Thompson had a glow about him as he sat in the conference room of TBeats Studios to discuss the resources he’s pouring into his passion for music.

“Whenever he comes up with ideas he always aims for the stars,” Tony’s son, Michael Thompson, said. “So when he started with the idea of TBeats, he started off talking about Grammys and everything like that.”
Michael, a recent graduate of Maryville University, is working with his dad on the marketing and social media side of TBeats.

In less than five years, Tony has grown TBeats from a basement studio to a full-fledged state-of-the-art space that takes up the entire fourth floor of the downtown building that houses the business offices of Kwame Building Group.

TBeats the studio expanded to TBeats Entertainment, a record label featuring four artists that Tony is grooming. Through his “Live Your Dream” initiative, Tony has plucked talented teens out of high school and given them a leg up with TBeats – including a headlining concert at the Sheldon, opportunities to open for major recording artists and a scholarship to pursue their artistry on a university level.

“I want to soak up everything so that I can produce the best music and just give the best that I have to give because I know how fortunate I am,” said Briana Elise Brown.

She was 16 when she started working with Tony. Now she’s a 20-year-old music major at Webster University.

“We’ve done all of this amazing stuff together and look back and be like, ‘Wow, I really grew up with TBeats in my corner,’” Brown said. “We’re not done growing and I know we’re gonna make it big – all of us, the whole team.”

Team TBeats also includes singer Gabbii, who also attends Webster University, and rappers Kingpin and Marty Griptite.

“He just backs us 100 percent,” Gabbii said. “I don’t know how to repay him except for continuing to grow towards becoming a great artist. And I really don’t know how to express my gratitude. We’re really just a family.”
Kingpin, a native of Charleston, Missouri, came to the TBeats open house in late 2014 and followed up with Tony via e-mail.

“I’m from a place where you don’t really have a lot of opportunities,” he said, “so to come up here and have somebody believe in you is definitely an amazing feeling.”

They were all on hand Friday afternoon as TBeats welcomed Andre Delano, a nationally-renowned musician who recently left R&B singer Maxwell’s horn section to pursue a solo career.

He was in the studio working with Gabbii and a jazz singer named Phyllis, who came all the way from Seattle to record at TBeats.

“It’s one thing to have talent, but it’s another thing to have production and have the product come out of the city,” Tony said. “That’s why I invested so heavily into the studio so that we can do everything here. And I’m trying to show that you can have a high-quality sound cheaper than going to the east or west coast.”

He’s a classically trained pianist who turned down a music scholarship to pursue engineering, but Tony didn’t know much about the production side when he started TBeats. Being chosen for the Mix with the Master’s program was a turning point.

“They selected 15 people from around the world to go to France for 10 days to study under Young Guru – Jay Z’s producer,” Tony said. “When I was selected, that was another validation. Then when I got there, I realized that I was the worst person in the room. All of these people who do this professionally – for a living. I’m sitting in the same classroom with them. That’s when I knew I would be able to hang.”

He’s immersed himself into getting acclimated to every aspect of the music while applying the business acumen he’s honed via Kwame. He’s taken classes and solicited the help of others – like Grammy-nominated producer Jo Capo.

He also is building a unique model to help his artists succeed in the industry on the front end. TBeats will be an artist-owned company. They will be allocated shares over each year so that ultimately they will own the company.

“People may call it foolish, they may call it socialist, they may call it whatever, but what do we have to lose by trying something different than the capitalist model?” Tony said. “We need to have independence and freedom to have a certain level of creativity. We want to create an opportunity for people to live their dreams.”

Last year, TBeats held an artist showcase at the Four Seasons, but each artist is still in the recording process for their debut TBeats releases. Meanwhile, Tony has his team looking years down the road and envisioning “the Motown of St. Louis.”

“I want people to say, ‘We can’t believe that it came out of St. Louis,” Griptite said. “It’s not that St. Louis is second-tier, but it’s a blank canvas. I think the music will speak for itself, and he’s helping bring that spotlight to it. If you learn anything from Tony, it’s to go for it when the moment presents itself – and you have to be ready at any moment.”

For more information about TBeats, visit www.tbeatsstudio.com.

St. Louis American ©January 2016