When the pandemic hit last March, hip hop artist (and native Austinite) , like many performers, suddenly found himself unable to connect with his audience the way he used to. “I’m a performer. Like, I love being on stage,� Teeta says. “[The pandemic] just completely took that part of my life out. I’ve probably done over� 250 shows since 2016, so for that to be just completely stripped away � not even taking into account the financial aspect of it � that really did affect me heavily. I just tried to connect more through the music, you know what I mean? Just go back to the basics and make music.�
Unable to see his fans in person, Teeta found himself spending more time writing and recording new material. “I attacked the pandemic head on, man,� he says. “I had just had a child and everything, and I was like, ‘if I slow down right now, then I don’t know what the process is going to be like, coming back and trying to climb that hill again.’�
Teeta ended up releasing three projects in 2020 (The Quarantine, The Stimulus, and The Seventh Seal, a collaboration with Willo), so it’s safe to say he didn’t really slow down very much.
And 2021 looks to be another pretty busy year for The Teeta; he’s ready to release another new project, 24, named for the northeast Austin zip code he grew up in. 24 won’t just be an album; it’s also the inspiration for the new visual art exhibit ‘The Teeta World� at Cloud Tree Studios.
He’s partnering with Moe Jane and Keyheira Keys to curate the exhibit. “I really thought it was a really good project and I started just thinking about it from a curator perspective,� Keys says. “And the concepts that he talked about � he talked a lot about setting intentions and manifestations, and� mindset and mindfulness. I was like� ‘let’s turn these statements, these ideas, into real things. Let’s show people that, you know, Black art is important. That our concepts are important. That our lives are important.’�
Mindfulness, intention-setting, and finding balance are recurring themes for The Teeta (he got a degree in psychology from Huston-Tillotson University), and those themes are a big part of ‘The Teeta World� exhibit. It’s also very much about being a Black artist in Austin at this point in time. “You know, us being from Austin, we do hear a lot of people a lot of time say ‘where are the Black people in Austin?’� says Jane. “And so having this exhibit is going to be [a way of] letting people know they’re here, they’re alive and they’re well. And they deserve to have the same platform that anybody else does.�
“Right, we’ve been here, you know what I mean?� agrees Teeta. “We’ve been pushing the creative aspect of the city, the culture of the city, forward the whole time. We may have just been being overlooked at times.�
The exhibit will be on display from April 24 through May 1 (by appointment and with masks required), with an opening reception on the 24th featuring Teeta’s first performance for a live audience in well over a year. It's been a while since he's performed, but don't expect the time off to adversely affect The Teeta. "I've been practicing," he says with a laugh. "I know how flex that muscle when I need it."
He’s also definitely looking forward to reconnecting with his fans. “With the art exhibit, I kind of want to use it as a way to bring people back together,� he says. “You know what I mean? Since everybody’s been locked up in the house for a year. We want to use it as an opportunity to bring people back together and kind of timestamp that.�
opens at with an artist reception on April 24; it'll be viewable by appointment through May 1.
