Teedra Moses: Don’t Call it a Comeback

Don’t say nothing else about music being dead. It’s alive, it’s living, it’s accessible.

It may not be on television, or the radio, but it’s here. That soulful, relatable, can’t help but groove with it kind of music.

Sometimes it needs to take a break, grow up and poke around in life in order to have something new to say, in order to keep up with you in a way that will make you want to keep listening.

Enter Teedra Moses.  Theblvdmag.com caught up with her as she prepared to take stage at New York’s R&B stalwart SOB’s in lower Manhattan. The last time we saw her, she was on the cover of her seminal album Complex Simplicity. Five years later, and a war chest of life lessons later she’s back to let her fans know that she’s grown, but ain’t nothing changed. She’s still that friend that understands.

The petite powerhouse has taken time to raise her 13-year-old twins Ras and Taj, move to Miami and get out of a sour deal with TVT music, her former label. That didn’t mean the music stopped. Moses released three mixtapes over the course of three years.

“The last time people saw me I was dealing getting out of a relationship,” she said. “I was dealing with stuff with my music and I just wanted to have fun and move out of the funk I was in. “

That feeling and other personal issues, including losing her mother, influenced her sound.  It gave young women a soundtrack to explore love with. Five years have passed since that 2004 classic, and it’s a different time for Moses.

“I was getting out of a relationship where I was very focused on him,” she said. “I realized that when you make someone your world you miss out on finding out what God has had for you all along.”

But it’s different now.

“I’m wanting love again, and I’m ready to talk about it” she said. “My fans are writing me and twittering me about putting out a new album, and I have something to say.”

The 33-year-old feels that while she’s been an adult for a while, she’s now a grown woman who has been and has used those life lessons and solid spiritual footing to find a strength that grows daily.

“This time around my sound is more aggressive,” she said. “I’m using my voice from a deeper place.” To Moses, she’s come a long way from “Caught Up,” her first song ever recording. “I have stronger lyrics now, and I’m anxious for people to hear my music.”

Moses’ fans look to her for her strong sassy cleverness, but there’s always a message within the melody.

“We really need to try to keep the attitudes positive, and start focusing on developing really good relationships with ourselves so we don’t tolerate stupid shit,” she said. “Before you work on anything else, make sure that you love and respect yourself.”

Her songs are not about checklists, and what a nigga should be driving and where he should be vacationing. They are about the tears, and smiles you share when you are so deep in love with that one person. The stuff you sometimes don’t want to admit you’re feeling. The stuff you love to be mad at, and the stuff you are mad to love. Sometimes it feels like she puts the words right in your mouth, and gives you the permission to feel it.

“She’s really soulful,” said Claudia Steer, a 27-year-old Londoner who stood outside waiting for her friend to arrive. “She finds a way to remain true to the R&B sound, but still be relevant.

“There’s something late 90s, early 2000s about her that’s filling a void in music today.”

The hopeless romantic in Steer, understands the kind of love Moses writes about. So does Mike Milan, 30, another fan of Moses.

“Her music is timeless and her sound is pure,” he said. “It’s like the R&B in the early 90s when the sound was rich and really yummy.”

Fans wonder why she hasn’t blown up from having such a diverse and deep fan base. Men love her. She’s intriguing without posing a threat, but sassy enough to you know if you are intimidated, that’s your issue. And women relate, mayne we relate.

Still major label success is not what keeps Moses writing and singing.

“This was not something I grew up wanting to,” said the former stylist assistant. “I wasn’t that interested in being a superstar. I knew I needed a way to take care of my kids, and I wasn’t having fun styling anymore.”

So, one tearful night she cried out to God asking Him to bless her with a way to provide for the most important people in her world.

“I’m grateful for my fans allowing me to take care of my kids,” she said. “I feel successful because I’ve been able to maintain a comfortable lifestyle for them and that’s all I asked for and he gave it to me in abundance.”

She’s written for people who have had commercial success. Christina Milian, Raphael Saadiq, Nivea, Teairra Mari, Trina and others. And even if selling out your local Wal-mart forever remains elusive, she’ll be happy with the blessings that God has granted.

“I am able to be around to be a loving mom and build strong young men who aren’t pansies,” she said. “I get to write songs that people love, and I must be doing something right because I can’t do this alone.”

She knows she’s got a loyal base. One that will wait with bated breath, scour MySpace and limewire and travel across the country to see her. Fans like Sarah Kapitanoff, a 28-year-old new York transplant via Wisconsin.

“I first heard of her in 1999 singing on other people’s tracks and I’ve been down ever since,” she said. Kapitanoff said she’s seen her in D.C. and has gone to shows by herself just so she can get the Teedra experience. “It’s not hard to drag my boyfriend to the shows though. She’s a beautiful woman with a banging body and she knows she’s talented. I can relate to her.”

Kapitanoff puts out her cigarette and gets inside just inside to see Moses glide on the stage greeting the crowd with the warmth of an artist who really does love what she does.

The love was shown back. Fans, old and new, sang loudly with Moses as she crooned about love lost, and love gained. About the joys of being happy and staying positive, and of course about that “Backstroke.”

Look out for new material from The Young Lioness in 2010.

Photography by Yeppi Yeebo

© 2009 – 2010, Keisha Jenkins. All rights reserved by Sub Urban Media Group.