Teairra Marí

Teairra Mari
Birth name	Teairra Maria Thomas
Born	December 2, 1987 (1987-12-02)
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.

Biography

Early life and career beginnings

The area Teairra grew up.

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 went to Longfellow Elementary in Holland,Michigan before soon transfering to Detroit Schools. 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. 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."

2004-2006: Teairra Marí

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. 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. 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 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.

2007-2010: At That Point & Mixtapes

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. It was produced by The Runners. The third official single off the album "Sponsor" featuring Gucci Mane & Soulja Boy 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 but was eventually shelved due to so many tracks getting leaked online. She decided to reenter the studio to re-record the album with a new title. "Honey, I am past that point," she told Rap-Up TV.

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), and remixing, "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.

She released her second mixtape entitled Point of No Return, hosted by DJ Drama in August 7, 2010, . The mixtape contained leak songs like "I Know It's You", "Coins", "Find My Way Back", "Holla", and a song intended for the album called "Lights Go Down". She released 4 music videos to some of the songs she covered for the project. Usher's "Daddy's Home", covers to Drake's songs "Over" and his song Find Your Love titled "My Lovin'", and "Super High", a Rick Ross cover featuring a rapper name Cardan.

On August 17, 2010 she released Sincerely Yours, a digital EP released via iTunes, featuring the single "Sponsor", and new songs like "Body", and "Stranger", 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". She performed "Body" on the Mo'Nique show. Since not being signed to the label of Warner Bros, the EP is no longer for download.

She released her third mixtape entitled The Night Before X-Mas on Christmas Eve 2010. It features a remix to "Devil in a New Dress" by Kanye West with the help of Rick Ross and also Mr. Vegas's ball room reggae song "Boy Shorts" with him on it, covers 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", a cover to Rick Ross's song "Aston Martin Music", Diddy – Dirty Money's "Loving You No More", and other songs such as "Stay", "Round And Round", and "Back It Up" featuring rapper YG. She made videos to "U Know What It Is" and "Stay".

2011-present: New Album and Division1

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. 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. The song is a single off of DJ T. Neal's album Not Your Average DJ which features Rico Love but will also feature on the new album. Just not as a single. Teairra premiered, and performed, the new song for the first time at R&B Live in Hollywood Teairra revealed on the set of That's All Me that she had departed from Warner Bros and had signed a deal with Rico Love's label Division1. due to the large amount of leftover material from the album, Teairra released a fourth mixtape titled Now or Never on May 30 (Memorial Day). So far Rico and Teairra have already started recording for her sophomore album and she plans to drop her first single by 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.

U Did That is the first single from Teairra's untitled sophomore album, and was written and produced by Rico Love and co-produced by D-Town. Mari said that the single will be going for radio adds sometime in January. Teairra Mari released a video of her and Rico Love in the studio and talking about the new album. “It’s absolutely amazing the chemistry that Rico and I share. I couldn’t ask for another partner in crime,”. “There are a lot of talented songwriters out there, but for me, my chemistry is with Rico and I haven’t had a chemistry like this with anybody else. Everybody has their match and I think Rico is definitely my musical match.” “The direction has gotta be sexy,” she said. “I’m a woman comfortable in my shoes and I like to be in love, and when I’m in love, I like to have sex, lots and lots of it.” The song was later remixed featuring a new rapper by the name of 2 Chainz. The music video has been shot.

Acting career

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

Legal issues

In 2011, Teairra Mari was arrested for drunk driving after crashing her vehicle in Beverly Hills, California. 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.

Discography

Main article: Teairra Marí discography

• Get Away [EP] (2004)
• Roc-A-Fella Records Presents - Teairra Marí (2005)
• Don't Make Me Cause a Scene [Mixtape] (2009)
• At That Point (album - shelved) (2010)
• Point of No Return (Mixtape) (2010)
• Sincerely Yours [EP] (2010)
• The Night Before X-Mas (Mixtape)(2010)
• Now or Never (Mixtape) (2011)
• TBA (2012)

Filmography

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

Mac and dev go to high school

External links

• Official Fansite
• Teairra Marí on Myspace
• Twitter
• Teairra Marí at the Internet Movie Database