For a long time, Teyana Taylor was hovering around the spotlight, but never really took centre stage. She helped choreograph Beyonce's "Ring the Alarm" music video, has appeared in Tyler Perry movies, dropped guest vocals on Kanye West's Dark Fantasy album and starred in his "Fade" music video. Taylor has always been someone respected in the creative arts, but she was tired of always being in the background, and summer 2018 finally gave her an opportunity to be the star.
After a deal with Pharrell Williams's Star Trak Entertainment label didn't go anywhere, Taylor jumped to West's G.O.O.D. Music team, with the goal of becoming a true solo artist. In June, she released her first album at her new home, as part of West's "Wyoming Sessions", through which he released five albums in five weeks. Taylor's album, K.T.S.E (Keep The Same Energy), was the final release, a laidback R&B record that, as Rolling Stone points out, was the most fun, "existing without the self-seriousness that weighed down the albums from Pusha T, Kid Cudi, Nas and West himself."
Taylor further pushed herself into the headlines, when, in a strange power move, dropped out from her tour with Jeremih two weeks in, then backtracked, got back on the tour, and forced Jeremih himself to back out. When Jeremih started taking shots on social media, Taylor responded via Twitter: “Don’t ever try to play me Petunia! They come to see me then 80% of the room leave after MY SET! work my ass off every city, every night! You’ve done nothing this whole tour but act like a DIVA in ya princess chair.” The industry applauded, and Taylor just wrapped up the now solo tour, selling out many of her shows.
Listen to "Issues/Hold On" from K.T.S.E and let us know what you think!
You can learn more about Teyana Taylor here:
About the curator - Cormac McGee
Cormac McGee is a DJ, artist manager and concert promoter based in Toronto, Canada. He’s played in front of crowds from 10 – 1,000 people and has run concerts with some of today’s top hip hop artists, including Drake, Future, Mac Miller, 6lack, Ab-Soul and more. He also runs the Music Den at Ryerson University, a business incubator for entrepreneurs in the music industry.
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