Reach Records partners with Exceleration Music on global distribution

Reach Records, the Atlanta-based Christian hip-hop label co-founded by rapper Lecrae, has struck a partnership with Exceleration Music, Music Business Worldwide reported on August 11. Under the deal, Exceleration's distribution arm Redeye Worldwide will handle global physical and digital distribution for Reach's new releases, along with marketing services, covering music released from 2026 onward.

Reach becomes Exceleration's first hip-hop partner and its first Christian music label, and the deal leaves Reach's ownership, leadership and creative control in place under Lecrae and CEO Ben Washer. "Having come up as an artist and executive, I know what it means to have people believe in you and your vision," Lecrae said, framing the deal as a way to build out infrastructure for other Christian hip-hop artists.

Washer described the arrangement in similar terms, saying any partner had to work "with integrity, transparency, and allowing us to lead the creative and the brand the way we always have." Reach, founded in 2004, calls itself the world's leading Christian hip-hop label, and Washer said the company had spent two decades building that position before deciding Exceleration was the right fit.

Exceleration Music was founded in January 2021 by five industry executives, Glen Barros, John Burk, Amy Dietz, Charles Caldas and Dave Hansen, and moved into physical and digital distribution when it acquired Redeye Worldwide in September 2023. The company has since added the UK independent label Cooking Vinyl and the catalog of Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto to its roster. Barros, the company's managing partner, said Reach had built "a thriving creative community within Christian Hip-Hop" and become an outright leader in the genre.

The partnership's first release is Clean, a new single from poet and rapper Jackie Hill Perry, which debuted during her set at Holy Smoke Festival on August 8. Fans could buy the track there on a limited-edition KiTalbum, a physical-and-digital format pairing Hill Perry's 2025 album Blameless with the new single, ahead of Clean's full digital release on August 21.

The deal lands as Christian and gospel music keeps growing in the US, where the genre was the second-fastest-growing category in 2025, according to Luminate data cited by Music Business Worldwide. Separately, Reach is suing Universal Music Group's Capitol CMG over a deal it alleges UMG walked away from before closing in 2025, a case a federal judge allowed to proceed in July; Reach and Exceleration say the new partnership is unrelated to that litigation, part of a busy year of hip-hop label news.