Pint – sized, soul stirring songstress Teena Marie has undeniably been a force to be reckoned with in the nearly thirty years of her professional performing career. The accomplished singer, songwriter, producer and arranger has managed to consistently capture the hearts and spirits of millions fans with her music. As we’ve listened to the passionate R&B grooves on her twelve studio albums and equal number of compilations, the love and emotion Teena Marie has expressed flows like the purest waterfall. On Sapphire, Ms. Marie’s second release on Cash Money Classics/Universal Motown, the vocalist shines brighter then ever.

The four times grammy nominated, Mary Christine Brockert had a strong African-American influence in her godmother. Blessed with the gift of music at a young age, the Santa Monica, California native was raised on Motown music. Singing Harry Belafonte by age two, Ms. Marie’s self-professed “Gift from God” would become fine-tuned as the years progressed.

Signed to her dream label at age 19, Teena Marie’s magic would be further developed under the tutelage of the legendary, Rick James. Her 1979 debut Wild And Peaceful, produced by James, garnered a #8 R&B single with “I’m A Sucker For Your Love.” One year later, her second and third albums, Lady T and Irons in the Fire were released, producing the hit classics “Behind The Groove” and “I Need Your Loving” respectively. By this time, Teena Marie took creative control of producing, writing and arranging her material. In 1981 Ms. Marie released the platinum selling It Must Be Magic which featured the up-tempo “Square Biz” and slow jam “Portuguese Love.”

In 1982, Motown sued Teena Marie for breach of contract after she informed the label that she no longer wanted to perform; in turn, Ms. Marie filed a countersuit against the legendary company and won. The countersuit resulted in the landmark artists’ rights initiative known as “The Brockert Initiative,” - Ms. Marie’s last name - placing strict limitations on the length of artist/company contracts. This historical entertainment mandate states that no recording company can contractually bind an artist while refusing to release his/her product.

After winning the lawsuit, Teena Marie signed to Epic Records (1983), and went on to record five more albums throughout the late eighties and early nineties, including Starchild and the hit single “Lovergirl” and Naked to the World which features the smash hit “Ooo La La La.” Teena independently released Passion Play on her own Sarai Records in 1994, but it wasn’t until ten years later that she would resurface to again share her voice and talent with the world.

As the sole artist signed to Cash Money Classics, the subsidiary of New Orleans rap entity Cash Money Records, Teena released La Doña in 2004, which yielded the grammy nominated #1 hit “Still In Love.” Now with her latest effort Sapphire, Teena continues to bridge the gap across genres, cultures and colors.

The sudden passing of Teena Marie’s mentor and friend Rick James in 2005 served as the backdrop to the creation of Sapphire. Their often tumultuous, always fertile relationship served as inspiration once again, for Ms. Marie’s, as she put pen to paper and recalled the indescribable experience of working with such a creative force of nature as Rick James. “I really couldn’t deal with my pain and I think that God intervened. Actually, I felt like Rick was with me writing. Some nights I would just sit up in the bed like he tapped me on the shoulder ‘Get up and write this song.’ It was a blessing that I had that album to write because I don’t know what I would have done if I didn’t have that creative outlet.” Titled after an unreleased Rick James tune of the same name about the history of African-American women, Teena Marie also recalled that sometimes James referred to her as 'his sapphire.' While the process to create Sapphire was healing, the album is also uplifting, centered in love and layered with romantic, even sexy overtones.

Teena Marie's creative muse was also stirred by her relationship with her 14-year old daughter Alia Rose who appears throughout Sapphire. Ms. Teena describes their musical relationship comparable to Eddie and Gerald Levert, calling Alia “mini me…When we sing together in harmony you can’t tell us apart. It’s like the whole family thing, there’s something so magical about that. She’s really talented and it’s beautiful to watch this flower bloom.”

“Resilient (Sapphire)” featuring Alia Rose tells a powerful and honest tale. Ms. Marie originally wrote the song in honor of her best friend’s grandmother Demitra, a Holocaust survivor. Coincidentally, Demitra died around the same time as Rick James. Propelled by Demitra’s story and life coupled with the unfortunate advent of Hurricane Katrina, Teena Marie and Alia’s duet was born. “I thought that would be a great testimony to Demitra to take a piece of what happened because she lived that same kind of life.”

