Faces of Milwaukee: Speech

When I was at Rufus King High School in the mid 90s, famed alumnus Todd Thomas, better known as Speech and the subject of today's portrait, was already a legend. Born in Milwaukee in 1968, he spent his childhood split between Milwaukee and Ripley, Tennessee, After graduating from King and some time at UW-Milwaukee, he relocated to Atlanta in 1987 to attend the Art Institute of Atlanta. In Atlanta, his Father owned "The Fox Trap" where Speech fell in love with hip-hop music and learned to DJ from one of the club's resident DJs. Along with DJ Headliner, he formed Arrested Development and went on to release their first album Three Years, Five Months, and Two Days in the Life Of..., a reference to amount of time it took them to get a record contract. It would eventually reach #7 on the Billboard charts, with numerous high-charting singles.

The positive message and the self-reflective nature of the songs were a departure from what was going on in much of the hip-hip and rap world at that time, and brought them critical acclaim in addition to commercial success. The group won Grammys for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group and Best New Artist, Arrested Development being the first hip-hop artist to receive the latter award. Their second release in 1994, Zingalamaduni, was well-received by critics but considered a commercial failure after their previous chart-topping success. Although the original Arrested Development broke up shortly after in 1996, Speech has continued to make socially conscious, introspective music as a solo act and with a reunited Arrested Development. His third album, Spiritual People was certified gold in 2000, and in addition to a packed touring schedule, he has appeared with a variety of artists including Herbie Hancock, Parliament-Funkadelic, and The Roots, and written music for TV and film. He continues to perform and record today, releasing Expansion in 2020.

Here is one of my favorite more recent Arrested Development tracks, I Don't See You At The Club:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvpWYg7ak7w