Live Session With the Legendary Speech of the Iconic Group Arrested Development

I got an opportunity to catch up and do a one-on-one with the legendary Speech, founder, and producer of the iconic Hip Hop group Arrested Development. We not only covered the new music from the group but in particular, the 2020 album Don’t Fight Your Demons” which intrigued me to no end and he patiently broke it down for me. As for this post, I included his long form bio so those newbies could get a sense of the impact this and his group have had on the world of music and Hip Hop culture globally…no sense in writing it all over again just to say I wrote something…

Here’s the official line on Speech:

Speech was born Todd Thomas in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The youngest of parents Robert & Patricia Thomas. He grew up on two sides of life: the ghetto of Milwaukee (one of the nation’s roughest cities for African Americans) and (Wauwatosa) Milwaukee’s suburbia. Speech learned how to draw from the pains and beauty of both. He would absorb the plights of his people and the retreat of a middle-class Black boy in a primarily white neighborhood. He lost his grandmother to a heart attack and his older brother, Terrence Thomas to an Asthma attack within the same week, and through spirituality, learned to recalibrate his inner anger through dynamic music. To celebrate the lives of those he lost, he coined his sound “life music”. Speech wrote the hit song Tennessee as a dedication to his grandmother and brother. In the early nineties, Speech and his mother started the Terrence Thomas Scholarship and to date, the scholarship has raised over a million dollars helping young black students further their educations.

Speech started and produced the hip-hop group, Arrested Development. Based in Georgia, from humble and rural beginnings; they became a pioneering force in the music world. Arrested Development received two Grammy Awards (Best new artists & Best rap single 1993) for the album, 3 years, 5 months, and 2 days in the life of…” Their second album “Zingalamaduni” was met with critical acclaim and was also nominated for a GRAMMY award.

In 1995, the group disbanded and Speech signed a solo record deal with EMI. His first single “Like Marvin Gaye Said” shot to #1 on the Japanese Tokio 100 charts for 7 consecutive weeks. Speech has released 5 solo albums since, all of which have spawned Top 10 hit singles in Japan. His album “1998 Hoopla” and Spiritual People” (2000) were certified gold. “Spiritual People” was awarded the Best black music album of the year 2000 by the acclaimed ADLIB magazine. Speech supported each album with sold-out tours.

Speech has also toured as a solo performer with the United States Vice President Al Gore, First Lady Hillary Clinton, Herbie Hancock, Chaka Khan, Youssou N’dour, James Brown, Parliament-Funkadelic, Jason Mraz, Hootie & the Blowfish, and The Roots.

In 2000, Arrested Development reunited and began recording and touring sold-out shows worldwide. In 2005 Speech became an ordained minister with the Churches of Christ…Speech says, “My most proud achievement is my faith in Jesus Christ, my marriage to Yolanda, (25 years), and our two children Jahi and Zoe Renee. In 2007 Speech and two partners started a church catered towards artists. The church started a yearly Arts and Entertainment conference (A&E) which had over 700 attendees. In addition, Speech and his wife own and operate Robby’s Roasted Corn, Yogi Juice Bar, and Victory Spot Arts School. Speech also helps his mother Patricia run the largest Black paper in Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Community Journal.

Speech and Arrested Development were featured on the TV One hit show “Unsung” in 2012, garnering one of the highest ratings for that series in that year. Speech (2015) did the acclaimed TEDx talk in Portland to a record crowd called Your Sacred Serial Number | Speech | TEDxPortland

In, (2018) Arrested Development performed to a standing ovation at the 26th annual Bounce Trumpet Awards and in September 2019, at the Black Music Honors Awards, the group was crowned Hip-Hop Icons. Speech in that same year released the viral documentary “The Nigga Factory” (mini-doc series) featuring many artists including Chuck D and David Banner, hailed as a “MUST SEE” by Dr. Boyce Watkins (Your Black World) available on YouTube.

In 2020 Speech partnered with Resonant Pictures and Pipeline Entertainment to release the full-length documentary “16 Bars” where Speech goes into a maximum security jail to write music with inmates. This stirring documentary has won numerous film festival awards and is now available through Lightyear Entertainment on streaming platforms worldwide.

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Tags: Arrested Development, Education, Featured Interview, Hip Hop, Music, Speech

About the Author

Dr. Jerry Doby Editor-in-Chief of The Hype Magazine, Media and SEO Consultant, Journalist, Ph.D. and retired combat vet. 2023 recipient of The President's Lifetime Achievement Award. Partner at THM Media Group. Member of the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture, the United States Press Agency and ForbesBLK.