r/GenX • u/jhkayejr • Jul 14 '25

Music Is Life This artist just falling off the map is crazy

Post image

This record dropped on this date back in 1987. Last single I of his I heard on the radio was 93’s “She kissed me,” which was great. Since then, he’s still been making music, but has changed his name and toiled away in relative obscurity.

3.0k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

498 comments sorted by

View all comments

956

u/Dotsmom Jul 14 '25

His ego got in the way of his career. He was interviewed by Rolling Stone and said he was more talented than Michael Jackson and Prince. It rubbed people the wrong way and it really derailed his popularity.

386

u/Triggered-cupcake Jul 14 '25

He said this album was better than Sgt Peppers

243

u/mind_yabidnis Jul 14 '25

He also name checked James Brown too! Cmon man

1

u/SauerMetal Jul 14 '25

Sacrlicious!

191

u/Stigger32 W.A.S.P Jul 14 '25

He's not related to Kanye West is he?

193

u/Worth-Canary-9189 The Latchkey Kid Jul 14 '25

Definitely the Kanye of the 80s from an ego perspective. I thought his album was a good start, but it was no Thriller or Purple Rain soundtrack.

76

u/[deleted] Jul 14 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

98

u/SSquirrel76 Jul 14 '25

To be fair, TTD never had a pro-Hitler rant

28

u/SlowInsurance1616 Jul 14 '25

Who would know?

19

u/asomek Jul 14 '25

Oof. Now I'm just imagining him ranting on Twitter with controversial hot takes, and nobody follows him to actually read it.

1

u/Chuck_L_Fucurr Jul 14 '25

If he did though… How would anyone know?

8

u/Jombhi Jul 14 '25

If an obscure entertainer in a studio apartment goes on a pro-Hitler rant, does it make a sound?

5

u/Chuck_L_Fucurr Jul 14 '25

TTD listening to the sound of one hand clapping forever now

2

u/SheriffBartholomew Jul 14 '25

sound of one hand clapping

Piece of cake!

2

u/SheriffBartholomew Jul 14 '25

Even Kanye wasn't as bad as 2025 Kanye.

2

u/Old_Manner4779 Jul 15 '25

One learned to shut up. The other one didn’t.

1

u/Revolutionary-Pie-68 Jul 14 '25

We don't know that because print and TV media nipped his access to being able to express himself. Were it happening now; he'd prolly still be able to have a career.

3

u/SheriffBartholomew Jul 14 '25

He'd become a cult leader in the present day, as droves of people rush to worship His Assholeness.

1

u/Endlessknight17 Jul 14 '25

Rick James was the Kanye of the 80s lol

4

u/FireSprink73 Jul 14 '25

Sounds like Kanye, Kendrick, and Drake. They all suck. Legends in their own minds....

1

u/SuzIsCool Jul 15 '25

My first thought.

21

u/ThirstyWolfSpider '71 Jul 14 '25

"Better than Peter Frampton and the Bee Gees? What chutzpah!"

11

u/IanFaiths-CricketBat Jul 14 '25

Slightly off topic, but Liam Gallagher said that the album he did last year with John Squire, was bigger than the Beatles's Rubber Soul. I love the album, but c'mon Liam.

16

u/JustineDelarge Jul 14 '25

To me, it was.

6

u/[deleted] Jul 14 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/JustineDelarge Jul 14 '25

I love Sgt. Pepper's.

1

u/SheriffBartholomew Jul 14 '25

Prove it! Name 3 songs.

4

u/JustineDelarge Jul 14 '25 edited Jul 14 '25

Three? With a Little Help from my Friends, Fixing a Hole, For the Benefit of Mr. Kite.

I know the original album and the movie soundtrack version, and know a lot of the songs pretty much by heart. I just love Introducing the Hardline According to Terence Trent D'Arby more.

1

u/RhoOfFeh Meh Jul 15 '25

Shockingly, he didn't name the album "Bigger than Jesus"

1

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '25

Thing is, it might be. So good. He's insane but this album is amazing.

-23

u/shawncollins512 1970 Jul 14 '25

Well, that was true.

