(Early Life) Teairra Mari (born Teairra Maria Thomas) is born on Dec 2nd 1987 in Detroit, Michigan, United States. Teairra grew up listening to Jodeci, Janet Jackson, SVW, Michael Jackson and Sade. At a young age, she was encouraged by her grandmother who sang back up for Aretha Franklin to pursue a musical career. At age 12, Teairra started to record in her cousin’s basement. She soon caught the attention of Big Mike, Ed K and Helluvah of Detroit’s recording label K.I.S.S. Productions with her sweet and mature vocals. Teairra spent every free moment in the studio working with some of the hottest producers and songwriters in the game, including Helluvah, Disco D, Big Mike, Chaz M, Detail, Lyriq, AK and J.R. Teairra collaborated with artists such as Ray J, J-Kwon, Lola Damone and Bee and also appeared on Detroit’s Fox 2 Morning Show and UPN 50 Sports Rap. In 2003 Teairra released her first EP “Get Away”, which became a local sensation. Teairra attended Aaliyah’s alma mater, the Detroit High School for The Fine and Performing Arts and was a vocal major, performing in many of the school’s talent showcases. At age 16 Big Mike felt Teairra was ready for something bigger and introduced the R&B star to industry veteran Daryl Simmons in Atlanta, Georgia. Simmons then handled Teairra’s demo disc to L.A. Reid, chairman of The Island Def Jam Music Group. Reid offered Teairra Mari a label contract right on the spot after she had perform live for him.
(2005/2006) Teairra started to work with Jay-Z to create “Make Her Feel Good” along with producer Sean Garrett, the lead single of her debut album on Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam. The single reached number 35 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #9 on the R&B Charts and was heavily played on BET music video network. After releasing her second and third single “No Daddy” and “Phone Booth” with a luke warm success on both singles, Teairra started to work on her 2nd album “Second Round” in early 2006. But Teairra got dropped from Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam Records and the production of the album got scrapped.
(2007/2010) Teairra Mari flew down to L.A. to meet up with Cudda Love (the man who is responsible for Nelly’s success), who gave her a record deal with Fo Reel Entertainment. Teairra started to work on her 2nd album entitled “At That Point”. In early 2008 Teairra released a Benny Book directed buzz music video for the iTunes single “Hunt 4 U” featuring Pleasure P, which gave her a Warner Bro’s & Alysium record deal.
While releasing buzz singles and covers, Teairra decided it was time to try acting and got the sassy role as Nicky Swayze for the movie “The Lottery Ticket” which also starred Bow Wow and Ice Cube. Teairra got great response for her first role both in news papers and on the community network Twitter.
Teairra released the first single from “At That Point” entitled “Sponsor” Featuring Gucci Mane & Soulja Boy, which was released in 2010. The single climbed up the Billboard Chart and became a great success.
Teairra Mari and DJ Drama released a very successful Mixtape “Point Of No Return” in 2010 which both included remixes and original songs. After several tracks had leaked from “At That Point” Teairra decided to scrap the album and instead put it out as a 7 track digital EP entitled “Sincerely Yours”. Since then Teairra has released a final mixtape “Now Or Never” with all original songs.
(2011/2013) After several months without any album release from Warner Bros, Teairra decided to leave the record label and instead signed a contract deal with hit-maker Rico Love’s record label Division1. The two appeared together on Teairra’s video music shoot for “That’s All Me” and confirmed the big news to the world. In 2012 “U Did Dat” Featuring 2 Chainz were released as the official single on Teairra’s sophomore album “Sex On The Radio”, with a music video to follow. Same year on July 4, she released her final mixtape “Unfinished Business”.Unfortunatly Rico Love let go of Teairra when he signed a partnership deal with Interscope Records in 2013 and her sophomore album got put on hold. Rico as since then expressed in interviews that there’s still love for Teairra Mari and he’d be happy to work with her again in the future.
2014/Present While working on her sophomore album, Teairra Mari has joined the maincast of “Love & Hip Hop: Hollywood”.