Album Review: T.D. - For The People

I'd like to suggest an album name change, Mr. Chameleon...

Maturity and Progression more accurately describes the new album from T.D., which shows us just how far he's come from his early Mecca Records days. The album's first offering, "Chameleon" is littered with many Eminem-esque ad libs and happens to be one of the album's key tracks. T.D. takes us head first into his new life with "Love Tonight", a Dubstep influenced cut that demonstrates his ability to take a break from the tongue-tying, multi-syllable rhymes and produce a genre-bending love song.

T.D. returns to normal form, however, giving us a long list of phrases that rhyme with "commonplace prerogative" on the album's title track. From here, the "U.F.O." rapper takes the fast lane to what I like to call The T.D. Experience. Get your thinking caps ready, gentlemen.

I highly suggest getting your rewind button ready for the rest of the album, as you'll need to listen to every word several times from here on out to get the full experience. Quite possibly my favorite track on the album, "Don't Worry" has a catchy, uplifting hook that will surely get stuck in your head for the rest of the day.

"Nebuli and spaceships, this crazy sh*t, it's Vegas!!"
The album's single, "Shine" is a hard hitting record that confidently throws open the doors for T.D.'s return. The energy displayed on this track is undeniable and I can't help but yell out, "OHH!!" as the chorus hits.

The much anticipated sequel to "Creatures Lie Here" lives up to all the hype. Turning the Slaughterhouse track into his own, T.D. delivers another dark tale that's sure to leave you checking under your bed for weeks. "Mr. Daydreamer" is one of the lyrically stronger tracks on the album, leaving me to reminisce about the old days of T.D. and I sitting in my dorm room demo-ing our latest tracks for each other.

Three bonus tracks bring the album to an end, "Stay Schemin'" being my personal favorite. A new, more confident T.D. emerges in For The People, giving us a fresh look at what the Mecca Records artist has been up to in between his collaborations with the CEO. Check out the single for now and don't forget to download the album on Tuesday, May 14th!

Listen to "Shine"!

Competing With Everyone and Their Mothers

The massive flood of content that the music industry has seen over the last several years has really put pressure on many artists to release more and more music. I’ve experienced some of this pressure, as a few months of being absent from the Facebook and Twitter newsfeeds leaves me feeling irrelevant and old. I constantly feel the need to reinvent myself and keep up with the trends without “selling out” and becoming what some music nerds would consider an industry puppet.

As an independent pop artist, I find it impossible to sell out. A close friend once told me, “Ya went soft on us, man”, and I found that comment to be hilarious. If you want my “old style”, listen to my old albums; I’m not going to revert myself back to the sound that I used to have just to make a few people happy. I enjoy challenging myself and creating a new sound with each body of work that I complete. I suppose I did “go soft” when I started to have a more radio-pop sound, but I’m a firm believer in creating the style of music that I personally like to hear. So, when my tastes change, my music changes, it’s really quite simple.

As I started gaining the ears of more listeners, I felt the need to keep up with today’s industry demands and produce more music as quickly as I could, without sacrificing quality. The constant need for new music has really helped me become a better writer, singer and producer, as I always seem to find myself behind the mic putting together another project. Practice makes perfect, and if it’s true that it takes ten thousand hours to master your chosen craft, I’m well on my way.

As much as I love recording however, I’m beginning to feel as if I’ve worn myself out. I always told myself that I’d quit if it ever felt like a job, and lately, it’s starting to feel as if I have to record something new and fresh or else I face the dreaded box of irrelevancy. I never want to end up next to Hermy on the island of misfit toys, but if I take a break from releasing an album every six months, I might just find myself there. This is an issue I’ve been dealing with for the last several months; I often wonder if the last album I released will become known as the finale. I became so caught up in this fast paced world of music that I barely realized it was happening. I feel as if I’ve said everything that I came here to say, so maybe it’s time to move onto something new? But then again, I can’t picture my life without music…

I’ve always been curious as to how different my life would be if I hadn’t started my recording career during my senior year of high school. Being involved with music has given me an outlet to express anything I feel I need to get off of my chest, but I’ve also known it to keep me trapped in an emotional state that I’d rather not be in. I found myself incredibly depressed for most of my junior year at Slippery Rock and recording my feelings didn’t exactly help. After I would record a new song, I would listen to it on repeat for hours, reliving every moment that my words described. Obviously, this wasn’t a very healthy way to live and I can proudly say that I’ve recovered from that year of depression, but I often think that my recovery time would have been much shorter had I not been listening to my pain day in and day out.

     The world that I placed myself in five years ago has given me much more pain than I expected, but I suppose no one really thinks about the future effects that their hobby could bring when they’re experiencing the high of a lifetime. It’s hard to say what I’ll be doing in a year, but hopefully I’ve figured out how to keep myself away from the basement of depression, even if I have recorded two full albums about it. Keeping up with the life of a pop artist is exhausting and I’m not sure I’ll be doing it much longer, but again, who knows. I always said that I’d never leave without saying goodbye (hint, hint).