Setting herself apart from other female R&B artists, Tomeka Pearl brings spice and bounce to her music. After debuting her artistry on Dorrough’s album Dorrough Music, more opportunities are coming left and right for this talented young singer. With her street single “You Like It” heating up on the south and west coast, you can believe this isn’t the last time you will hear from her. You were featured on a few songs on Dorrough’s album. What else do you have going on right now? I have a little single that I’m working on right now. I have a street single that’s doing pretty good out there in the Bay area, it’s a song called “You Like It” featuring Dorrough. Do you have a name for your album yet? It’s probably going to be self-titled, but I’m really kind of crazy with the whole artistry shit so I don’t know. I want to say it will be self-titled, but it probably won’t. How long have you been singing and writing? I’m 23 right now so I want to say I’ve been pursuing it since I was about 18, but I’ve been singing since I was about 10 or 11. I’ve been out here in Dallas performing since I was 18. You graduated from high school early to pursue your music career full time. Do you think you missed out on any of those childhood/ teenage memories? Definitely not. I graduated a semester earlier than everybody else so I could pursue it full time, but I wasn’t really into school. I’m not saying don’t go to school and don’t go to college, but school just wasn’t my thing. I originally wanted to pursue the whole music thing full time, so I had my little childhood moments. Your cousin, who was very close to you, died on your birthday. Did that motivate you to keep going? Yeah, my cousin died on my birthday when I was 11. He was killed in Houston, and he actually rapped. I looked up to him especially with what he was doing [musically]. I wanted to pursue the same thing he wanted to pursue so when he passed I felt like I wanted to continue his legacy because he was only 19.
As a child you took vocal lesson and acting lessons. Do you have anything going on as far as acting right now? Yeah, I am actually reading for a role right now that is being filmed through Prime Time Click. I can’t get in depth about it, but I am reading for the main role. How did you hook up with Dorrough for his album? Man, it’s crazy, we actually hooked up to do his last album on the track “Hood Song.” When we did “Hood Song” he liked the whole vibe and sound, so he put me on some other records. Then he hopped on the “I Like It” record. When that happened he was kinda like, “Do you want to be a part of the whole Prime Time Click movement?” I saw that his movement was doing big things, so I was like shit, I’m gonna fuck with it. What is the process like when you two are in the studio? Well, for the most part we’re both just in there vibing and we kinda bounce ideas off each other. With his whole album situation, Dorrough did his thing with the hooks and kind of had everything laid out and ready with how he wanted to do it. But, we definitely do vibe all the time. Your style of music isn’t the typical cliché R&B. What made you want to step out of the box and be different? I don’t want to really say it was me being different. At that time in my life, that’s just what I was into. But right now I’m at the point in my life where I want to talk about love, getting hurt, or being with a dude. With me it’s going to always be a little more edgy – like if I say, “I love somebody,” I’m going say, “I love that nigga!” Are you performing anywhere for All Star? I’m doing a Haiti Relief show out here in Dallas around the same time All Star comes here. I also have a fashion show and a couple of appearances lined up for All Star. //
OZONE MAG // 27