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 platinum selling 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 second record label, “and so I asked to be let off the label. It just wasn’t working and I didn’t feel they were interested, so 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, via John Monopoly, was on the line with an offer from long-respected music veteran Jheryl Busbyfor 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, Twitter and Facebook, 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,”(on ITunes) 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 Tweet, 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.
