Present & Show: Teezo Landing
Phrases: Georgette Cline
Editor’s Word: This story seems within the Spring 2024 difficulty of XXL Journal, on stands now.
The whole lot is greater in Texas, right down to the steel nails adorning Teezo Landing’s hair and, typically, his face. The 31-year-old artist repping the town of Beaumont, a.ok.a. Boomtown, has constructed a playful world wherein nails, soccer shoulder pads, facial piercings and eye black (what soccer gamers use on their face) typically shaped into the letter T on his higher cheeks are a part of his day by day look. The avant-garde strategy to his outer shell is as inventive because the music he’s making.
Teezo cash it rock & increase: “R&B with the depth of rock, the penmanship of hip-hop, and a increase that may shake the world.” It’s a sound that rappers like Drake, Travis Scott and Tyler, The Creator have all gravitated towards by that includes the rising celebrity on their most up-to-date albums. Teezo’s enchantment nestles between the eclecticism of André 3000 and the innovation of the late singer Rick James. The soccer fanatic is acutely dialed in on his very particular artistry. “You’ll be able to say that is the advance period proper now,” he shares whereas sitting inside RCA Data, his label residence.
Born Aaron Thomas, Teezo grew to become entrenched in hip-hop as an 8-year-old child. He joined his dad at DJ gigs, and his uncle was additionally a rapper. “They have been like chasing the identical dream that I’m residing proper now,” shares Teezo, the youngest of 5 siblings. Digital band Kraftwerk, reggae and Frankie Beverly as a part of Maze have been typically heard in the home rising up.
Whereas different boys have been taking part in Xbox or a PlayStation, Teezo was “doing this music factor” in his room on DJ gear his father purchased him. By fourth grade, Teezo began DJing and studying the strategies of chopped-and-screwed music, a staple in Houston, an hour-and-a-half drive from Beaumont. He even wrote a faculty paper on the topic. Houston’s personal Lil’ Flip was (and nonetheless is) Teezo’s favourite rapper.
“That’s what I like about hip-hop,” says the inventive polymath, who went by means of three completely different rap monikers—King Lashane, A.T., and Teezo Suave—earlier than deciding on Teezo Landing. “You don’t actually need a lot to get into the artwork type. You simply want a voice. And perhaps if somebody has a beat, even higher.”
In seventh grade, he made his very first tune, “Bang Me By means of Your Audio system,” and produced the beat. “It’s very cringe,” Teezo admits. Elevation hit in highschool. MySpace grew to become his platform of option to share his music in 2008, whereas additionally selling tracks with native rap group 2Live Click on. Native Beaumont singer Dante Davis impressed Teezo to take singing, songwriting and performing extra critically. Teezo additionally debuted his first mixtape that 12 months with the becoming title Varsity. “It’s rapping as a result of I didn’t perceive singing,” he recollects. “Now after I get compliments on my singing, it’s sort of loopy ’trigger I was so tone-deaf.”
After graduating highschool in 2011, Teezo went to Prairie View A&M College and performed trombone within the marching band whereas his music took a again seat. An educational suspension led Teezo to step again from his schooling whereas he labored at Joe’s Crab Shack and different eating places to pay the payments. He tried returning to varsity and launched a number of songs right here and there, however ultimately needed to go away once more as he admittedly dropped the ball.
“Growing, assembly individuals, getting extra expert in songwriting, [and] seeing what do I wanna appear to be” helped Teezo to hit the bottom working along with his music in 2016. He launched three tasks in two years: Skilled, The Instance and Cowl Boy. In 2019, he unleashed “100 Drums,” a observe that finds him rapping over pop-rock band Panic! on the Disco’s 2005 basic “I Write Sins Not Tragedies” with lyrics about gun violence. “No, I don’t promote weapons/However coming the place I’m from/You’d be dumb to not have one,” Teezo delivered within the stay efficiency video, which took off on social media. Trippie Redd grew to become a fan of Teezo after seeing the visible and invited him to collaborate in Los Angeles.
“100 Drums”—with out sounding preachy or corny—additionally captured the eye of music government Amal Noor, who’s been managing Teezo for the previous 5 years by means of her firm, about:clean LLC. “Teezo isn’t afraid to be experimental along with his inventive presents and push himself additional to discover new bounds,” she says. “He calls it ‘trial and success,’ which is what artistry is all about.”
Noor launched Teezo to J. Hill, founder and CEO of unbiased label Not Match For Society. Teezo signed to each RCA and Not Slot in 2019. “I noticed a star in him from the start,” Hill explains.
As Teezo continued to ship new music and movies like “Unhealthy Sufficient,” wherein he performs guitar whereas rocking black latex and soccer gear, a few of hip-hop’s elites took discover of his maverick spirit. Tyler, The Creator welcomed him on “Runitup” in 2021, and introduced Teezo on the Name Me If You Get Misplaced Tour a 12 months later. The rap newcomer additionally appeared on Travis Scott’s “Fashionable Jam” and joined La Flame for the Circus Maximus Tour in 2023. Teezo even bought a glance on Drake’s “Anthem” and some different tracks on the finish of that 12 months. “I play it cool, however I’m nonetheless like, Man, I’m within the room with such and such proper now,” Teezo says of those profitable moments.
Teezo’s 2023 debut album, How Do You Sleep at Evening?, arrived within the thick of it. It’s an experimental pay attention that bends and blends rock, rap, R&B and pop on standout gems like “Neighborhood” and “Nu Nay.” The deluxe model dropped on the high of 2024. Teezo’s at the moment on the Spend The Evening Tour, a headlining trek throughout 24 cities. A take a look at Teezo’s social media exhibits that he’s in fixed promo mode on the highway. He even speaks to followers by means of yellow Put up-it notes on social, his most popular method to talk.
JID, Lloyd Banks, Likelihood The Rapper and Timbaland, amongst others, are additionally all tapped into Teezo Landing’s motion. The person on the beginning line has earned reward from many corners of the sport. Now he’s trying to pay it ahead. “I wanna have an amazing playbook so that you can observe and hopefully that it motivates you, see what I did proper, see what I do incorrect,” he affirms. “For the following individual to principally take this wherever I take it. And then you definately take it even additional.”
Straight to a landing.
Learn Teezo Landing’s Present & Show within the Spring 2024 difficulty of XXL Journal, on newsstands now. The brand new difficulty additionally consists of the quilt story with Gunna and conversations with Metro Boomin, Danny Brown, 42 Dugg, Jim Jones and Maino a.ok.a. Foyer Boyz, Druski, That Mexican OT, 41, BabyDrill, Rapsody, actress La La Anthony, BigXthaPlug, Rob49, Reuben Vincent, singer Tyla, actress La La Anthony and producer Tate Kobang. There’s additionally a take a look at how social networking has a chokehold on rappers’ emotions and the way hip-hop in 2024 is experiencing extra wins than losses and the methods wherein child rappers are thriving due to social media.
See Pictures of Gunna’s XXL Journal Spring 2024 Concern Cowl Story
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