I was churchy,” he added. “I was more religious than everybody. I would wear suits to school.”
Church became all the more meaningful to Tribbett, who said it was a place where he could escape to and feel embraced by a community.
“It kept me in a consistent community that loved me, supported me, and I wasn’t weird,” he said.
Recently, he partnered with the City of Camden, which launched an anti-bullying campaign and then spoke at Camden High School about his experiences.
When he entered the auditorium, a band and choir greeted him, playing and singing his songs “Victory” and “No Way.”
“I was overwhelmed,” Tribbett said. “It meant a whole lot to me.”
When he saw them singing, he also felt his music was resonating with a generation that others say is hard to reach, he said.
Jackson said this influence is part of why he was inducted into the Camden Walk of Fame.
It lets Camden youth “know that they can do it as well, that it’s not so much of a far reach. It’s not that impossible,” she said, “that it can happen.”
Tribbett will kick off his “We Outside Tour” in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Oct. 28, with a stop in New York on Nov. 16. Tickets are on sale now through Ticketmaster.
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