Thousands of students have gone through MTSU’s recording industry and music business programs, most with dreams of superstardom; if not to be a famous recording artist themselves, to at least have their hands on the controls for a gold record or two.

Expectations are often tempered—”It’s hard to get a foot in the door”; “There are only so many jobs”; “There’s lots of competition out there.”

But at least one is living out his dream of “making it.”

Just a few short years ago, Derek Minor (born Derek Johnson Jr.) was one of many MTSU music business students with a passion for music, and, like plenty of other aspiring musicians throughout the Murfreesboro creative community, was making homemade music.

“I put my mic on the edge of the bunk bed in my dorm room; I couldn’t afford a mic stand. I made a pop filter out of a coat hanger and a stocking,” the former MTSU student told the Murfreesboro Pulse, just hours after performing in front of 20,000 people at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena as part of the massive traveling musical ministry that is Winter Jam, including Newsboys, Plumb and many others.

Minor, who performed under the name PRo until 2012, has come a long way since his days at Cummings Hall.

“I did a lot of open mic nights at Cyber Cafe . . . I’m going to be in front of half a million people by the end of this tour,” Minor said with a trace of disbelief during the Tennessee stop.

But that’s not the end game for him. Many hip-hop artists would be satisfied with just being able to say they have been in front of half a million people. Mission accomplished.

But Minor says getting in front of the people is only the beginning. He is not after fame or fortune, but is interested in using his music as a gateway to talk to people from all over about the Gospel.

“I get the opportunity to consistently encourage people,” Minor said, seeming more joyful about this than any amount of wealth and riches. “Music is just a vehicle, my passion is people . . . I get the opportunity to be honest. It’s not anything fake; I’m not trying to push my religion on anyone.”

He said he sees a lot of destructive behavior and heartache, but tries to take a “judge not” approach to life, and music.

“I don’t have much interest in modifying anyone’s behavior,” Minor said. “I want to introduce them to God. Once Jesus Christ gets involved, I have enough faith in God, he will show you how to modify your behavior . . . your behavior is modified because your heart is changed.”

Not the other way around, he said. That would be backwards, putting the cart before the horse, in a way. Backwards, like the Pharisees of Jesus’ time.

We are saved through faith, not works after all.

“It starts in the heart,” Minor said.

With faith, an individual will make positive, healthy, loving choices; it’s not like skipping the faith and simply making the choices makes one saved, he said.

“First, there must be a change of heart, then the behavior will follow,” Minor said.

“I’d love to sell a million records,” Minor said. “But I approach things with the question, ‘How can I help a community?'”

Why, take them to Minorville.

Minorville, the title of Minor’s record released in September 2013, is a place where “there are no problems or conflict . . . racism and classism do not exist,” where “it’s illegal for fathers not to be in their kids’ life.”

The music has a message: it’s designed to be a force for positive change, but it’s not all sunshine and holding hands. Don’t get the impression Minor plays hymns with the choir. There are certainly some slower jams, but there’s also the bass thumpin’, fist pumpin’ bouncy beats, stylistically comparable to the gangsta rap pioneers.

Minor delves into some dark elements of real American culture in his music: violence, materialism, broken homes, drugs, poverty, crooked preachers . . . Minor faces them all head-on.

So, how did he get his break?

Minor, who hails from Columbia, Tenn., didn’t get a music industry gig straight out of college after earning his degree in 2006.

“I was working at Dell Computers,” he said.

But he poured his spare time into his music, recording mix tapes and selling them on the MTSU campus and in downtown Nashville.

“I was doing all of this, I wound up getting married,” he said. “My wife got accepted to pharmacy school at UT Memphis. . . . We didn’t want to go to Memphis, but we went.

“This girl at church (in Murfreesboro) would always come up to me and say, ‘My brother raps. He’s in Memphis.’ I kind of blew her off; ‘Yeah, yeah, everybody raps,’ I thought. But I get to Memphis, I call him like five times, he’d never pick up.”

This Memphis rapper turned out to be LeCrae, himself on the verge of national prominence in the Christian rap sound.

“Somehow by happenstance, my fiancée ended up in LaCrae’s church,” Minor said. “I meet LeCrae, this is right before his Rebel album came out, and it went to the top of the charts.

“LeCrae was all about ministry, building lives,” Minor said.

He got plugged into the Reach Records circle, where the men were showing him how to be a godly man and husband. Minor said he felt the Reach crew actually cared about him as a person—there wasn’t the typical music industry greed and backstabbing.

Although Reach relocated to Atlanta, Minor received the opportunity to go on the Unashamed Tour with LeCrae and others. The tidal wave seems to be picking up momentum from there, culminating with the recent Winter Jam tour, which hit major cities in the eastern half of the U.S. the first three months of 2014.

When asked about his favorite part of touring across the country, Minor replied:

“I converse a lot with people who follow my career online; when I get to meet them at shows, they’re no longer just an avatar, they’re a real person.

“I’d met Plum, Newsboys, Tenth Avenue North; I’ve made relationships that will extend beyond the tour.”

His least favorite part:

“I have two kids, and a wife, just not being there with them. [We] had a baby on Dec. 16—that’s my birthday—and then two weeks later I had to go on tour for three months.

“And everyone sees the tour bus and thinks it’s cool. . . . The tour bus is cool, but wait until there’s 12 other people on there and you have to sleep on it.”

After the Winter Jam tour ended on March 30, Minor said he was going to take a couple of weeks to unwind, and then it’s back to work.

“I’m hoping to drop an EP in late summer,” he said.

For more on Derek Minor, visit derekminor.com.

Also, catch Minor at this year’s Raise the Praise festival, held June 13-14 in Portland, Tenn.