Local Whitecourt musician gaining ground with his new album

By Laura Bohnert

A local Whitecourt rapper’s first album will be hitting stores this week.

T-Co (Tevin Cotton), whose popularity began to kick off when he, at 17 years old, performed a Whitecourt Canada Day show for a crowd of approximately 2,000 people, has been involved in music for as long as he can remember.

“I’ve been writing lyrics since I can remember, making music since I was 14, and releasing music since 16,” quotes T-Co. “I’ve always had a passion for music of all forms and styles. I started with a Dollar Store microphone, a keyboard, and mix craft. I progressed from there to owning better equipment,” explains T-Co.

The Whitecourt-born rapper has spent most of his life in Alberta. He writes all his own material, composes his own music, and uses samples. “I also worked with a producer from Vancouver (DJ Single) for one song,” T-Co explains.

T-Co describes feeling a particular draw to hip hop. “Since day one, I wanted to be a vocalist,” T-Co explains. “I went through my phases of different genres before hearing ‘Dear Mama’ by Tupac Shakur. Then hip hop had my heart.”

Yet, hip hop isn’t the only genre T-Co experiments with when creating his music: “I don’t consider myself as just a hip hop artist,’” states T-Co. “That’s putting your creativity in a box. On my album I have some songs that incorporate other genre styles. Hip hop pulls from every genre nowadays, and it’s made such an impact on society that it’s made its way into other genres, too.”

“It’s about the music for me,” quotes T-Co. “Being able to make music/songs that effect people’s lives is a blessing. I personally feel that being able to reach out to people through music is the best part about making music.”

T-Co’s first solo album is set to be released on July 7. “The ‘Sacrifice’ is about the sacrifices you have to make in life to move ahead, whether it be for success, love, or dreams,” explains T-Co. “One of the main themes in the CD is being confident with yourself and not being afraid of who you are.”

And, of course, T-Co attributes much of his success to the support of his fans: “I am beyond blown away by the support I am given by my fans nowadays. I owe a lot of my success to them. Without them there is no T-Co.”

T-Co and El Brenno of Blak Lite District (BLD) will be releasing a mixtape entitled ‘Underrated’ this summer, and BLD will soon be releasing its follow-up album to ‘Hear No Evil’ engineered by T-Co entitled ‘See No Evil’ (now in production).

Look for T-Co’s new album on July 7. You can contact him on Facebook for either a hard copy or a digital download, and you can also “expect some shows to be happening in town soon,” quotes T-Co. You can also enjoy a sampling of his music at www.soundcloud.com/t3v1n.