Soul, funk, rock. Reminiscent of old school music. Live instrumentation.

9 MP3 Songs
URBAN/R&B: Retro-Soul, ROCK: Funk Rock

Show all album songs: Babybrutha Said... Songs


Details:
TLEE & Babybrutha

Chicago has a huge music background. From the gospel of Thomas Dorsey to the blues of Howlin Wolf and soul of Curtis Mayfield. Timothy Lee grew up surrounded by these sounds and stories. Born and raised on the west side of Chicago Tlee (he is known by friends) started his music training early. His father loved the blues and thatâs all he listened to. âHowlin wolfâs voice was so powerful that it scared me at the age of 6 or 7.â
Tlee is the youngest of 7 so he was constantly being forced to listen to the music of his siblings. Rufus, Stevie Wonder, Jackson 5, Parliament were played as well as The Beatles, Kiss, The Eagles and Steely Dan. At the age of 10 Tlee remembers traveling with his older sister Deborah as she went to audition for a soul band. This audition was mesmerizing for him. âThat was the first time I was in front of real guitars and drums and amps and it was amazing. These were heroes to me because they made music.â Tleeâs world would never be the same after that. After messing around with toy guitars he finally got a real one at 12.
By the time he was a sophomore Chicagoâs performing arts Metro high school he was playing in bands and writing songs. After picking up a friendâs bass a few years later, Tlee fell in love with the instrument and began focusing more on it rather than lead. Being self-taught has added to the uniqueness of his sound. âCurtis Mayfield was self taught and that gave him his own distinct sound because he tuned his guitar differently and now that sound is gone forever.â
Major influences are Curtis, Prince, James brown (of course), George Clinton (and almost anyone associated with P-Funk) and Sly stone. âLarry Graham and Bootsy are probably the only bass players that matter, but there are some other great ones.â Raphael Saadiq along with Tony Toni Tone are major influences. You can throw the Roots, Citizen Cope, Dangelo, Sade, Lenny kravitz and Outkast in there. Tlee and his bass have opened for Erykah Badu, Nina Sky among others while playing with Russoul. He has also performed with hip-hop groups such as Beat Monstas and Phashara. With his band Babybrutha he has opened for Kimo Williams and Bash and the list goes on. âI just want to make music and hopefully get a few people to bob their heads to it.â