I got to chat with TON3X™ last week about a BUNCH of topics. I’ve separated the interview into 2 sections, partly cuz I wanna keep you in suspense, but also cuz it was longer than he and I planned, and I have more content than I expected.
Regardless of what you’ve heard about him, I found him to be a refreshingly candid and incredibly kind person. Chatting with him was simple and honest– a GREAT discussion.
Here, in Part 1, we’re talking about his new album, Unspoken, his place in the music industry, some of the controversy that has surrounded him, and how he’s responded. YOU DO NOT WANT TO MISS THIS INTERVIEW!
Without any delay… I give you TON3X™.
* * *
EJ: Hey man, how are you?
TON3X™: I’m good!
EJ: Good. I appreciate your taking a minute to chat with me. I know you’re busy doing promo stuff for the album.
TON3X™: Yeah, it’s crazy.
EJ: I can imagine. What happened last week with your transportation and you being under the weather?
TON3X™: It was just, y’know… the pollen on the East Coast is bananas and just getting the vehicle in order, and having to change drivers and everything… it was just bananas, unexpectedly.
EJ: Well, I’m glad it’s all good now.
TON3X™: Oh yeah. You know, when you’re doing this extensive of a tour, you’re gonna have those minor setbacks, but thanks be unto God, who causes us to triumph. We just rescheduled everything and, as a result, even more dates came in. We were able to hit a few places that weren’t even originally included. So, not only will we be able to do what we were gonna do, we’re doing what we didn’t know we were gonna do.
EJ: Praise God. Well, I wanna jump right in and talk about your new release, Unspoken. First of all, I think it’s phenomenal. I’m a fan and I don’t care what’s said– I think you’re teetering dangerously close to “musical genius.” I’ve also noticed a lot of people who were probably naysayers saying stuff on their Facebook status updates like “I’m a little surprised, but i’m kinda loving this.”
TON3X™: Wow! I didn’t even know that. That’s good to hear.
EJ: Yeah, man. But, what would you say is the basic message or direction of this album?
TON3X™: You know… I’ma be real– I don’t even know, myself.
EJ: *laughs*
TON3X™: *laughing* You know? Because it really wasn’t a conceptual album, except from the standpoint of the cover– that’s the most conceptual piece about it. But the selection of songs don’t necessarily reflect the concept of the cover, which is basically… you know, spiritual abuse, emotional abuse, corporate abuse… all of those woes and things that I was victimized with before.
Unspoken is like… “here’s some music… this is my best work, my best collection.” When I say “collection,” I mean that I recorded three albums that were rejected by my former label and I took the best songs from those three records and put them on one piece. So, it’s like the “Greatest Hits Record of Tonex” of music that never made it to the commercial marketplace.
EJ: Wow.
TON3X™: That’s why I think it worked better for consumers and, like you said, the naysayers because it isn’t really a long piece. It’s all about the MUSIC. It’s not alluding to what happened, there’s nothing talking about what “was”…
I just think people are a little exhausted and I’m exhausted from everything that’s happened between Out The Box and Unspoken. Some things are better left unsaid, so it’s like… let’s get back to the music, let’s get back to the art.
So, if anything, that’s the concept, but there really was no link between each one of these songs. They were just chosen because I felt they best voiced the sentiment of who I am right now and how I feel.
EJ: That’s great to hear, man.
TON3X™: Yeah. I’m happy to be performing again, I’m happy to be doing what I was known for, you know? Not just the things that happened to me, or around me, or about me. It’s just good to get away from the sensationalism of it all and just get back to what I love. And I think that’s what people are connected to. There’s just nothing alluding to anything that people thought a TON3X™ record would probably be about. Because I’m not about that anymore. It’s done with. The music speaks louder than anything else right now.
And I’m just glad that it worked. I just got an email from Donald Lawrence and he basically broke down each song to me. And just for him to take the time to break down my songs… y’know, he’s a genius himself. And for him to take the time to write and really have dissected that album says a lot about it. Richard Smallwood as well, he hit me up the same way. And just to have my peers and mentors and teachers acknowledge that– it just says a lot about my artistic growth and the choices that I’ve matured into making.
EJ: That’s great that they reached out like that.
TON3X™: Yeah. Like, one of the good choices, [Donald] said, was that it’s only 13 songs. You know? People are making albums that are just entirely too long right now.
EJ: For real! And unnecessarily so.
TON3X™: And I think we’re getting back to where the whole ALBUM is what we’re thinking of, not just certain songs out of a double CD.
EJ: That’s awesome. You know, I think about this album, with songs like “Sneeze,” where you’re literally just singing “achoo” in the chorus…
TON3X™: *laughs* That’s the one that Donald spent the most time on.
EJ: I love that song! I was telling my wife “listen! he’s sneezing, but he’s also got scripture and he’s saying ‘the prophet laid upon me’…” I think it’s amazing. And even songs like “Games” from the Out The Box album, making a gospel track from the theme song of Family Feud… where do you get these ideas?!
TON3X™: *laughing*
EJ: *laughing* For real, man! It’s almost like you have no inhibitions, nothing is far-fetched, everything is “fair game.” Is that accurate?
TON3X™: That’s accurate. That’s very accurate. I don’t know WHAT to be afraid of– I just go with my gut. I learned that from Donald Trump. No big investment he’s ever had was built off of over-analyzing or over-strategizing his next move. He just went with his gut.
