On a Wednesday evening in April 2019, T-Pain took the stage in front of an electric crowd at LJVM Coliseum for Wake Forest’s annual spring concert. He performed his signature hits, including “I’m ‘n Luv,” “Buy U a Drank” and “Low,” while moonwalking and robot-ing across the temporary stage on the basketball court. For many attendees, T-Pain’s concert offered a dose of nostalgia for their high school days — the last time they danced to T-Pain on a gym floor.

Except for Malachi Woodard, a high school junior and Wake Forest hopeful visiting his sister. 

“To see him live here was, I guess destiny,” Woodard said. Now a Wake Forest senior, Woodard is involved in nearly every aspect of music on campus.

Woodard grew up in the small town of Denver, North Carolina where he was always exposed to music. As a young child, he enjoyed trying to mimic singers for fun, which evolved into him taking singing more seriously in his tween years. Woodard joined a music group at his church in middle school, his first foray into performing for an audience. In high school, he became a “choir kid” and got to experiment with both traditional and theatrical singing due to a transition of directors. His mother was a fan of artists such as Beyonce, Usher, Keyshia Cole, and of course, T-Pain. These influences show up in his original music today. 

Throughout his years at Wake Forest, Woodard has masterfully juggled his musical ventures with the demands of being a college student. He describes one venture, his original music, as R&B and neo-soul in style, and intent on being authentic and “speak[ing] to something important.” As a creative writing minor, Woodard’s coursework has strengthened his songwriting ability by forcing him to “work the pen,” and clarified his ability to communicate through dabbling in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. His experimentation across a multitude of literary genres allows his lyrics to do the same.  

In particular, he has honed his talent to imply meaning without explicitly stating it. This skill can be seen in his songs that embellish mundanity in his lived experiences, a subject matter Woodard believes departs from a lot of today’s music, where listeners often search for a deeper interpretation. Without divulging too much about songs he has in the works, he outlined for me something he wrote while in a cramped, stuffy room without windows — trying to pass the time all alone in this room but with a “cool kind of spin on it.”

He acknowledged his tendency to write quickly and prolifically while seeking something catchy, so much of his original work that has not been fully realized remains in the archives. One song, however, will debut this semester as an arrangement performed by Woodard’s a capella group, Innuendo.

Innuendo, a coed a capella group on campus that primarily covers modern pop music, is helmed by Woodard as its music director. He describes its members as people who are passionate about music, singing and academic rigor, while tied by a close fraternal relationship. In his leadership role, Woodard leads rehearsals and plans song choices, where he must constantly assess the abilities and energy levels of the group to find the perfect fit. His responsibilities as music director multiplied this semester as Innuendo took on the recording of a five-song project to be released next school year. One of the five songs is an original song of his, which will also be performed live at Innuendo’s end-of-year concert. 

With palpable gratitude, Woodard gushes to me that “they’ve just been so open to the ideas I had and following through, being able to share [my work] with people for the first time ever.” 

Woodard has also been able to flex his creative muscles in the University Gospel Choir. During his freshman year, one of his sister’s friends in the Gospel Choir invited him to participate in an Easter project with a Grammy and Oscar-nominated composer. He appreciates the consistency of the group and the opportunities to perform at services and Wake Forest “bucket-list” events. 

The composer, Joshuah Brian Campbell, stayed on to become the Director of Music and Arts at Wake Forest’s School of Divinity. Campbell has become a mentor to Woodard, helping him work through entry points into the music industry. The two also performed in Wake Forest’s production of “Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom.”

Campbell was the music director of “Turning 15,” a musical that tells the story of Lynda Blackmon Lowery, the youngest protester on the march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965. Because Campbell had been working on the music for several years prior to the production, Woodard went into performance rehearsals already familiar with many of the songs from working on them with the Gospel Choir. Though the a capella style of the songs was in Woodard’s wheelhouse, the delivery was less in his comfort zone. 

“It’s fun to switch up the method of output,” he said. “I’m usually on a stage with a band or by myself, but this time I was back in the musical theater type of headspace.”

Woodard relished the opportunity to simultaneously serve as a role model for underclassmen in the production and witness the craft of his Divinity School elders. The fact that Lowery herself came to watch Wake Forest’s theatrical production of her story is not lost on him either. 

“Just knowing that this is of the first few times that this production has been seen… to be able to bring that to our community is really important to me as well,” Woodard said. 

Yet another musical venture borne from the Gospel Choir is Woodard’s band, Fifth Son. He met Fifth Son’s drummer, Cameron French, in the Gospel Choir, where he asked if he would be interested in jamming out. The pair instantly linked and took their creative partnership to the next level by adding band members. The other members have come and gone with graduations, but new people have come on board through friendships or connections in the music department. 

In recounting their creative process, Woodard mentions that the members of Fifth Son have different musical genres that they gravitate toward, which influences how he approaches music. The group will often jam together and listen out for a common sound emerging. Once a “prevailing vibe” is established, all of the members tap into it and start rocking out from there. 

Fifth Son started out with performances at smaller student-led events, including Wake Radio and Wayward Fashion, and has grown to headlining larger university-run events, such as the Brian Piccolo Foundation fundraisers. Woodard appreciates the vast opportunities for small artists to showcase their craft on Wake Forest’s campus, with frequent open mics and many occasions calling for live music. Off-campus gigs have also been highlights for Woodard, with one being a 70s-themed fashion show at the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art. 

After studying marketing at Wake Forest, Woodard plans to fuse his expertise in that field with his passion for music. Also a visual artist, he hopes to use his digital marketing design skills to create infographics for his own concerts. Between his multifaceted artistic prowess and interpersonal communication abilities, Woodard is certainly well-equipped to enter this industry where, in his words, you “have to beg people to give you attention.”