By Antonia Smith

 

"An In Depth Conversation With Tyrese: Black Rose Album, Furious 7 & More"

 

"Did you hear about the rose that grew from a crack in the concrete? Proving nature's laws wrong, it learned to walk without having feet. Funny, it seems to by keeping it's dreams; it learned to breathe fresh air. Long live the rose that grew from concrete when no one else even cared." ― Tupac Shakur, The Rose That Grew from Concrete

 

From Watts Los Angeles, to his career starter appearance in the Coca Cola commercial, his smash hit debut album 'Tyrese', to his unforgettable acting in Baby Boy. Tyrese has set the bar so high it's unbelievable that he is yet again set to take this year by storm! He will release his last solo album Black Rose which he calls the Black Rose Universe [a double album, documentary, book, audio book where it will have his music playing while reading his book, live performances, a musical film, global tour and bonus material] (7.7.15), he returns to one of the biggest movies of the year Furious 7 (3.4.15) as Roman Pearce, he will appear alongside Kevin Hart and Ice Cube in the sequel Ride ALong 2, he features in Southpaw with Jake Gyllenhaal and Forest Whitaker, he is the executive producer/wrote the action spec Desert Eagle which Universal Pictures acquired. Matthew Stuecken and Josh Campbell were hired to rewrite the script and if that wasn't enough there might be a TGT album in the future.

 

I was fortunate enough to participate in Tyrese's Virtual Press Day (24.3.15) where Journalists, Radio Hosts and Bloggers from all over the world came together to hear from the multi - talented star. He covered on various topics, so get your snacks and something to drink and enjoy.                                   

 

It's 8pm in the evening here in London and it was 1pm in the afternoon in Los Angeles where Tyrese resides, i was greeted by who i believe was his publicist and Tyrese who imitated my accent "we have London [in the house*audio not clear*]. Lol! The conference call went on for nearly 3 hours and throughout the interview Tyrese was calm, cool and collected. He answered every question in great detail and took his time to interact with the interviewers as if we were old friends chilling.

 

Taking us to the very begnning of his career Tyrese mentioned he and his friend Timothy Jackson were asked by his Music teacher to attend the National audition for the Coca Cola commercial. He was the last person to show up and it was the last location - and he got the part. He also said anyone who knew him back then, knew how determined he was to be successful, he even finished high school early in 3 years instead of 4.  The commercial opened a lot doors for him, including modeling and presenting.

 

"I didn't go to college but my career has been popping off ever since i did the Coke commercial and it's just been non- stop. Its one thing to buy a house, it's another thing to be able to keep a house. The fact i've been at it 20 years, doing some sort of show business and staying on, I never claimed to be the biggest star. I am just me.  So I feel very blessed and i just have this mind set of where i just believe in taking advantage of my America." 

 

Before i asked my questions, Tyrese was so impressed and grateful that this conference call was happening he blurted out; "Y'all know we're doing some fly 'ish right now, right? y'all know we're doing like a virtual conference call around the world, we're like part of a fraternity right now. They say secret society? This is a secret society! We're all in the basement, we have like 25 different time zones right now and everybody on the phone chillin', this ish' is beautiful, thank y'all!"

 

Antonia [Le Votre] : If there is a Furious 8 and you could choose where it's located, where would you choose and why?

 

Tyrese: "*Starts laughing* that's a trick question! well first of all there is no Furious 8, 9 or 10 confirmed i just want to say that first. We're completely focused and being respectful of this being Paul's last movie, and if you noticed at the end of Furious 7 normally the last 4 or 5 of them they've been cliff hangers. It's like "ah man the new characters coming in the movie" or these cliff hangers and it's like ah man they're trying to figure out a way for people to come back for the next one. On this one we end the movie beautifully with just the tribute that's beyond world deserve, and beyond beautifully done on behalf of our angel and brother Paul Walker. So as far as Furious 8, where would i want to shoot? we've kind of shot in my favourite places, maybe Australia should be added to list, we've already did Europe and Brazil..

 

Antonia [Le Votre] : Africa maybe?

