“Image of a Man is really just an in depth look at what a man is and what a man is supposed to be,” says Marvin Winans Jr. of his forthcoming urban CD debut. “I think there’s a big void in representing who we are as men in today’s society. I think people are searching for who they are and what their purpose is in this life. It’s not so hard to deal with some of the blows life is gonna jab you with if you realize that there’s a reason and purpose for your life.”

Winans has always been aware of his innate purpose. Born into the Winans musical dynasty, the twenty-something singer was surrounded by the biggest names in music as a child, from Quincy Jones to Whitney Houston. The son of Marvin L. Winans, Sr., leader of the GRAMMY-winning gospel crossover group, The Winans (their collaborations with Anita Baker, Teddy Riley and Michael McDonald are legendary), and the Hardest Working Woman in Gospel, Vickie Winans; Winans Jr. began singing at the age of five. Aside from his parents, the family also included his big brother Mario, a Bad Boy artist who scored a Top Five pop smash with 2004’s “I Don’t Wanna Know”; his aunt and uncles such as the platinum duo BeBe & CeCe Winans, Angie & Debbie, Daniel Winans; and his grandparents, Mom & Pop Winans.

Ironically, Winans’ early dream was to become a basketball star like Isaiah Thomas, his hero as a child. However, he also loved to mimic his father’s jaw-dropping vocal skills and began to write and produce music as he watched Mario develop his own production skills in the basement of the family’s home. At the age of 16, Winans officially became a singer himself when he formed the group One Way with his cousin Michael Winans Jr. and a couple of friends. Just a couple of years later, Winans’ uncle Carvin Sr. put him and his cousins Michael, Juan and Carvin Jr. in a group called Winans Phase 2. Signed to Word/Epic Records as a new generation of The Winans, the group was an immediate success.

Their only CD “We Got Next” debuted at #1 on Billboard’s gospel charts and sold over 300,000 units. They performed on Oprah!, The Queen Latifah Show and the CBS Early Show among others. After almost two years of sold-out concerts and industry buzz, Phase 2 was phased out. “It was a great CD and people love it to this day,” Winans explains. “We weren’t groomed to be Phase 2. That just happened. [The reason the group stopped performing was that] We wanted to get out of our record deal. It wasn’t a good deal for us. We didn’t have the same management in place, so we just went back to being family. We came together for a purpose and for a time and then we went on with our lives.”

Now, Winans has gone on with his life and launched his solo career. He founded M2 Entertainment on April 5, 2000 and has produced a number of artists, including his famous mom. Aside from his own production skills, the Image of a Man CD features production by Rodney Jerkins (Michael Jackson, Beyonce), Noel “Detail” Fisher (Akon, Ray J) and rising star producer, David Garcia. The sound is decidedly urban with a style similar to that of Chris Brown and Alicia Keys.

The collection opens with the percolating title song “Image of a Man” that reverberates with summer fun and self-affirmation. “You Never Let Me Down” is a fresh, Caribbean-styled mid-tempo jam with vocoder and all the studio tricks to make a radio-friendly staple. “Feel It All” is simply a call to reunite with estranged friends and rebuild that bond while “Come 2 Me” offers a friend a shoulder to lean on and a listening ear.

In May 2007, Winans and his wife, Monique, visited Tampa, Fla. for a gathering at his spiritual mom Paula White’s house and fell in love with the city. “It was a beautiful place with beautiful weather,” he says. “It was during that trip that I felt God saying this is where I should be.” So they moved down there with their black shitzu named Ronnie after Winans’ late uncle. Then, Monique became a real estate agent. They also became members of Without Walls International Church and started getting active in the local music community. “A friend of mine named Diane at the church had a party,” Winans recalls. “This guy named David Garcia was there. After the meeting, we went out to his car and he played me some music and I loved it. Diane later told me she had set that up because she wanted us to meet.” They met and three of their collaborations made the cut.

Shanghai chimes kick off the first of their collaborations on the ballad “Been So Long” which speaks of separation. “It’s been so long since I’ve left you, how can I get back what I had?" Winans croons in his most aching voice. “Push Pull, It’s Alright” is a ballad that tackles the push and pull of life’s struggles and the club-friendly “Put Your Love On Me” is simply a song expressing the extreme void without true love.

The up-tempo “Believe” was produced by Fred Jerkins (Janet Jackson, Alicia Keys) and Lashawn Daniels (Destiny’s Child, Bobby Valentino) and remixed by Winans’ little brother, Josiah. “I wrote the second verse of that,” Winans says. “I believe when your faith wanes you have to push through and believe. You need someone to tell you that.”

Winans’ song inspirations came from everywhere. “I went to Philly and I was trying to do 30 songs in 30 days but, I only did 15,” Winans laughs as he discusses “Let it Out,” another song from the CD. “ It’s about relationships and boyfriend-girlfriend stuff. I feel like the song gives an opportunity to cry about it, pray about it and vent. Just let it out.”

One of the songs Winans let out is the acoustic guitar strumming of “A Single Rose,” a gorgeous ballad. “I wrote that when I was 15 years old,” he remembers. “I went into the school cafeteria and started thinking about Jesus up on the cross looking down at a world that was so lost. That’s my thank you to Jesus. I’m in love with you.”

“U Know Luv” was produced by Noel Detail Fisher and it deals with the twisted state of love in today’s society. “I was in Dallas to work with him,” Winans recalls. “And while he was mixing for a song I did with Jerry Stackhouse [Dallas Mavericks], I was sitting at the piano. Some girls came back there and I had a conversation with one of them and she told me how the clubbing every night had her down. She said she did it to get attention. It was like a two hour high and then, she would drop again. I was telling Detail about this and that’s where the song came from.”

The piano-driven “Steps to a Man” is Winans’ response to his parents’ divorce. “I grew up in a house where we had so much fun and yet my parents got divorced and it hurt,” he says. “I saw a lot of things that I wish I could have fixed. I was like `Why don’t you all say I’m sorry and start again?’ While some could lose direction, my relationship with God grew so much stronger in spite of that situation.”

A part of being a strong man is admitting to one’s “Mistakes,” another passionate ballad from the CD. “Most people have things that they continue to struggle with and we say I’m gonna get it right but we continue to make that same mistake,” says Winans. “If we keep failing this song is another way of asking for forgiveness.”

One thing Winans doesn’t have to ask forgiveness for is the family name. While some artists fear singing in the shadows of a more famous relative, Winans doesn’t. “If you are who you are, you are gonna be seen for that,” he postulates. “If you are a low key person, you could be covered up by that other person’s fame, but my voice and style of music is gonna be heard. This CD is an opportunity for me to begin to express who I am. I love my family. I get to eat fruit from trees I didn’t plant. Because of my family’s name, I get in to doors that ordinarily I would not get into. It’s a blessing. I have to live up to the standard that they’ve set.” Sounds like Winans is well on his way to become quite the image of a man.