Teairra Marí Thomas (born December 2, 1987) is an American rapper, singer-songwriter, dancer, and actress from

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

, Michigan. At the age of 16, she signed with

Def Jam Recordings Def Jam Recordings (also simply known as Def Jam) is an American multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It is based in Manhattan, New York City, specializing predominantly in hip hop, contemporary R&B, soul and pop. The l ...

and

Jay-Z Shawn Corey Carter (born December 4, 1969), known professionally as Jay-Z, is an American Rapping, rapper, businessman, and record executive. Rooted in East Coast hip-hop, he was named Billboard and Vibe's 50 Greatest Rappers of All Time, the ...

Roc-A-Fella Records Roc-A-Fella Records was an American record label and music management company founded in 1994 by record executives and entrepreneurs Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter, Damon Dash, and Kareem "Biggs" Burke. Carter issued his debut album, '' Reasonable Doubt ...

to release her debut studio album, '' Roc-A-Fella Records Presents Teairra Marí'' (2005). It peaked at number five on the ''Billboard'' 200 and was supported by the ''Billboard'' Hot 100-top 40 single, "Make Her Feel Good". In 2008, she returned to the music scene with her single "Hunt 4 U" (featuring

Pleasure P Marcus Ramone Cooper Sr, better known by his stage name Pleasure P, is an American R&B singer who experienced success as a member of the group Pretty Ricky before embarking on a solo career in 2007. His debut album '' The Introduction of Marcu ...

). After constant leaks, she re-recorded a second attempt at her second album, ''At That Point'', which was later shelved. In 2010, she starred in the film ''

Lottery Ticket A lottery (or lotto) is a form of gambling that involves the drawing of numbers at random for a prize. Some governments outlaw lotteries, while others endorse it to the extent of organizing a national or state lottery. It is common to find som ...

'' alongside rappers Bow Wow and

Ice Cube O'Shea Jackson Sr. (born June 15, 1969), known professionally as Ice Cube, is an American rapper, songwriter, actor, and film producer. His lyrics on N.W.A's 1989 album '' Straight Outta Compton'' contributed to gangsta rap's widespread popu ...

Career

Early life and career beginnings

Born in Detroit, Marí sung in church and she was influenced by the music of

Motown Motown is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. Founded by Berry Gordy, Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on January 12, 1959, it was incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau ...

acts and

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, Monica, and

Brandy Norwood Brandy Rayana Norwood (born February 11, 1979) is an American singer, songwriter, dancer, model and actress. Born into a musical family in McComb, Mississippi, Norwood was raised in Carson, California, beginning her career as a backing vocalist ...

. Her grandmother was a background singer for

Aretha Franklin Aretha Louise Franklin ( ; March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Honored as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Queen of Soul", she was twice named by ''Rolling Stone'' magazine as the Roll ...

. Marí attended Detroit High School for the Fine and Performing Arts. After Antonio "L.A." Reid heard Marí perform live, he offered her a contract. According to VP A&R at

Island Def Jam Music Group Island Def Jam Music Group (IDJMG) was an American record label group formed on December 31, 1998, by Universal Music Group. Before 2014, IDJMG encompassed labels originally established under the umbrella of Island Records and Def Jam Recording ...

Shakir Stewart Shakir Stewart (April 12, 1974 – November 1, 2008), a native of Oakland, California, was an American record producer and record executive in a number of companies, the latest being Def Jam. At the time of his death he was the Senior Vice Pr ...

, in an interview with

HitQuarters HitQuarters was an international music industry publication and contact database founded in 1999. It was noted for its in-depth interviews with industry figures, as well as its A&R and manager contact directory, free artist promo pages and song ...

, "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

in his first collaboration project since becoming president of Def Jam Records, to create "

Make Her Feel Good Make or MAKE may refer to: *Make (magazine), ''Make'' (magazine), a tech DIY periodical *Make (software), a software build tool *Make, Botswana, in the Kalahari Desert of Africa *Make Architects, an architecture studio *Make or marque, List of car ...

" along with producer

Sean Garrett Garrett Robin Hamler (born March 30, 1979), known professionally as Sean Garrett, is an American record producer and songwriter. He is known his songwriting work on a series of commercially successful R&B and hip-hop songs, beginning with Ush ...

, 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 Black Entertainment Television (BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting Black American audiences. It is the flagship channel of the BET Media Group, a subsidiary of Paramount Global's CBS Entertainment Group. Originally launched ...

but barely on

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

. The second single " No Daddy" had a video that led to commercial success on MTV. The video spent sixteen days on

Total Request Live ''Total Request Live'' (commonly abbreviated as ''TRL'') is an American television program that premiered on MTV on September 14, 1998. The early version of ''TRL'' featured popular music videos played during its countdown and was also used as ...