 

Tyrese: Africa would be nice - Cape Town, i love that, i love Cape Town! I would love that. We did Miami already, we should also take it to New York! Never done anything in New York, so we'll see what happens.

 

Antonia [Le Votre]: You have been blessed in your work life and personal life - of course with your beautiful daughter. How do you keep your faith intact? 

 

Tyrese: Well that's very easy, without my faith and without the foundation of you know, committing my life to the Lord Jesus Christ. It would literally be impossible for me to have the mental capacity to do the things that i am doing. As you can imagine,  there's a lot of attractive, talented people with sincere intentions but that doesn't mean their careers are blessed and sustained, there's a million actors, actresses, singers, rappers and entertainers that we can all mention. " Whatever happened to..? and "whatever happened to..?". So it doesn't mean because you are talented and you used to be hot that your going to continue to be hot. And so i thank God every single day, for every call, every email if anything comes in to create opportunities and situations and maintain the blessings. I'm very blessed and very grateful and i just hope i don't let anybody down and i work really, really hard to maintain in my professionalism and deliver on the things that people are hiring me to do.

 

He also mentioned his time in Abu Dhabi (where Fast and Furious 7 was filmed) "one of the most safest place in the world and the nicest people i have ever experienced, never sat at so many tables in people's homes and eating and feeling like a part of the family." 

 

Tyrese said he loves playing Roman as he feels he's the voice of reality and believes he says what the audience may be thinking. Roman is known to say the funniest things when things may be getting too serious. What's your favourite Roman quote?

 

He told us about his close friend and co star Paul Walker (who unfortunately passed away in a car accident in 2013). He also revealed none of the cast members were interested in participating in any press for Furious 7. But with the support of Paul's family, it helped them greatly, especially his brothers (Cody and Caleb Walker) who filmed some of Paul's remaining scenes.

                   

"Paul Walker was literally an angel, Paul Walker was the nicest guy in world that you could ever know and meet. He was a sincere soul and so as you see people doing all this tributes and giving all this love, you will say man we see people pass away all the time...when everyone got sad when Aaliyah died.. Remember how sad everybody was when Aaliyah died in the plane crash, Right? She was the sweetest, most innocent girl ever and it reminds of how people feel about Paul. Totally different situations but it's like omg it's not like his so much an attractive guy - because there's a lot of attractive people that are mean as hell and you just don't like them. So he was the nicest guy ever and i think the world knew it and you know it's really hard to let it go or shake it off and so i've been knowing Paul for 14 years." 

 

He went on to say they shared special moments and stories on fatherhood with their daughters. You may be wondering how they met and became best friends well, while on set Tyrese was describing a lady to Paul and i am sure Paul gave him "i was waiting for you at the doe [door]" head tilt when he realized they were seeing the same lady who was an extra on the set. Lol. 

 

Link to Fast 7 extended first look: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDxQPRnIMdA&feature=youtu.be         

 

Tyrese is a ladies man and known for his romantic songs over the last, nearly 20 years in the game - like "Sweet Lady" and 'How You Gonna Act Like That' but he does admit he is not perfect and has done some "Dumb Ish" like lying and cheating in his relationships. In a particular 5 year relationship with his then live in girlfriend he said he "broke a heart of an angel." Talking of 'Dumb Ish' this is Tyrese's first single from his album Black Rose featuring Snoop Dogg. The single was produced by Tyrese and co-producers Seige Monstrosity and Marcus Hodge. The video produced by Voltron Recordz & Happy Place Tara Razavi, includes cameos from Rapper Wiz Khalifa, Caine (Tyrin Turner) from Menace II Society and Sweet Pea (Omar Gooding) from Baby Boy. At the end of the video Tyrese adds a tribute to the late and great legend Chuck Brown (God Father of Go Go). 

 

"Tyrese Gibson is giving fans a sneak peek at the making of the clip. Directed by Kiarash, the exclusive behind-the-scenes footage features interviews with Tyrese, Snoop and the video's director Matt Alonzo, along with scenes from a surprise birthday party for Tyrese from the cast and crew. Seen joining in on the celebration are R. Kelly, French Montana, Snoop, and Wiz Khalifa."

