| Teairra Mari | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Teairra Maria Thomas |
| Born | December 2, 1987 |
| Origin | Detroit, Michigan, U.S. |
| Genres | R&B, hip hop |
| Occupations | Singer-songwriter, actress, model, dancer |
| Years active | 2004–present |
| Labels | Roc-A-Fella, Warner Bros./Asylum Records,Division1 |
| Website | Official Website |
Teairra Maria Thomas (born December 2, 1987), better known by her stage name Teairra Marí, is an American singer-songwriter, actress, model, and dancer. At the age of 16, she was signed to Def Jam and released her first album, Teairra Marí. After disappointing sales, she was let go from her recording contract in the middle of production for her sophomore album Second Round. In 2008, she returned to the music scene with the Pleasure P-assisted single Hunt 4 U. After constant leaks, she was forced to re-record and re-title her second attempt at a sophomore album At That Point. In 2010, she starred in the film Lottery Ticket alongside rappers Ice Cube and Bow Wow. Since 2010, she has released several mixtapes and an EP entitled Sincerely Yours in anticipation for her upcoming album, which is slated for release later this year.
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At a young age, she was encouraged by her grandmother who sang back up for Aretha Franklin to pursue a musical career. She began her career at age 15, recording in her cousin's basement in Holland, Michigan. She soon caught the attention of Big Mike, Ed K and Helluvah of Detroit's K.I.S.S. Productions, which developed her from the age of 16 onward. Under Big Mike's guidance, Marí spent every free moment in the studio, working with some of the hottest producers and songwriters in the game, including Helluvah, Disco D, Big Mike, Chaz M, Detail, Lyriq, AK, and J.R. K.I.S.S. Productions arranged for Marí to collaborate with artists such as Ray J, J-Kwon, Lola Damone, and Bee and for Marí to appear on Detroit's Fox 2 Morning Show and UPN 50 Sports Rap. In October 2003, K.I.S.S. Productions released Teairra's first album, an EP called Get Away, which became a local sensation. Teairra attened the Detroit High School for The Fine and Performing Arts and was a vocal major, performing in many of the school's talent showcases.
At the age of 16, K.I.S.S.' Big Mike felt that Marí was ready for the big time, and he brought the R&B starlet in front of a who's who of label execs. Candy Tookes, a friend of Big Mike, introduced the pair to industry veteran Daryl Simmons in Atlanta, Georgia. Simmons then shared Marí's K.I.S.S. Productions-produced demo disc with Antonio "L.A." Reid, Chairman of The Island Def Jam Music Group. After hearing Teairra Marí perform live, Reid offered her a contract on the spot.[1] According to Shakir Stewart, VP A&R at Def Jam, in an interview with HitQuarters, "Teairra was a star when she walked into the room. She captured the room when she did her audition. We fell in love with her from day one."[1]
Marí worked with Jay-Z in his first collaboration project since becoming president of Def Jam Records, to create "Make Her Feel Good" along with producer Sean Garrett, the lead single from her debut album on Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam that reached number 35 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #9 on the R&B charts.[2] It was heavily played on BET but barely on MTV. The second single "No Daddy" had a video that led to commercial success on MTV. The video spent sixteen days on Total Request Live, reaching number four. Shortly after she released her third single "Phone Booth" only to radio outlets and got a lukewarm response due to it not having a video and no promotion, she also made cameo apparences in various videos such as Biggie (Nasty girl), 3LW (Feelin You) Jay-Z (Show Me What You Got) and played the leading lady in Sammie's video for You Should Be My Girl.[3] Teairra Marí's first album, Roc-A-Fella Presents: Teairra Marí, was released on August 2, 2005 and was produced by Brian Michael Cox, Darkchild, Cool And Dre, Blackout Movement, The Trackboyz, Kwame and was co exectutive produced by Sean Garrett. The album reached the #5 position on the Billboard 200 albums chart and #2 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts[4] while modeling and doing ads for the Roca Wear campaign. Unfortunately, this was the only promotion the album had. Teairra started work on her 2nd album entitled "Second Round" in 2006. The first single "Play Me" was scheduled to be released in the fall but production was stopped in the middle of her second album. She received a phone call on her prom night from her label and they told her that due to unexpected album sales from her first album, the label decided to drop her as an artist. The album had only sold around 500,000 copies according to Nielsen Soundscan, as of November 11, 2009.[5]
At That Point In 2008, Marí signed a lucrative deal with Violator but decided to split and landed a new development deal with Fo'Reel Ent. under the wing of Cudda Love (the man responsible for Nelly's success). She was working on a new album titled At That Point with producers Rico Love, The Runners, The Underdogs and more. Featured on the album were Nicki Minaj, Flo Rida, Pleasure P, Soulja Boy, Gucci Mane, Kanye West & Rick Ross. On January 12, 2008 Teairra Mari released a Benny Boom-directed music video for "Hunt 4 U" which features Pleasure P. The second official single released from At That Point is "Cause A Scene" featuring Flo Rida.[6] It was produced by The Runners. The third official single off the album "Sponsor" featuring Gucci Mane & Soulja Boy[7] was released digitally on February 2, 2010 and the video was shot at a mansion in Los Angeles and was released on March 8, 2010. The album At That Point was scheduled to release the summer of 2010[8] but was eventually shelved due to so many tracks getting leaked online.[9] She decided to reenter the studio to re-record the album with a new title.[10] "Honey, I am past that point," she told Rap-Up TV.