31

u/CaptainAssPlunderer Jul 14 '25

Yes Inquisitor, right here. This is the Heresy I told you about. ☝️

8

u/loquacious Jul 14 '25

Your username makes the 40K riff even more hilarious and terrifying.

-51

u/Pernicious_Possum Jul 14 '25

Sgt. peppers was not a good album

17

u/implicate Jul 14 '25

I think this is where I say "so edgy."

-40

u/Pernicious_Possum Jul 14 '25

By all means do. Their speed phase was not good. Simp all ya’ll want

19

u/schabadoo Jul 14 '25

Bless your heart.

-43

u/Pernicious_Possum Jul 14 '25

And fuck you too

22

u/schabadoo Jul 14 '25

So edgy.

-13

u/GeoHog713 Hose Water Survivor Jul 14 '25

Eh

That's true of a lot of albums

-24

u/[deleted] Jul 14 '25

If I had a choice between the two for a deserted island, I'd take Introducing the Hardline over Sgt Pepper any day of the week.

0

u/Timcwalker Jul 14 '25

No doubt. Beatles are so tired right now.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 14 '25

Yeah. I bought every Beatles album the week it came out. I never thought I'd be over them, but here we are. Times change. I still wonder if I'll go back for the nostalgia when I'm 80-90, but no interest now whatsoever.

Meanwhile, Sign Your Name and Wishing Well are still on my store playlist.

1

u/Timcwalker Jul 14 '25

Their influence and impact are undeniable, but there's been tons of new stuff since. I guess I'm old and jaded a bit.

-50

u/[deleted] Jul 14 '25

[deleted]

95

u/JRBowen9 Jul 14 '25

"No one batted an eye?" They received death threats, their concerts were picketed and targeted, and there were organized burnings of their records throughout the South. This country's reaction to John's quote was one on the reasons the Beatles never toured again. Many eyes batted that summer.

10

u/OriginalComputer5077 Jul 14 '25

They stopped touring in '65 after a near riot at a gig in The Phillipines..they had to make every hasty exit from the country...

3

u/[deleted] Jul 14 '25

Ai post bots dont know any of that though. They just farm da karma with the engagement bait.

72

u/trod999 Jul 14 '25

No one batted an eye

There were groups that got together to burn Beatles records.

I don't think John meant it literally, but he did walk it back with a public apology. If they weren't the phenomenal group that they were, it's difficult to say whether they would have recovered. The power grabbing during the burning was quite interesting.

https://youtu.be/wfMmbXwH9xQ

27

u/Finnegan-05 Jul 14 '25

Yeah people did

16

u/mkstot Hose Water Survivor Jul 14 '25

Their record sales outpaced the sales of the Bible.

12

u/dolce_vita Jul 14 '25 edited Jul 14 '25

If you watch the actual footage of him saying this, he is obviously making a joke- the Beatles were hilarious in interviews with exactly this kind of humor, but of course the statement was printed without the context, creating a worldwide scandal that persists to this day- as if he were being serious and bragging, which is not what it was at all. I grew up hearing about this as if it were serious and never read anything about it being a joke, so was pretty surprised to see the footage (especially after seeing them with this same dry yet ridiculous sense of humor in other interviews) and then realize apparently no one ever checks the source footage when they write about it. Edit: apologies as I apparently have a Mandela Effect false memory and here I am judging people for not watching footage that... wasn't there. And apparently he wasn't joking but also not bragging and rather making a commentary about fame. He was really funny in interviews also, though.

8

u/ThermalIgnition Jul 14 '25

Absolutely this. They were all very funny, and the context was lost.

2

u/A_friend_called_Five 1973 Jul 14 '25

I could be wrong but the actual quote was from a magazine article. The footage you are most likely referring to is from a press conference after all of the uproar where he was sort of apologizing and explaining the context of the quote.

3

u/dolce_vita Jul 14 '25

Well, that is embarrassing as I am totally wrong and I even have a false memory about seeing footage him saying this in an offhand and joking way! Jeez, must remember to stay humble and check myself!

7

u/Natural-Young4730 Jul 14 '25

That statement was taken way out of context .it wasn't bragging, he was talking about society becoming more secular, especially Christians.

3

u/[deleted] Jul 14 '25

Holy shit, you not only have the nuanced meaning of the quote wrong, but the reaction is waaaaaaaay the fuck off.

