Tarik "T-Swift" Campbell

Ever since I could remember music was in my blood. It all started for me when my father made me start memorizing music acts and album covers instead of my ABC's at the age of two.........(LOL!!) Thanks pops!! All throughout high school, I started making my own mix tapes of all the hottest rap out. People would come to me to keep them up to date of all the hip hop that was out.At around 17, I started getting interested in music production. I graduated high school and started making loop tapes of breakbeats of old records when I met up with my cousin Black Dee(www.myspace.com/bulliemusik) who was trying to start a rap group with my man Cairo. They went their separate ways and Cairo went on to form Ill Rahlos with my good friends Rudy "Rude One" Lizardo and Gabe "Boku Rule" Banks. Cairo invited me to go to the studio with them while they were making their demo and I became hoooked. I was just basically their secret weapon bringing the hot old records for sampling material and just basically soaked up the studio environment like a sponge. Then I went away to college at UAB to get my degree as a backup. While down there, my cousin laced me with a stolen Gemini mixer with a sampler button on it(which I STILL have 'til this day!!) and started making my own beats with it. Graduated to the Yamaha SU 10 and then the Akai S-20. I started working with groups down there just to keep my music interests alive.Then in 1998, I finally finished school and came back up here and the first person I called was my man Rude Dude. He was ecstatic and told me to come by at one of the meetings with everybody else. By that time, Ill Rahlos had linked up with seminal rap group Organized Konfusion. They were busy doing shows, had landed on Organized Konfusion's album The Equinox", and had even landed on two major soundtracks. We all felt success was just around the corner for all of us but it never came to fruition. In the meantime, I linked up with my cousin and some neighborhood friends and started a company with them. We even had full-fledged artists but that never came to fruition because of a lack of hustle and lack of work ethic from all of us plus no leadership and organization.Then things took a turn for the better as I finally got my hands on the MPC 2000XL in March 2000 and I had started to link up with Prince Po(www.princeponastyhabitsent) of Organized Konfusion and watched him as he did beats. He took the time out to mentor me for about 18 long months and my beats got much better. Big shouts to Prince Po because he didn't have to do that in his busy schedule!!(Thanks Po!!) Then Rude Dude and his partner Gee Dinero(go check him out at myspace.com/joelmuzik)call me one day and asks me to join their entertainment company Lethal Entertainment which later became Bully Entertainment. I decided to become part of that entity because of the structure and focus that the entire company had. It was a beautiful situation because it gave me the creative outlet for my music that I had been looking for. Around the same time, I linked up with my man Tempest of Homegrown Entertainment(formerly of the Flatlinerz) and started to put songs together for his single and from what remains as the unreleased album "The Barter System". From there, I was all over the mixtape circuit with Tempest. I was honestly shocked at how fast me and Tempest were moving at getting our music out. I mean we recorded the single and 5 months later we had the single out. Just an example of how fast you can do something if you have FOCUS!!!!! We were on approximately 15-16 mixtapes in the summer and fall of 2002 including Kay Slay, Hot Day and The Dream Team among others. We also had the single in stores. I finally felt like success was right around the corner for me. But Bully Entertainment went downhill due to a tragedy within the entertainment group as the president of the company succumbed to cancer(R.I.P. Joel!!) and me and Tempest had lost the buzz and steam that we garnered through the single we put out and the music situation was bleak for me at the time.Meanwhile, I fell back for about a year and then in 2005 it picked up again with meetings and underground projects. In 2006, I helped my college friend Olivio and his C.I.S. music group launch their album by producing half of it and the music I produced on the album was a departure from I had done personally and it was good for my growth. So for now, I'm still working........hopefully getting with with my man Tempest to finish his long-awaited solo project and I have a couple of other projects in the works as well. So for now, I've expanded my sound to include some keyboards and the reason program along with MPC and my sound has totally evolved into something I never dreamed of in the beginning of doing this music thing.Respect to all the people who helped me in my music production........my man Cairo and my cousin Black Dee who taught me how to make beats, my man Prince Po who helped me refine my sound, my man Gee Dinero, my man Diamond who I learned so much from in just 6 hours at his house(stay up D, you one of the best to ever do it!!), my brother in music Tempest(let's do it my nigga!!, the world needs to hear you!!), my man Skid who always keeps me in the loop as far as new music goes and who is a big believer in my music!!, and most of all my mom who now believes in me!!(She didn't at first until she saw my first record on vinyl!!(LOL!!) Love ya ma dukes!! And to all of you who are in music, let's make and put out good quality music again!! We all know the world needs it!! Peace!!