Don't Make Me Cause A Scene Mixtape Late 2009, Teairra Marí released her first mixtape Don't Make Me Cause A Scene, hosted by DJ Papa Smurf. Besides throwing all her singles on there she released before she released "Sponsor", plus adding "Diamonds" (with Kanye West), and "Automatic" (with Nicki Minaj), she does remixes to some of the most popular songs at the time, "Birthday Sex" (Jeremiah), "Turn My Swagg On" (Soulja Boy), "Blame It" (Jamie Foxx, T-Pain), "Turning Me Off" Keri Hilson, and "Best I Ever Had" Drake. It also features an official remix to "Cause A Scene", featuring rappers Flo' Rida, and Rick Ross. In order to build more momentum, and satisfy her fans, Teairra released a slew of mixtapes, and a EP. Point of No Return Mixtape. On August 7, 2010, she released her second mixtape entitled Point of No Return, hosted by DJ Drama. This mixtape contains official songs that either leaked out ("I Know It's You", "Coins", "Find My Way Back", "Holla"), a song that didn't leak ("Lights Go Down"), and a brand new song recorded for the mixtape ("Goodie Bag"). She released 4 music videos to some of the songs she covered for the project. First video was to "Daddy's Home", a cover to Usher's song of the same title. The second video was to "Over", a cover to Drake's song of the same title. The third video was "My Lovin'", another Drake was to his single cover to his song Find Your Love. A final video was made to "Super High". A Rick Ross cover on his song of the same title.
Sincerely Yours EP. On August 17, 2010 she released Sincerely Yours. A digital EP released via iTunes, featuring the single "Sponsor", and brand new songs that became singles like "Body", and "Stranger", but some that didn't become singles like "Uneasy". It also features songs made for At That Point that hadn't leaked, "Emergency", "Operator", and "Might Get Lucky". She released music videos to "Body" and "Stranger". "Body" takes place in a GYM while "Stranger" takes place at her LOV Magazine photo shoot that kicked out the new year. On 26 February 2011, she and her background dancers for "Body", Jamie Lee Ruiz and Adele Rebecca, performed "Body" on the Mo'Nique show. The Night Before Xmas Mixtape. She released her third mixtape entitled The Night Before X-Mas on Christmas Eve 2010. It features her cover to Chris Brown's "Deuces", featuring fellow recording artist Dondria, her rendition of the Wiz Khalifa song "Black and Yellow" titled "U Know What It Is", and the original songs "Stay" and "Touch It", as well as other remixes and new material like "Round And Round", "Boy Shorts" with Mr. Vegas, "Devil In A New Dress" remix with Kanye West and Rick Ross, "Back It Up" featuring HotSauce, and many more tracks. She made videos to "U Know What It Is" and "Stay". In "U Know What It Is", Teairra plays around in the desert on her way to Las Vegas in her black and yellow car and black cat suit while in "Stay" she plays a Gennie in a bottle that captures a very cute Community Service worker that rubbed the very valuable and beautiful lamp, and begs him to stay with her in the lamp using various seductive ways.
Now or Never Mixtape In April 2011, due to the large amount of leftover material from the album, it was announced that Teairra is releasing her fourth mixtape titled Now or Never on May 30 (Memorial Day). The song "Not in Love" was the first offering from the mixtape.[11]
Teairra went into the studio with Rico Love, who's executive producer of the album, in early March 2011 to work on new music for her album.[11] A snippet from a song shown in clip of them recording is the first single from the album, titled "All That's Me", inwhich features Rico Love. "That's All Me" samples one of Diddy’s early hits, "It’s All About the Benjamins" record.[12] Teairra premiered, and performed, the new single for the first time at R&B Live in Hollywood[13] Teairra revealed on the set of That's All Me that she had departed from Warner Bros and had signed a deal with Rico Loves label Division1.[14] So far Rico and Teairra have recorded five songs together for her debut and she plans to drop her first single at the top of 2012. “She’s a superstar. If somebody is a star and they have that ‘it’ thing that cannot be taught, all you have to do is put a record with it,” Rico Love explained.[15] U Did Dat is the first single from Teiarra's yet to be titled debut album, and was written and produced by Rico Love and co-produced by D-Town.[16]
In 2009 she starred in the yet-to-be-released film The Magnificent Cooly-T. She also starred Lottery Ticket as Nikki Swayze which was released on August 20, 2010, with Bow Wow and Ice Cube. She will also have a recurring role on Love & Hip Hop[17]
In 2011, Teairra Mari was arrested for drunk driving after crashing her vehicle in Beverly Hills. According to TMZ, the 23-year-old singer, was driving her silver Infiniti on Santa Monica Boulevard in the early hours of Friday morning when she rear ended the car in front of her. Officers report that Mari showed signs of intoxication and was arrested around 3:30 a.m. During the arrest, she reportedly “became combative, resulting in a minor cut to the hand of one of the arresting officers.” She was charged with DUI and assault of a police officer. Mari was taken in custody and is being held on $50,000 bail, according to the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department. Teairra was later released from police custody as of 1:10 p.m. PST.[18]
| Film | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
| 2009 | The Magnificent Cooly-T | Sonya | Film Debut |
| 2010 | Lottery Ticket | Nikki Swazey | Supporting |
| 2011 | Love & Hip Hop | Herself | Supporting |
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