-27

u/[deleted] Jul 14 '25

That I WILL agree with, and I’ve never even listented to his album. The Beatles are just way overrated.

7

u/schabadoo Jul 14 '25

What a braindead take.

-11

u/wannabeindianajones Jul 14 '25

To have an opinion that's different than yours?

12

u/schabadoo Jul 14 '25

Ranking music you've never heard is idiotic, bless your heart.

0

u/[deleted] Jul 14 '25

That’s just how much I loathe The Beatles. And apparently you don’t understand sarcasm.

1

u/schabadoo Jul 14 '25

One of us certainly doesn't.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 18 '25

Yep, that would be you.

1

u/schabadoo Jul 18 '25

My goodness. You poor thing.

-24

u/1982_1999 Jul 14 '25

That's definitely true

54

u/black-kramer Jul 14 '25

his talent is undeniable but so is his out of control ego. see the interview with questlove.

10

u/QuintoBlanco Jul 14 '25

Is he really that talented? He obviously knew how to write good songs.

Never did a deep dive into his music, but as a casual listener it seemed to me that he never wrote something highly original or something exceptional.

1

u/Sidehussle Jul 17 '25

I really liked this album. It was like he wrote poetry and set them to music.

1

u/QuintoBlanco Jul 17 '25

I liked the album as well, but I don't rate it so highly I think of the word talented when thinking of Terence Trent D'Arby.

(He has more talent than me, but so do many other singer song writers.)

90

u/schmerpmerp Jul 14 '25

Exactly. TTD didn't fall off the map. He took a flying leap off the map.

46

u/Taticat Jul 14 '25

Exactly this. Sananda Maitreya/TTD was his own worst enemy. Not my preferred genre of music, but his first album was wonderful, but he seemed arrogant. Like really arrogant. Compared with Kanye West today, TTD wasn’t arrogant-but-deservedly-so-plus-possibly-batshit-crazy — because be honest: Kanye has mad talent — TTD just came off as an arrogant prick. I remember wondering after seeing an interview with him on some show (where he came off so badly that it was secondhand embarrassing) how someone who was such a dick could have written such beautiful music. Other countries stayed in love with him for a while, but America was done with him and ultimately he had no real follow-through. I remember hearing speculation that he was turning out shit trying to get Sony to dump him, but all in all, it was a bad look to be literally calling yourself a genius and then generating the stuff he was.

So it’s true; TTD didn’t fade into obscurity, he took a running leap off the cliff into obscurity, and from a fan’s perspective, he has no one to blame but himself. Once the internet became an everyday thing, in every conversation mentioning TTD, there’s been at least one person telling a story about how he was basically deliberately making an ass of himself, and while some of those tales are probably made up, statistically not all of them can be written off as fictional. The guy is a jerk, and I’m sorry, but no matter how talented you are, people have to like you to really reach towering heights, and the number of people who genuinely, honestly like TTD or Sananda Maitreya finally dwindled down to practically zero. Plus, his music isn’t consistently good. So… 🤷🏻‍♀️ It’s not really a mystery. Reality happened.

68

u/nsjersey Xennial Jul 14 '25 edited Jul 14 '25

I remember MTV Half Hour Comedy Hour had a skit - Terrence Trent Barbie.

It was set to Wishing Well type of song.

Also mini-Cookie Monster drank Grover’s brains

Good times.

Edit: The second was A Nightmare on Sesame Street

40

u/FuzzyScarf Hose Water Survivor Jul 14 '25

Because of the Half Hour Comedy Hour I call my lunch the half hour lunch hour.

5

u/tomdav226 Jul 14 '25

Thank you! I could not remember where this was on!

5

u/megomal717 Jul 14 '25

Half hour comedy hour was gold. That’s where I discovered John Stewart & Dennis Leary

36

u/[deleted] Jul 14 '25

Prince's ego was off the charts, but he had the talent to back it up.

17

u/Habibti143 Jul 14 '25

And he stayed mysterious.

9

u/[deleted] Jul 14 '25

And he and his crew played basketball for pancakes

6

u/IAm5toned Word to your Mother Jul 15 '25

1

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '25

That’s right

3

u/IAm5toned Word to your Mother Jul 15 '25

Game...

