TQ

Although born in Mobile, Alabama, TQ’s family immediately moved to LA’s infamous Compton, birthplace of N.W.A. and other rap legends. Raised in the church, where he sang in the choir, and his real education came from the streets, where hip-hop was the soundtrack of his life. “From Monday to Saturday I was hangin’, partying, chasing girls, getting in trouble, and straight up acting the fool,” recalls TQ. “But on Sunday my mother dragged me out of bed to go to church where I developed my singing voice and learned how to make people feel me.”

TQ, whose grandfather predicted his grandson would one day, “be somebody,” was never a thug in its purest sense of the word. His hard-working parents instilled positive values in him, but didn’t hesitate to set him straight when he was wrong. At 16, when his mom found a gun in his room, she sent him to live for a while with his aunt in Atlanta. In effect it rescued him from himself and the streets, where he says in retrospect, the lure of the streets was just too hard to resist. “Sending me down south saved my life,” he reveals. “It made me straighten up- for a while, anyway.”

Growing up under such conflicting circumstance honed TQ’s survival instincts, personally and later, professionally. His passion for hip-hop at its rawest and R&B at its purest is how TQ lived. “The little money I had to buy records was spent on rap,” TQ explains. “See I really wasn’t much into my generation’s R&B. I listened to more to the old-school soul that my parents had in the house. So my music now is more a combination of that and hard-core hip-hop.

Like many young black males growing up in the hood, early on TQ thought about being a rapper, but fortunately realized his strength was singing. In 1994, after working as an intern at A&M records, he was chosen to sing lead in a group called Coming Of Age. Signed by Zoo Entertainment, they had a mild-hit single entitled “Coming Home To Love”. Seeking a solo career, TQ left the group and landed a solo deal with Atlantic, where, informs TQ, he was asked to water-down his lyrics.

Despite his unlimited potential, TQ is nevertheless aware that some of his album’s lyrical content will no doubt spark controversy. Accepting such, he nonetheless refuses to acquiesce, secure and honesty, talent, and freedom of expression is on his side. “Like Protons and neutrons, life is about positives and negatives, little pluses and minuses,” he breaks it down. “If you cover up the minuses then the pluses don’t mean shit. That’s why I’ll never sugar coat my lyrics to keep a record deal or to satisfy anybody else’s view of what my music should be,” he adds. “What I love about ClockWork/Epic is that I have complete creative control, and that nobody fucks with me about my songs. As an artist who believes in God, himself and his music, I couldn’t ask for more than that.”