, reaching number four. Shortly after her third single "

Phone Booth A telephone booth, telephone kiosk, telephone call box, telephone box or public call box is a tiny structure furnished with a payphone and designed for a telephone user's convenience; typically the user steps into the booth and closes the booth ...

" was only sent to radio outlets and received a lukewarm response due to it not having a video and no promotion, she also made cameo appearances in various videos such as Biggie ("Nasty Girl"), 3LW ("Feelin You")

("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 Records Presents Teairra Marí, was released on August 2, 2005 and was produced by Brian Michael Cox, Darkchild, Cool & Dre, Blackout Movement, The Trackboyz, Kwame and was co-executive produced by

. The album reached No. 5 on the Billboard 200 albums chart and No. 2 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart while modeling and doing ads for the Roca Wear campaign. The album sold 248,000 copies according to Nielsen Soundscan, as of November 11, 2009. Teairra started work on her second 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 the album. She received a phone call from her label before her high school graduation to inform her that she was being dropped.

2007–2010: ''At That Point'' and mixtapes

In 2008, Marí signed a lucrative deal with Violator but decided to split and landed a new development deal with Fo' Reel under the wing of Cudda Love (the man responsible for

Nelly Cornell Iral Haynes Jr. (born November 2, 1974), better known by his stage name Nelly, is an American rapper, singer, and actor. He grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, and embarked on his musical career in 1993 as a member of the Midwest hip hop g ...

'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 Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty (born December 8, 1982), known professionally as Nicki Minaj ( ), is a Trinidadian rapper, singer, and songwriter. Regarded as the "Queen of Rap" and one of the most influential rappers of all time, she is noted for her ...

Flo Rida Tramar Lacel Dillard (born September 16, 1979), known professionally as Flo Rida ( ), is an American rapper and singer. His 2007 debut and breakout single "Low (Flo Rida song), Low" was number one for 10 weeks in the United States and broke the ...

Soulja Boy DeAndre Cortez Way (born July 28, 1990), known professionally as Soulja Boy (formerly Soulja Boy Tell 'Em), is an American rapper, songwriter, and record producer. He rose to prominence with his self-released 2007 debut single, "Crank That ...

Gucci Mane Radric Delantic Davis (born February 12, 1980), known professionally as Gucci Mane, is an American rapper. He is credited, along with fellow Atlanta-based rappers T.I. and Jeezy, with pioneering the hip hop subgenre trap music for mainstream a ...

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Rick Ross William Leonard Roberts II (born January 28, 1976), known professionally as Rick Ross, is an American rapper. An influential figure in modern Hip-hop, hip hop music, Rick Ross has become known for his "Wiktionary:booming, booming" vocal perfor ...

. On January 12, 2009 Teairra Marí released a

Benny Boom Benny Douglas (born July 22, 1971), professionally known as Benny Boom, is an American director who has worked in music, television, and film. His most commercially successful film was the 2017 Tupac Shakur biopic '' All Eyez on Me''. Career Do ...

-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 from the album " Sponsor" featuring

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. 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

), and "Automatic" (with

), and remixing, "Birthday Sex" (

Jeremih Jeremy Phillip Felton (born July 17, 1987), known professionally as Jeremih ( ), is an American Contemporary R&B, R&B singer. He embarked on a musical career after meeting record producer Mick Schultz in 2008, and signed a recording contract wi ...

), "Turn My Swagg On" (

), "Blame It" (

Jamie Foxx Eric Marlon Bishop (born December 13, 1967), known professionally as Jamie Foxx, is an American actor, comedian, and singer. Known for his work in both the screen and music industries, his accolades include an Academy Award, a Grammy Award ...

T-Pain Faheem Rashad Najm (born September 30, 1984), known professionally as T-Pain, is an American singer and rapper. He is known for popularizing creative use of Auto-Tune pitch correction, often used with extreme parameter settings to create electro ...

), "Turning Me Off" (

Keri Hilson Keri Lynn Hilson (born December 5, 1982) is an American singer and songwriter. Born and raised in Decatur, Georgia, she began her musical career as a songwriter and backing vocalist for other artists under the wing of record producer Anthony De ...

), and "Best I Ever Had" (

Drake Drake may refer to: Animals and creatures * A male duck * Drake (mythology), a term related to and often synonymous with dragon People and fictional characters * Drake (surname), a list of people and fictional characters with the family ...

). It also features an official remix to "Cause A Scene", featuring rappers Flo' Rida, and

. She released her second mixtape entitled ''

Point of No Return The point of no return (PNR or PONR) is the point beyond which one must continue on one's current course of action because turning back is no longer possible, being too dangerous, physically difficult, or prohibitively expensive to be undertaken. ...