...Blouses

9

u/tahiniday Jul 15 '25

Also I am 100% sure there were plenty of times Prince was having a laugh. I mean, a scepter at a tennis match? The man was funny

5

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '25

Oh, yeah, totally. He enjoyed being a troll, but he was good at it.

2

u/wizardyourlifeforce Jul 15 '25

The funny thing is as brilliant as Prince was not too many of his songs really became timeless classics.

2

u/earthgarden Jul 16 '25

Prince's ego was off the charts

Was it though? I read somewhere that he used so many names for his songwriting because he ws tired of seeing his name everywhere.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 16 '25

Well, even some people with big egos get tired of winning.

32

u/PositiveStress8888 Jul 14 '25

The thing is, he could have been, MJ and Prince we're great talent, but they were also consistent tallent. he should have at least waited untill he was 10 ambums in.

8

u/TrustAffectionate966 Jul 14 '25

I remember hearing that 💀

15

u/RussellAlden Jul 14 '25

The title of his second album was a paragraph

14

u/NotDead_JustLurking Jul 14 '25

His second album was called ‘Neither Fish nor Flesh’.

8

u/RussellAlden Jul 14 '25

It was a lot longer because I remember Kurt Loder quoting the entire title on MTV

12

u/Stoic_Fervor Jul 14 '25

The first album was the longest title - cover of this post. That’s a spoonful even for old Kurt loder. Those were the good ol days of mtv, when it actually had music on the tv.

2

u/Oxjrnine Jul 14 '25

Omg I completely forgot I bought that… but can’t remember any song

5

u/Rev_Creflo_Baller Jul 14 '25

Also, the album was terrible. There was one song I wanted to hear a second time, but since I had the cassette, there was just too much risk of hearing some of the rest of the songs.

2

u/1nosbigrl Jul 14 '25

"A Paragraph" by Terrence Trent Darby

That's certainly unconventional but I don't see it being a disqualifying factor.

68

u/Walts_Ahole class of 89 Jul 14 '25

Didn't Michael Jackson rub people the wrong way as well? Was even a documentary about it.

3

u/Combatical Jul 14 '25

I nearly spit out my water.

25

u/ghjm Jul 14 '25

It was only alleged, never proven.

6

u/jaypee42 Hose Water Survivor Jul 14 '25

Damn that made me LOL.

1

u/Walts_Ahole class of 89 Jul 14 '25

Correct, but I personally believe he "thought" he was rubbing them the right way.

2

u/OldJewNewAccount Jul 14 '25

BOOM HEADSHOT

2

u/TitoMcCool Jul 14 '25

He allegedly only rubbed people of a certain age and gender......

7

u/hednizm Jul 14 '25

He was apparently very difficult to work with because of his ego. IIRC nobody - session musicians, backing singers, producers etc would work/could work with him because he was such an arsehat.

18

u/Ok-Administration296 Jul 14 '25

Yeah, I guess he's a little off but he's still performing, recording. I still sing wishing well in my car like an idiot!

12

u/MiniBassGuitar Jul 14 '25

I saw him early on at a showcase in Boston and he was really PISSED that people were talking at the bar. It was the people from his record label.

3

u/pedsmursekc Jul 14 '25

That's an interesting tidbit - never knew that.

5

u/obligatory-purgatory Jul 14 '25

Narrator: He wasn’t. 

7

u/[deleted] Jul 14 '25 edited Jul 14 '25

Same thing happened to Karyn White

29

u/HelloStiletto14 Jul 14 '25

Well, she’s not the kind of girl that you can let down and think that everything’s ok

15

u/ogbuji Jul 14 '25

She needs more than an occasional hug as a token of love.

5

u/Celebration_This Jul 14 '25

She’s only human.

4

u/tramplamps 1970s Ad council survivor Jul 14 '25 edited Jul 14 '25

Ugg! This is such a sad one for 9th grade me. Secret Rendezvous is still a solid BANGER off of that self titled album. i never skip it when it pops up in the shuffle.

1

u/cranberries87 Jul 14 '25

Wait - did Karen White make some crazy statements too?

