Tyrese returns with his most powerful record to date: “Legendary,” featuring CeeLo Green.
Serving as Tyrese’s first release in over 5 years, the record depicts an “artist’s response” to the unfair deaths of Black Americans at the hands of police officers.
The song is paired with thr equally powerful visual for the song titled “8:46,” paying tribute to #BlackLivesMatters and the precious lives that were lost in our quest for equality.
AllHipHop was present for the press junket and the humility from the 6x Grammy- nominated singer, songwriter, actor, and activist was not overlooked.
Tyrese made it a point to remind the press this song wasn’t about him in any shape, way or form, but merely to continue to push the narrative to end racism altogether.
Directed by Deon Taylor, who’s seen and been through the worst of the worst coming up in Gary, Indiana, the music video contains groundbreaking imagery that made both Taylor and Tyrese tear up instantly.
When asked what activism meant to Tyrese, he answered: “This is activism. Being on this call, doing this short film, having Deon to say for the first time in 10 months we both got on a flight and put our health and families life at risk. We had a crew of 100 people, it was everybody’s first gig in a year.
“Deon got on a 4-hour layover flight from Sacramento and came to Atlanta, slept at my house and did it for free. I’m well over $250K at this point with all things ’Legendary’,” Tyrese said.
He continues, “I was so committed to what God put on my heart to do.” Everybody’s like ‘why you spending too much money on this?’ Listen man, until we get to where we need to get to on behalf of these families, I’m spending the money on something that matters on this level.”
The title of the video is “8:46,” reminding the masses of the amount of time the officer had on George Floyd’s neck.
And, 100% of proceeds are going to charity, as the lives and families of Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Eric Garner, and Trayvon Martin are remembered.
Deon also had a message for the press: “You guys are all artists, your job is to speak to the culture. Speak to change. This is another time right now where we’re done talking, we’re living in it. This is a bigger moment than civil rights.”
When asked if that was Tyrese rapping on the song, he swerved with a “no comment.”
“Legendary” also serves as new territory for Tyrese, who strayed from his signature R&B ballads. The meeting ended with a friendly reminder from Tyrese to go vote.