'', hosted by DJ Drama on 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

's songs "Over" and his song " Find Your Love" titled "My Lovin'", and "Super High", a

cover featuring a rapper named 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 had not leaked, "Emergency", "Operator", and "Might Get Lucky". She released music videos to "Body" and "Stranger". She performed "Body" on the Mo'Nique show. 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

with the help of

and also Mr. Vegas's ballroom reggae song "Boy Shorts" with him on it, covers to

Chris Brown Christopher Maurice Brown (born May 5, 1989) is an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and actor. A Pop music, pop and hip-hop-influenced contemporary R&B, R&B musician who works in a variety of genres, he has been called the "Honorific nic ...

's "Deuces" featuring fellow recording artist Dondria, her rendition of the

Wiz Khalifa Cameron Jibril Thomaz (born September 8, 1987), better known by his stage name Wiz Khalifa, is an American rapper, singer-songwriter and actor. Raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he signed with the local independent label Rostrum Records to re ...

song "

Black and Yellow "Black and Yellow" is a song by American rapper Wiz Khalifa from his third studio album, '' Rolling Papers''. It was released on September 14, 2010, as the lead single from the album. The song was written by Khalifa, along with Stargate, who pro ...

" titled "U Know What It Is", a cover to

's song "Aston Martin Music",

Diddy – Dirty Money Diddy – Dirty Money was an American musical trio, composed of R&B singers Dawn Richard and Kalenna Harper, and rapper Sean "Diddy" Combs. The group, formed and introduced by the latter in July 2009, refers to their billing with Combs, whi ...

'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".

2011–2012: ''Sex on the Radio'' and Division1

In March 2011, Marí, with Rico Love, executive producer of the album, began to work on new music for her album. A snippet of a song is heard in a clip of them recording the first single from the album, "That's All Me", which featured Rico Love. The song samples one of Diddy's early hits, ''It's All About the Benjamins''. "That's All Me" is a single on DJ T. Neal's album ''Not Your Average DJ'', which features Rico Love and was also set to be included on Marí's album. Marí performed the new song for the first time at R&B Live in Hollywood, and later revealed on the set of the video 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, Marí released a fourth mixtape titled ''Now or Never'' on May 30, 2011. "U Did That" was later released as the new first single from Marí's second album, and was written and produced by Rico Love and co-produced by D-Town. Marí said that the single would be going for radio adds sometime in January 2012. Marí then 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 song was later remixed featuring rapper

2 Chainz Tauheed K. Epps (born September 12, 1977), known professionally as 2 Chainz (formerly Tity Boi), is an American rapper and actor. Born and raised in College Park, Georgia, he gained recognition as one-half of the Southern hip-hop duo Playaz Ci ...

, and the music video was shot. Marí described the reasoning for the title of the album by saying "It's reminiscent of a new jack swing, like '90s R&B, bedroom music but with a bounce."

2014–present: Deserve and Rehab

In December 2014, Marí released a single, "Deserve", produced by

Hitmaka Christian J. Ward (born September 9, 1985), known professionally as Hitmaka, is an American record producer and former rapper. Ward began rapping under the stage name Iceberg in 2001, at the age of 14. His career was cut short, due to his time ...

. In 2019, she released an EP, "Rehab". On January 12, 2024, she released a single, "Take Me Out".

Acting career

In 2009, she appeared in ''The Magnificent Cooly-T'', followed in 2010's ''Lottery Ticket'' playing opposite Bow Wow. During 2013, the cable network UP premiered her in "The Dempsey Sisters" with Lynn Whitfield, Denyce Lawton and

Clifton Powell Clifton Powell (born March 16, 1956) is an American actor who primarily plays supporting roles in films, such as in '' Ray'' (2004), for which he received an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture nomination. Ca ...

Reality television

From 2011 to 2012, she had a supporting role on season two of the

VH1 VH1 (originally an initialism for Video Hits One) is an American basic cable television network that launched on January 1, 1985, and is currently owned by the MTV Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global's networks division based in New Y ...

hit reality show '' Love & Hip Hop: New York''. In 2014, she appeared in a main role on the ''Love & Hip Hop'' spinoff: '' Love & Hip Hop: Hollywood''.

Discography

* '' Roc-A-Fella Records Presents Teairra Marí'' (2005)

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mari, Teairra 1987 births Living people African-American female dancers American female dancers 21st-century American dancers African-American dancers 21st-century American singers American contemporary R&B singers Asylum Records artists Midwest hip-hop musicians American hip-hop singers Interscope Records artists People from Holland, Michigan Roc-A-Fella Records artists Universal Music Group artists Warner Records artists Singers from Detroit Participants in American reality television series 21st-century American women singers 21st-century African-American women singers