Article Contributed by jbleicher.com
Published on 2026-06-04
Photo: Courtesy of Martin Luther McCoy
Martin Luther McCoy has released “Now,” the latest single from his forthcoming album Welcome Back Love, due out July 17th via Rebel Soul Records.
Where the album’s lead single “Peace of Mind” reflected on endurance, faith, and the long road back to creative purpose, “Now” turns its attention toward something far more immediate: the undeniable pull between two people and the courage to stop overthinking what the heart already knows.
Built around a warm groove, patient instrumentation, and McCoy’s unmistakable voice, the song unfolds like a conversation happening in real time. It is a record about presence, about letting go of hesitation, and about recognizing a connection before it slips away.
“There’s nothing I want as much as I want you now,” McCoy sings, returning again and again to a refrain that feels both romantic and resolute. Elsewhere, he recalls the first spark of attraction: “There was something about the way you looked at me / Suddenly I felt renewed.”
The song captures a feeling that exists throughout Welcome Back Love: the recognition that some of life’s most important decisions begin with instinct rather than certainty.
“Now” is McCoy leaning into simplicity and sensuality, a slow jam in the classic sense, written to capture the urgency of immediate desire. Yet beneath the romance is a larger idea that runs throughout the album. For McCoy, love is not merely an emotion. It is an active force, something that asks people to show up fully, honestly, and without fear.
That perspective carries particular weight coming from an artist whose path has rarely been straightforward.
A singer, songwriter, guitarist, actor, producer, and multidisciplinary artist, McCoy has spent decades building a body of work that resists easy categorization. Over the years, he has toured with The Roots, collaborated with artists including Erykah Badu and Saul Williams, appeared in Dave Chappelle’s Block Party, portrayed Jojo in Julie Taymor’s Across the Universe, performed with SFJAZZ Collective, and co-founded Moon Medicin, a multidisciplinary performance project blending music, visual art, and ritual.
Born in San Francisco and raised in the city’s Lakeview-Ingleside area, with Bayview-Hunters Point helping shape his understanding of community and culture, McCoy developed his musical instincts early. By age five he was already writing songs. By his teens he could build arrangements entirely by ear, long before formal training entered the picture.
Watch the official music video for the album's lead single "Peace of Mind"
That instinct - to build his own language rather than wait for permission - has shaped everything that followed.
His music draws from gospel, soul, funk, rock, hip-hop, folk, and social commentary, channeling the full inheritance of Black American music through a singular voice and vision. Alongside his musical work, his creative practice extends into painting, clothing, masks, objects, and design, reflecting the same independent spirit that has defined his career.
Welcome Back Love marks McCoy’s first full-length album in fourteen years and arrives after a period shaped by marriage, loss, responsibility, perseverance, and personal growth.
The album’s title emerged from a piece of artwork by Pierre Bennu that McCoy and his wife received when they married - an image he held onto for years while waiting for the right project to embody its spirit.
In McCoy’s telling, love is not sentimental. It is a discipline. A force. A source.
Across songs like “Peace of Mind,” “Fear or Faith,” “Reimagine the World,” and now “Now,” that belief takes different forms. Some songs wrestle with grief, uncertainty, and endurance. Others celebrate connection, intimacy, and possibility. Together, they form a body of work rooted in hard-earned experience and an enduring faith in music’s ability to heal, challenge, and reconnect.
For Martin Luther McCoy, that has always been the work.
Welcome Back Love arrives July 17th via Rebel Soul Records.
Welcome Back Love by Martin Luther McCoy
1. Reimagine The World
2. It’s Going Down Tonight
3. Now
4. Pedal To The Metal
5. Welcome Back Love feat. Stic of Dead Prez
6. Fear Or Faith
7. Better Than Alright
8. I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues
9. Peace of Mind
10. Wait It Out
11. Turning 21
12. Hit Parade
13. Widowmaker
14. Warmth Of Other Suns
15. Black Sugar
