New York-native, Teyana Taylor, is an entertainer that wears many hats. She recently sat with Playboy Magazine to discuss her career and the many projects she is currently involved in. The list includes her solo tour for her June album, “K.T.S.E,” opening a nail salon in Harlem, collaborating with various clothing and sneaker brands, and starring in the Netflix film “The After Party,” the BET series “Hit the Floor,” and the movie “The Trap.”
“I definitely feel overwhelmed sometimes because I’m doing so much to occupy my mind from the things that are not quite happening the way I want or need them to happen,” she says. “The other 100 things that I do are just until it comes to fruition.”
Growing up as an only child, Taylor was a fearless tomboy. And although her mother—who is also her longtime manager—homeschooled her, she made friends in the neighborhood and quickly became the leader of a squad that skateboarded and rode BMX bikes all over Harlem. All with big hair and a bold fashion sense, Teyana naturally stood out.
“I have a leader vibe about me,” she says. “Because I was homeschooled, I had no choice but to raise my hand even if I didn’t want to. But I was fearless—pure, raw. I would see groups of people dancing, and instead of joining in, I would actually want to make up the moves. I’ve always been a person that wants not just to do it; I want to be it,” the “No Manners” singer explained.
“I wasn’t one of those kids that was in the studio 24/7,” she says. “Harlem is so small and has so many talented people that we’d all just sing and dance and rap. I never looked at it as a way to get signed,” she continued.
But an industry friend of her mom’s did. Catching Taylor riding by herself one day, he swept her up and took her to a recording studio. “I didn’t have no bio, no demo, no nothing. I just went with my skateboard,” she says, chuckling. “Sassy, just sassy.”
But as she sang and rapped her heart out, she began to think seriously about making music her career. When she later met Pharrell Williams, who was curious to meet the Harlem kid everybody kept telling him was the “female version” of him, he instructed her to stop skating for fear of broken bones—Teyana complied.
“Being in the business of this dirty, dirty game, I had to grow up pretty fast,” she says. “You gotta be careful. You got to know what’s going on, because some people are intimidated that you know too much at a young age.” ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
The viral fitness model-turned-actress-turned-singer has been in the industry for over a decade. As a teenager with no professional dance or vocal training, she signed with Pharrell Williams’ Star Trak label, choreographed Beyoncé’s “Ring the Alarm” video and appeared in Jay-Z’s video for “Blue Magic.”
However, Taylor’s journey as a musician has taken longer than expected. After her peaceful split with Pharrell in 2012, she appeared in interviews expressing frustration that, after being signed for six years, she still didn’t feel as if she had the chance to showcase her talent.
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“Everybody knows, as far as the music side, it’s been a long journey for me—which it has been for any person who’s great in the industry,” Taylor told Playboy. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Later that year she started a joint venture with G.O.O.D. Music and Def Jam to drop her 2014 album, “VII,” which performed significantly low on the music charts. Taylor’s debut album sold fewer than 25,000 copies—and low sales usually result from poor promotion, scared labels, and delayed projects.
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“Patience has been my biggest challenge,” she admitted, “There’s times where I’d just be laying in bed, crying. I’d been doing this for so many years and it was just not happening.”
Yet, her motivation comes from her two-year-old daughter, Junie, with husband #ImanShumpert. “She’d be like, ‘Mommy, what’s wrong? Don’t cry.’ And I’m like, ‘You right. I’m happy. I got you. I have my wonderful husband. Life could be much worse,’ ” the “K.T.S.E” singer explained.
In June, Teyana finally released her long-overdue follow up album. Executive produced by Kanye West, “K.T.S.E. (Keep That Same Energy),” is an eight-track project conveying struggle, family, love and of course Harlem.
“That’s the beauty of working with someone like Kanye: He gets how creative people work. I would never let someone tell me, ‘This is what you’re going to sing today.’ ” Tey laughed. “That’s the Karl Lagerfeld in me. I got to grab the camera myself, because you don’t see what I see, baby. I need you to be able to feel me. I need you to be able to touch me.”
Of the series of Kanye’s Wyoming sessions, Teyana’s album is ranked in the top two for pulling the best numbers. Which is impressive being that the album dropped a whole day late; in addition to it apparently missing certain songs the “3Way” singer submitted for the album. Teyana promised her fans an updated version of the album with more songs was to follow, however, she was forced to leave it as is. “Shit takes time. At this point I will leave the album the way it is & will just debut the extended record thru my visuals,” the Harlem beauty tweeted.
Known for her bold confidence, Teyana is not afraid to be direct with her production, choreography and business in general. Because of that, some have deemed her as “difficult” to work with. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
“I’m not difficult; I’m just not willing to belittle myself—to settle,” she clarified to Playboy.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
“I’m going to have self-respect. I’m going to be a strong woman all across the board whether you like it or not. Maybe that’s why it took me so long to get where I wanted to be. I was never willing to be what someone else wanted.” Teyana continued with an empowering quote for all working women:
“Hey, if we don’t bust it wide open, there ain’t gonna be no you! So put some respect on that capital W in Woman. Wo-man.”
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