Hit parade: A roll call of musical artists who hit the big time with Tallahassee ties | TLH200
Tallahassee isn’t a destination location for worldwide tours from the highest charting artists, but that hasn’t stopped some residents from breaking out of the city’s local scene.
Whether it’s punk, funk or hip hop, here are some of Tallahassee’s most famous artists, both homegrown and transplanted.
George Clinton
George Clinton is known for bringing, and keeping, the funk in Tallahassee. Clinton was born and raised in Kannapolis, North Carolina, where he began his music career, but moved to Tallahassee in 1994 and has resided here ever since.
He is the mastermind behind two pioneer funk bands – Funkadelic and The Parliaments. The two groups were known for their flamboyant costumes, elaborate stage shows and the fusion of soul, rock, funk and psychedelic music.
The music legend and Grammy-award winning artist would often practice at The Moon before heading on tour and also opened a recording studio off Apalachee Parkway.
Clinton, whose best known tunes include “Flash Light” and “Atomic Dog,” also began painting original works of art after the move to North Florida.
Whether it’s in his music or his paintings, Clinton told Rolling Stone in 2023, “I do what I feel, what feels good to me.”
T-Pain
T-Pain is one of the most famous musicians to come out of the capital city – the “T” in T-Pain’s name stands for Tallahassee.
Faheem Rashad Najm, born in Tallahassee in 1985, grew up on Ridge Road. As a child, T-Pain wanted to collaborate with older neighborhood musicians. T-Pain's father, Shaheed Najm, remembers when his son was 12 he came home in tears after being turned down, saying, "I got all this music in me."
He began his career as a rapper in a group called Nappy Headz before he was later discovered by Akon, who signed him to his record label Konvict Muzik. He then gained popularity in the mid-2000’s when he released his first album, “Rappa Ternt Sanga.” The album included hit singles like “I’m Sprung” and “I’m ‘n Luv (wit a Stripper).”
Since the launch of his career T-Pain has received several awards including a Grammy Award in 2010 for Best R&B performance by a Duo or Group for the song “Blame It” with Jamie Foxx. In 2019, he appeared on the first season of the television reality show “The Masked Singer.”
In late 2023, T-Pain was supposed to attend a concert celebrating 50 years of hip hop, but pulled out after feeling misled and disrespected. But a call from Mayor John Dailey asking him to come for the city’s bicentennial may lead to a verified T-Pain concert this year.
“Two hundred years of my hometown, call Tallahassee-Pain back for that!” he said.
Mayday Parade
Mayday Parade is a pop punk band that formed in 2005. The group’s debut studio album “A Lesson in Romantics” was released in 2007, which pushed the band into the national emo music scene.
Mayday Parade’s music typically features themes of love, self-discovery and heartbreak and sometimes includes mentions of local history.
For example, the band’s 2018 album, “Sunnyland,” is a shout out to the old Sunland hospital built originally as a tuberculosis ward in the 1950s. The building later housed the mentally and physically disabled and, when abandoned, became a “haunted hangout” for teens, said Democrat writer Gerald Ensley in 2016.
Today, members Derek Sanders, Alex Garcia, Jeremy Lenzo, Brooks Betts and Jake Bundrick continue to visit Tallahassee, with some still calling it home.
“I never really had the urge to go anywhere else,” said Sanders, the lead singer, in 2022. “I've always loved it here. I think it's an incredible city.”
Ray Charles
Ray Charles is the man who was most well-known for his ability to blend blues, jazz and gospel music. Charles was born in Albany, Georgia but grew up just 40 miles east of Tallahassee in Greenville. At the age of 7, Charles lost his eyesight due to glaucoma. Despite this, he learned to play the piano and other instruments by ear. His mother sent him to a school for the blind and deaf in St. Augustine where he furthered his musical talents.
When he wasn’t in school, he would take trips to Tallahassee to visit family and perform in Frenchtown.
In the 1940s, Charles lived in Tallahassee and he began his career in the 1940’s with hits like “Confession Blues” and “The Midnight Hour.”
Later he fused rhythm and blues with gospel to set the stage for the development of what is now known as soul music.
“Ray Charles is the guy who combined the sacred and the secular,” Joe Levy, music editor of Rolling Stone, told The New York Times in 2004 following Charles’ death.
“He’s called a genius because no one could confine him to one genre. He wasn’t just rhythm and blues. He was jazz as well,” Levy added.
Charles played an active role in the Civil Rights movement by refusing to perform in segregated venues and canceling concerts in segregated states. Over his career, he won multiple Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. Charles passed away in June of 2004.
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Creed
Creed, an alternative rock band, was formed in 1994 in Tallahassee. The original members included Scott Stapp, Mark Tremonti, Scott Phillips and Brian Marshall. Creed released a debut album in 1997 titled “My Own Prison.” The group’s second album, “Human Clay,” was a major success and included songs like “Higher,” What if,” and “With Arms Wide Open,” which earned the band a Grammy Award for Best Rock Song. The album itself won an American Music Award for Favorite Pop Album in 2001.
Also that year, the band performed what the Internet calls “The Greatest Halftime Show Ever,” a 7-minute performance with aerialists performing acrobatic stunts in AT&T Stadium during a Dallas Cowboys and Denver Broncos halftime.
In 2004 the band took a hiatus, and the members pursued other musical projects.
Five years later the band reunited and released its fourth studio album “Full Circle.” Since then, the band has toured but hasn’t released any new albums. Phillips and Tremonti have formed another band called Alter Bridge while Stapp continued to perform as a solo artist.
After more than a decade-long hiatus, Creed’s website shows that the band is back together with tour dates for 2024. Although there are several tour stops in Florida, including Tampa, Palm Beach and Jacksonville, Tallahassee isn’t on the list.
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This article is part of TLH 200: the Gerald Ensley Bicentennial Memorial Project. Throughout our city's 200th birthday, we'll be drawing on the Tallahassee Democrat columnist and historian's research as we re-examine Tallahassee history. Read more at tallahassee.com/tlh200. Email us topic suggestions at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: The Tallahassee ties of Creed, George Clinton, T-Pain, Ray Charles
