|  Tweet
roared onto the music scene in 2002. Listeners had already gotten
some sense of the singer, songwriter and musician’s might
on Missy Elliott’s “Take Away” (a single on Elliott’s
2001 CD “Miss E…So Addictive”); and if they were
really paying attention, the Ja Rule single “X” from
his 2001 CD “Pain Is Love.” But still, all of the sweetness
of “Take Away” could have in no way prepared audiences
for the bold, hypnotic, sensuality of Tweet’s first single
“Oops (Oh My)” — the No. 1 R&B/Hip-Hop hit
everybody had formulated their own “real story” about.
And everybody — on a crowded dance floor or alone in their
room — loved.
Then there was the slinkier
follow-up single “Call Me,” a Top 10 R&B/Hip-Hop
single made even bigger with the accompanying Verizon commercial.
And the bonus about Tweet’s debut CD Southern Hummingbird
— a Top 5 charter on both Billboard’s pop and R&B/Hip-Hop
album chart — was it was one of those rare R&B records
that was deep with single-worthy album selections like “Smoking
Cigarettes,” “Motel,” and “Boogie 2nite.”
Her 2005 follow-up It’s
Me Again charged back onto the scene with the single “Turn
Da Lights Off” and a Top 5 album. Again, there were other
album selections with single potential like vocal showcases “My
Man,” “Where Do We Go From Here,” “I’m
Done” and the gently beautiful reworking of TV’s “Taxi”
theme, “Cab Ride.” And yet while it reached the No.
2 position on Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop album chart, and
the top 20 of the pop album listings, “It’s Me Again”
wound up being more of a critical favorite than a commercial success.
And Tweet, for a moment, was silenced.
“They just didn’t
promote it well,” Tweet says of her first record label, “and
so I asked to be let off the label. Because it just wasn’t
working. And I didn’t feel they were interested. And I decided
I wasn’t going to do this thing anymore. I wasn’t going
to sing. I wasn’t going to do music. I was so tired of the
music business. Tired of the music industry.”
 With
that, Tweet went back to being full-time mom to her teenage daughter
Tashawna, whom she introduced on the “It’s Me Again”
single “Two of Us.” But it wasn’t long before
she got the call. Violator Management co-owner and president Mona
Scott was on the line with an offer from long-respected music veteran
Jheryl Busby for an independent deal with his Umbrella Recordings.
She would own her own masters and everything. “It was a good
deal,” Tweet says. “And I decided, ‘Hey, why not?’
Because music was still in my heart and as hard as I tried, I couldn’t
escape it.”
She titled her third
release Love, Tweet because “it’s a ‘Thank You’
to my fans that never left me, who are still there on MySpace checking
for new developments, and coming up to me on the streets saying
‘We’re still supporting you! Come on, we’re waiting
for you!’ So it’s just a love note to my fans saying
‘Thank you’ for all of the love and support.”
Of course it wouldn’t
be a note from Tweet of “Oops” fame if it weren’t
a bit shocking. Be it the first release from Love, Tweet titled
“Good Bye My Dear,” with fellow Atlantan and two-time
Grammy-winning rapper T.I., or the first official single “Anymore,”
produced by Novel (Joss Stone).
“‘Good Bye
My Dear’ is something that people wouldn’t really expect
for me to do,” Tweet concurs. “It’s has an Atlanta
sound, which I like. Marz [the producer] called me one night and
asked me to come by the studio, Grand Hustle, and the song just
happened. I always wanted to work with T.I. and didn’t know
how soon it would be. But the opportunity came about and I went
for it!”
“Anymore,”
on the other hand, “will put you in the mind of an OutKast
meets Tweet kind of record. And it’s another shocker. With
this album I did maybe half Tweet records, and then I took it outside
of my realm.”
There’s also “Love
Again,” produced by Charlie BeReal and Craig Brockman which
she describes as “Mary J. ‘What’s the 411’
in a very Tweet way.” “Love Again” is about “being
confused about love and wondering if you want to go there again,”
states Tweet. And then there’s the acoustic record “Alone,”
produced by Nisan Stewart, Charlie BeReal and Craig Brockman reminiscent
of her own “Motel” from Southern Hummingbird. “‘Alone’
talks about being faithful to a person and putting all of this time
in and still feeling like you’re by yourself. True story --
that happened to me.”
“I put together a lot of records I think everyone will enjoy:
My Tweet fans, and also the people who really didn’t know
me,” Tweet continues. “I’m introducing myself
to them with an album I’m proud of.”
Sounds like the world
should step back— and prepare for Tweet’s roar again.
|
Gold-selling
R&B songstress Tweet is set to release her third (3rd) album,
Love, Tweet on Jheryl Busby's Umbrella Recordings on April 8, 2008.
