WASHINGTON — Richard Smallwood, a D.C. native and eight-time Grammy nominated singer-composer has died. Smallwood’s publicist said the musician passed away just after midnight Tuesday due to kidney failure at the Brooke Grove Rehabilitation and Nursing Center. He was 77 years old.
Over the past five decades, Smallwood has written some notable songs like “I Love the Lod” which Whitney Houston remade with the Georgia Mass Choir for 1996’s The Preacher’s Wife soundtrack and Boyz II Men’s 1997 album, Evolution, closed with a song “Dear God” that included a refrain of it. His song “Total Praise” was also covered by Destiny’s Child on their 2007 acapella track, “Gospel Medley.”
Smallwood was born on Nov. 30, 1948 in Atlanta but was raised in D.C. by his mother Mabel and his stepfather Rev. Chester Lee “CL” Smallwood who was pastor of Union Temple Baptist Church in southeast D.C…