And that’s what a lot of artists are lacking to me. They wanna be safe and pay those bills. But sometimes, you may get a steady paycheck, but I want that one that no one else was willing to roll the dice on and I did, and it paid off real big.
And I think that, with this record… even with the cover, I went into it knowing “I’m just gonna put it out there and I’m gonna go with my gut.” My gut said nothing looks like this or sounds like this and, I think I might get a Hood Grammy if I do it the way I was feeling it in my heart, the way God gave it to me.
EJ: Wow.
TON3X™: Cuz this wasn’t even the original title, or direction. I wasn’t supposed to be on Battery Records… just the way it all happened. There was not supposed to be another commercial TON3X™ album in the marketplace. EVER. I only did this because I had the freedom to do the record the way I wanted to do it.
Because no longer would I be represented in the commercial marketplace, being a dumbed-down version of who God really made me to be.
EJ: Mmm. I hear that. You mention having freedom in your music… On “Wired,” one of the tracks on Unspoken, you mention something about how many STDs should be in your body. And, I remember that back on your Oak Park album, you talk about struggling with masturbation in your song, “Feelings.”
TON3X™: Yes.
EJ: You never seem afraid to jump head-first into some very taboo topics in the church and in the Body of Christ. How do you respond, though, to people who say you give too much, or that you don’t finesse it enough… like you’re almost TOO blatant? Is that possible in gospel?
TON3X™: Ummm… I think the only thing, for me, is just making sure that I know the crowd. Like, when I’m in the college crowd, I can do a lot of songs that I can’t just do when I know I have kids in the audience, like KID kids… like babies.
And that’s why, on the Oak Park record, there was a “Parental Advisory” sticker on that album. I think I gave plenty of precursor to what could be on that record, not necessarily anything “explicit” in the conventional context, where they think that means cussing… but I was saying “the subject matter, and what was being addressed in a very blatant way, might be too much for younger listeners.” It might be too early to introduce them to some things, but for some kids it may not be too early.
I think that ages 12 and 13– they know a lot more than what we think they know. And they need somebody who IS saved to give them the Biblical prospect and perspective of what this thing is really all about, that this is real life, that these are the challenges that we’ll have to face. And I don’t think I’d have to address it had it been addressed already…
EJ: Uh oh. *laughs*
TON3X™: *laughs* But no one else seems to be talking about it, so that’s my lane.
EJ: Now, you mentioned not cussing on the Oak Park album, but you DID do some cussing later, right?
TON3X™: Yes, I did. I certainly did. I cussed A LOT of people out. But that was not, in any way, shape or form, about me wanting to have a liquor license to say and do what I wanted to do. That came from a real place.
EJ: I believe that.
TON3X™: That came from a place of truth. That song was co-written by people who brought that and provoked that out of me. Does it justify it and make it right? No, of course it wasn’t as expedient as it should be. But, it was real.
And I’m one of those artists that’s not gonna fake, no matter if I’m in the valley or on the mountaintop– it just is what it is. And you can’t keep messing with people and their families, saying things and blogging anonymously… saying all kinds of stuff while people are STILL grieving and recovering from some of the most traumatic times in their lives… and not think that, one of those days, I’m just gonna lose it. And I lost it. For a day.
But the next day, I was fine. I was at Baskin-Robbins having ice cream while everyone else was still stuck on it.
EJ: *laughing* Not Baskin-Robbins.
TON3X™: And everyone’s thing was “how do you just do that and not have any conviction?” I’m like… it’s not about conviction, it’s about relative truth. It’s like saying “let’s only put the GOOD moments in the Bible and extract all of the other failures that David had, or all of the other issues that took place.” They were left in there, for contextual purposes, to show the contrast between what GOD does and the human struggle of fear and abasement.
EJ: That’s true.
TON3X™: If you look at Peter, this guy cussed too, but the church was built upon him. The church was founded upon the same guy who denied Jesus three times and cussed. Now, that doesn’t make it okay for people to cuss, but it’s saying that God UNDERSTANDS the nature of the human condition, which is WHY we need a Savior, WHY we need the cross, and WHY we need restoration and redemption with meekness.
And I think it just basically opened up a door for people to say “oh my God… this person, as much as we want to make him a hero and put him on a platform, I’m now aware that everything I say and write and do, I need to be more conscious of how I write it, and what I say and do.” Because we don’t think these people are reading this. We don’t think Chris Brown and Rihanna read this stuff. We don’t think Beyonce and Michael Jackson and Britney Spears read this stuff. But our families are affected by this and people don’t think of that way. They just think “well, they’re public, so we get to attack.” No, you don’t. I’m a human, too. I’m a human, too.
Once I got that venom outta my system, I sent out an apology letter. And the apology letter was specifically for the way it came out. I wasn’t apologizing for my truth.
EJ: It was the expression of it?
TON3X™: Yeah, apologizing for the way it was conveyed.
EJ: Wow. That’s real talk. You know, you’ve been an incredibly controversial artist in the gospel community for several reasons—your style, your lyrics, your approach. How do you respond, or do you even feel the need to respond to critics who chalk up your image to someone who just wants attention and does things for shock value?
* * *
Yeah, so y’all are gonna have to wait to hear his response to THAT question. 
Make sure y’all check out Part 2 of this deal TOMORROW! He’ll talk about media sensationalism in his career, how his music should really be categorized, and MUCH more.
In the meantime, THOUGHTS anyone??? I KNOWWWW y’all got something to say. Lemme hear it!