 

                            "I do Dumb Ish but i am ashamed of it." Tyrese Gibson 

 

Link to Tyrese’s “Dumb Shit” music video featuring Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa:   https://vimeo.com/122348837 

 

The second single is 'Shame' featuring Grammy and Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson. Instead of a 3-4 minutes standard music video. He will be releasing a 23 minute long musical film, which he hopes will be in the Tribeca Film Festival and Cannes Film Festival. When asked about the musical film he said the movie is a period piece set in 1968. He's character is a struggling soul singer, he said his character is a mixture of Ike Turner, Marvin Gaye and Teddy Pendergrass. His character is abusive and he is an alcoholic and uses cocaine. He continued by saying this was his and Jennifer's (who plays his wife) most uncomfortable characters to play to date. 

 

Black Rose which will be released through his label Voltron Recordz, has amazing and exciting features which consists of 2 albums; one will be R&B and the other album will be Rap with his alter- ego Black Ty. Besides Snoop Dogg and Jennifer Hudson, he will be collaborating with Stevie Wonder, The Game, Chrisette Michele, Tank and the other one he said was a secret. This is Tyrese's most uncomfortable, vulnerable and the most honest album - similarly to Usher's Confession album. 

 

He said he had a vision to do this album package,  and when he gets certain visions he calls them emails. He said he got 19 people which included songwriters and producers (who some were on a verge to suicide or were struggling to break into the music industry) in a coach and rented a house in Arizona for the 34 days- which he called the R&B Boot camp. In just a little over a month they were able to create 146 records. The process of making his album will be documented for his documentary- The Making of Black Rose.

 

The increasing stories/cases on racial profiling and police brutality today is seriously alarming and heartbreaking. Tyrese spoke about what he sent in a message to President Obama concerning this unfortunate ongoing issue. He said he requested the President should fly the Chevy Police [in states where police brutality were high] and the Second in Command to DC and host them for a couple of days and put some leaders in front of them- he believed this may very well change their approach. "Because no two cities and no two police brutalities are the same. But it's all stemming from the same issues - if you change the head the body will follow...if you change the mindset of the Police Department it will trickle down. Pres. Obama needs an iron sharpens iron moment." He told us after sending the request he still doesn't know what happened as there was no reply but will continue to make requests.

 

Tyrese has proven not to be the product of his environment, he took his talent and expanded them in all avenues possible. With all his fame and accomplishments he still gives back and has it in his heart to motivate people all over the world. Tyrese is involved in a few Charity organizations including CIS (Communities In School), he is one of the spokespeople for the charity. CIS helps reduce the dropout rate in Junior Highschool and Highschool, The Love Circle Foundation which he founded is fairly new and will come with more details soon. But for now his fans are his love circle -

 

"My message to the Love Circle is forgive faster, hug longer, kiss slower and any issues and dysfunction that's happening in your life between family, friends and loved ones. If you believe that relationship is worth fixing - put the issues on the table, pick them all apart and do any means necessary to not allow for unresolved issues to stop you from re-connecting with your family, friends and loved ones more often. Because it's arrogant to believe that the next seconds of life belong to you." - Tyrese Gibson

 

His inspirational videos on Facebook has been viewed by 1.2 billion people a month, his 2 books - ' How to Get Out of Your Own Way ' and ' Manology: Secrets of Your Man's Mind Revealed ' co written with Rev. Run (Run D.M.C) are both New York's Time bestselling books. Additionally his comic book Mayhem [which was the first iTunesLP digital comic book] is still a favourite of many. It's an exciting time for Mr Gibson, and no matter what he goes through he spends quality time with his 7 year old daughter Shayla while flashing his infectious smile. We look forward to all his projects.

 

"Honestly i want people to be able to say that i used my God given stage to motivate and inspire and give people permission to want to be significant and do great things. All while being conscious of the fact that i never claimed or never desired to be the biggest star. I don't even like the pressure that i deal with sometimes of being where i am at. But i use my God given stage and social media and access to motivate and inspire people in whatever way i can." - Tyrese Gibson