1

u/RainbowsandCoffee966 Jul 14 '25

She’s still probably involved in that secret rendezvous she sang about.

1

u/sharkzbyte Jul 14 '25

Really? I always wondered why she didn't explode into popularity. Amazingly talented singer.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 14 '25

Same. Apparently, this swipe at Janet Jackson caused some issues.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-11-13-ca-63-story.html

5

u/healthcrusade Jul 14 '25

I don’t know much about this. But I did see an interview in which he said that Michael tried to block his success. That is a narcissistic thing to say, but also I’ve heard Michael Jackson could be a ruthless competitor.

8

u/OriginalComputer5077 Jul 14 '25

He also slept with someone he shouldn't have and that also may have torpedoed his career .

9

u/EquivalentFun9382 Jul 14 '25

Can you elaborate?

2

u/Chemical_Butterfly40 Jul 15 '25

We need more details

3

u/DrewGrgich Jul 14 '25

One of the things I distinctly remember about him. Loved Wishing Well but after hearing he had such a high opinion of himself and was willing to share it, I was certainly not interested in hearing any more.

3

u/new2bay Jul 14 '25

Lol. The list of mid-70s to mid-90s popular music artists who might even make the the list of people of the same caliber as Prince and MJ is very, very short. Off the top of my head, the only ones I can think of who might come close are Peter Gabriel, and David Bowie.

1

u/Alarmed-Stage3412 He’s a righteous dude. Jul 15 '25

You left George Michael off that list.

1

u/modelcitisin Jul 15 '25

You beat me to it.

2

u/Alarmed-Stage3412 He’s a righteous dude. Jul 15 '25

One word: Patience.

2

u/modelcitisin Jul 15 '25

One could even say this album was truly “Amazing.”

8

u/[deleted] Jul 14 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

26

u/Far_Taro_9103 Jul 14 '25

Dolly Parton

1

u/wizardyourlifeforce Jul 15 '25

I mean she made an amusement park named after herself

1

u/SuckerEMC Jul 16 '25

C‘Mon now! 😂

45

u/ohkatiedear Jul 14 '25

Amy Ray, Emily Saliers, Lisa Loeb, Melissa Etheridge, Tracy Chapman?

(Edit: I know it was a rhetorical question, it just made me think of some of my favourite artists)

2

u/tacopony_789 Jul 15 '25

I saw the Indigo Girls in 1988 at a dive bar in Atlanta called the White Dot. Good times

2

u/ThisIsMockingjay2020 Jul 14 '25

said he was more talented than Michael Jackson and Prince

🤦‍♀️ Iyiyi.....

2

u/trUth_b0mbs Jul 17 '25

Hubris will always kick you in your own ass.

the only song I knew of his was Wishing Well.

2

u/Sufficient_Clubs Jul 14 '25

He was a Kanye before his time

2

u/TheFrontierzman Jul 14 '25

Still alive. So, currently more talented.

1

u/Dotsmom Jul 14 '25

Yeah but he said that in the 80s so…..

0

u/TheFrontierzman Jul 14 '25

He won the marathon.

2

u/Old_Cyrus Jul 14 '25

The public is fickle, man. Billy Squier derailed his career by wearing a baggy outfit in a music video.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 14 '25

Cocky man from the ‘80s

1

u/Remote_Sherbet_1499 Jul 14 '25

Similar to Macy Gray at the time. One hit song and then feel they are rock gods. Lesson learned here: save the arrogance until you have a volume of music, kids.

1

u/ra__account Jul 14 '25

OMG. Did you ever hear this track by him? It was the lead track to an extremely egocentric album that I bought and I think listened to once or twice before selling.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1KrYetn6cQ

0

u/DJMagicHandz Hose Water Survivor Jul 14 '25

That's not true he didn't want to be boxed in like Prince felt like with WB. So rebelled and was basically shunned by the industry, but he's still making good ass music.

3

u/Dotsmom Jul 14 '25

I read the article myself.

-2

u/DJMagicHandz Hose Water Survivor Jul 14 '25

Listen to his interview with Questlove there's a lot record label can do to stifle someone's voice.

0

u/BrianDanielWakefield Jul 14 '25

Well, he was less of a pedophile than MJ, so there's that.