I cried the first time I heard Arrested Development’s banger “Never Had Your Back” while on a road trip with my daughter during the pandemic. The chorus from the song off of the group’s 2021 album For the FKN Love, goes like this. “You’re a Black queen, You are not a vixen, You are not a trick bitch, You’re nobody’s quick fix. America’s never had your back.. ”
I pulled it together before anyone in the car noticed, but damn, that song—about teaching your daughter how to understand and navigate the imagery and stereotypes the world will inevitably force on her daily while matter of factly reminding her that this country never gave a damn about Black women—just hit hard.
When I told Speech, the Grammy-winning rapper and founding member of the 36 year-old hip-hop collective, that he made me cry on that road trip, he paused and said, “I really appreciate you telling me that because I broke out in tears writing it.”
“I was looking at all the music coming at my daughter from every direction, the shows she was watching, social media, and I wanted to combat that and make sure I had an influence to correct the narrative,” he told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. “I wanted to make sure she wasn’t brainwashed by these messages that are so prevalent in our society.”
When not in the studio or on the road performing songs from his five-decade spanning catalog of music, Speech—born Todd Thomas—is a family man. He and his wife of 32 years have raised two children, both now in their 20s, and he’s quick to dispense with parenting advice for anyone deep in it.
“Our philosophy is this: you have a short timeframe to help them understand the truth about life so when they’re seven or eight and they still listen to you, get in there and stay on top of what they’re learning so that by the time they’re 16, they’re not at the whims of what pop culture and the internet throw at them,” he added. “They’ll thank you later.”
As a father, Speech is a strong advocate of analyzing art and music with kids rather than outright banning things parents may disapprove of—but that kids may seek out elsewhere.
“We pulled up song lyrics, checked out the shows they were watching and we talked about it with them,” he said. “We didn’t tell them to stay away or make it taboo. That was powerful for our kids because when we are not around, they have an analytical mind to decipher and understand these things.”
Getting solid parenting advice like this on the regular should cost money. Speech just gives it away, which in a sense, is what conscious hip-hop is all about: Guiding with love. Why aren’t more artists doing that?
“The pathway of getting it out to the mainstream is way harder now because radio stations and streaming platforms don’t support that content these days,” Speech explained. “The commercial atmosphere in the ‘90s was much more palatable to conscious music and lyrics. We’ve just been steady at it for years and built our foundation.”
In addition to making music with Arrested Development, Speech has been busy recently with other projects, including helping inmates record albums while incarcerated and hosting a podcast about it (look up “Track Change”).
“Basically, I went into a prison and worked with inmates to help unpack a whole lot of what’s in their hearts and help to tell their own stories.” Speech added. “It was a very therapeutic thing for all involved.”
What keeps someone, who could very easily rest on his laurels, putting out dope, deep music laced with poignant poetry well into their mid-50s?
“For me, it’s passion, but also, as someone who is now becoming an elder statesperson in this genre of music, I feel more inspired to speak about the truths that a lot of young cats may not know they can speak about,” he added. “I’ve had an incredible blessing to have this opportunity in life to be able to do this and I plan to keep doing it.”
And what about for the rest of us?
“Do what you can with what you have, with the people around you,” Speech said. “And keep hope alive.”
See photos from Arrested Development’s 2022 set at Gasparilla Music Festival below.
