Wednesday, May 28, 2003
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Wednesday, May 28, 2003 |
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Grammy winner now calls Fayette home By MICHAEL BOYLAN
Over the past 10 years, you may have passed Todd Thomas at the local grocery store or movie theater and not even known it. That is just fine with him. In fact, that is one thing that attracted Thomas, a.k.a. Speech, to the Fayette County area. The front man of the Grammy Award-winning hip-hop group Arrested Development loves the area because of the privacy and quiet it affords him and his family, as well as its close proximity to the airport. "We love it here," said Speech, who has recorded all five of his solo albums and two recent Arrested Development albums in his studio in Fayetteville. "When I'm on the road I am always in the public eye. It should be different when you come home." When writing for himself or Arrested Development, Speech starts with the beat and the music and then the lyrics come from whatever is on his mind at the time. The songs on his recent albums deal with everything from the passing of his brother, Terry, to spirituality, love, and the current state of hip hop. As for the current state of hip-hop, Speech is irked because much of it is a glamorization of ghetto life. The music industry, which promotes this type of music and style, is more focused on marketing and strategy rather than the message. By producing his albums on an independent label, Speech has more control over the message as well as the means by which it reaches the audience. Speech is an artist who encourages listeners to download and share his music, wanting more people to hear it. "The music I make is good hip-hop," stated Speech. "It's got hard beats, no cuss words and no gory lyrics. It's what I'd want to hear." Speech was born in Milwaukee in 1968 to parents who owned a newspaper, the Milwaukee Community Journal, and who were very active in African-American issues and politics. Speech was not interested in those issues at that time. He was more interested in DJ'ing in his father's club, the Fox Trap, and a new brand of music that was just starting to blossom, hip-hop. He began dabbling in professional music with help from his father and began selling copies of his records to local audiences. In 1987, a week after graduating from high school, Speech moved to Atlanta to attend the Art Institute of Atlanta with plans on majoring in music management. It was at the Art Institute that Speech met a young man known as Headliner and the seed for Arrested Development was planted. It was also at this time that Speech began to get more interested in political issues. However, while other hip hop groups like Public Enemy and The Jungle Brothers voiced their political stances and intrigued listeners like Speech, Arrested Development's message was more about African-American culture. The group was made up of Speech; Headliner; Montsho Eshe, the group's choreographer, singer and emcee; Rasa Don, percussionist, dancer and singer; and 71-year-old Baba Oje, the group's elder and spiritual advisor. Oje is in the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest man in hip-hop. Though by all accounts they are a hip-hop group, they have always considered themselves more of a family. The family eventually met up with Jermaine Dupri's father, Michael Mauldin, who signed the group to the EMI label. Joining them on their debut album, "Three years, five months and two days in the life of...," which refers to the amount of time that passed before they got a record deal, was Dionne Farris, an integral part of their successful launch into the world of popular music. Farris sang on and starred in the video for their first single, "Tennessee." The song quickly became a buzz clip on MTV, which meant it got tremendous airplay on the network and led radio stations around the nation to pick it up as well. The group followed "Tennessee" with the singles "People Everyday" and "Mr. Wendal," which was the group's most popular song. "Mr. Wendal" tackles the issue of homelessness and half of the royalties for that song were donated to the National Coalition for the Homeless. The group won two Grammys in 1993, Best New Artist and Best Rap Single, as well as MTV Music Awards for Best Rap Single for "Tennessee" and Best Music Video for "People Everyday" and an NAACP award. Arrested Development followed up their debut with an MTV Unplugged and "Zingalamaduni." Together, all three albums sold six million copies. The group had progressed from touring in a van and a U-Haul to touring larger clubs, arenas and worldwide venues. Arrested Development toured with Lollapalooza in 1993 and played Woodstock in 1994, which was before an audience of 250 thousand people. Eventually, the added stress of the business took its toll and the group broke up in 1995. The breakup led to a solo career for Speech. Few artists have found more success after a breakup with their initial group, but Speech has. In Japan. He has released five solo albums in Japan and each one has produced at least one top ten single. Most of his albums have gone Gold in Japan, which means they have sold 100,000 copies. Speech goes on sold-out tours around the nation and has collaborated with Japanese artists over the past few years. "Radio in Japan is more like college radio over here," said Speech. "It is not as genre-oriented as popular radio. You may hear Stevie Wonder followed by (the popular rock group) Incubus in the same set of music. I think this makes the listeners more open." Speech regrouped with members of Arrested Development in 2000 and the group has recorded and released two albums in Japan as well. Both of which have been very successful. Arrested Development is now planning a tour that will take them around the U.S. and Europe as well as Japan. They will perform at Centennial Olympic Park's "On The Bricks" concert this Friday with Jason Mraz and Jennifer Love Hewitt. Tickets are $3. When asked when the group will perform in Fayette County, Speech expressed great interest in setting up a concert in the near future. "I'd love to do an all-day thing, teaching the art of DJ'ing, dance and rap during the day and then have some local hip hop acts in the evening before the headliners," said Speech, who has a number of connections with popular hip hop artists that have positive messages. "It would be an exciting day for people to learn new things. Maybe someone's life would take a different and more positive direction because of it." Other things that Speech would like to see come to Fayette County are a natural foods restaurant, a good record store and perhaps a movie theatre in Peachtree City. "I love Fayetteville and I'm planning on staying," said Speech. "I'd like to see more things happen here." At the age of 34, Speech has had a very sustained career that has taken him all over the globe but always brings him back home to Fayette County. He credits God for being the source of his vision and talent, which has enabled him to have a long career that does not appear to be slowing down anytime soon. For more information on Speech
and Arrested Development, visit www.speechmusic.
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