With guest appearances by Smokey Robinson, Kurupt and Gerald Albright, making Sapphire became a family affair for Teena Marie. As a member of first generation Motown, Smokey Robinson was Ms. Marie’s silent mentor and idol before she was even signed to the label.

Nicknamed Little Smokey by her teenage peers, Teena Marie studied his writing through song, “his lyrics, love poetry, that’s how I really feel I learned how to write.” Collaborating for the first time on “God Has Created” and “Cruise Control,” the musical chemistry was potent. “Smokey is just so brilliant. I just had to sit back, relax, and watch a master do his thing. The music, he just loved it so much because it was so Smokey Robinson influenced. My whole career was so influenced by him that it just fit, it was a perfect fit.”

Being the first R&B artist to rap and sing on her own records, Ms. Marie has contributed much to the world of hip-hop and in turn positive hip-hop in it’s purest form influenced her. Kurupt, his wife Gail Gotti and her sister Queen all lend their talents to Sapphire. As she describes it: “They’re like my grown kids.” Intrigued by the rap, sung, spoken word combination, Teena Marie wrote the rhyme Kurupt performs on “Baby Who’s Is It,” while Gail Gotti and Queen do their own thing on “Ladies Choice.”

Forever young, Teena Marie is as focused and passionate as ever: “What I think they will feel is the sincerity of the lyrics. The younger people, I think they’ll get to hear what we were and more of who I am. I’m most proud professionally, of the legacy I've been able to create through my music. I also still get a charge when I see all those faces out there during a live performance. Faces that have looked back at me and touched me the way I hope I've touched them. Believe me that feeling shines as bright as any gem."

No white artist has sang R&B more convincingly than Teena Marie, whose big, robust vocals are so black-sounding that when she was starting out, some listeners wondered if she was a light-skinned African-American. Not to be confused with Brazilian jazz singer Tânia Maria, Marie grew up in west Los Angeles in a neighborhood that was nicknamed "Venice Harlem" because of its heavy black population. The singer/songwriter/producer was in her early twenties when, around 1977, she landed a job at Motown Records. It was at Motown that she met her mentor and paramour-to-be, Rick James, who ended up doing all of the writing and producing for her debut album of 1979, Wild and Peaceful. That LP, which boasted her hit duet with James, "I'm Just a Sucker for Your Love," didn't show Marie's picture -- so many programmers at black radio just assumed she was black. When her second album, Lady T, came out, much of the R&B world was shocked to see how fair-skinned she was. But to many of the black R&B fans who were eating her music up, it really didn't matter -- the bottom line was she was a first-rate soul singer whose love of black culture ran deep.

By her third album, 1980's gold Irons in the Fire, Marie was doing most of her own writing and producing. That album boasted the major hit "I Need Your Lovin'," and Marie went gold again with her next album, It Must Be Magic (which included the major hit "Square Biz"). It Must Be Magic turned out to be her last album for Motown, which she had a nasty legal battle with. Marie got out of her contract with Motown, and the case ended up with the courts passing what is known as "The Teena Marie Law" -- which states that a label cannot keep an artist under contract without putting out an album by him or her.

Switching to Epic in 1983, Marie recorded her fifth album, Robbery, and had a hit with "Fix It." In 1984, Marie recorded her sixth album, Starchild, and had her biggest pop hit ever with "Lovergirl." Though Marie had often soared to the top of the R&B charts, "Lovergirl" marked the first time she'd done so well in the pop market. Ironically, Marie was a white singer who had enjoyed little exposure outside the R&B market prior to "Lovegirl."

Three more Epic albums followed: 1986's Emerald City, 1988's Naked to the World (which contained her smash hit "Ooh La La La"), and 1990's Ivory. Unfortunately, Marie's popularity had faded considerably by the late '80s, and Epic dropped her. In 1994, the singer released Passion Play on her own Sarat label. Ten years later, she signed to Cash Money and released La Doña, featuring assistance from Gerald LeVert, Rick James, and MC Lyte. 'Sapphire' followed two years later.


-Alex Henderson, All Music Guide










Mark Jacobson:Hey, what do you want to have on your epitaph? What do you want your legacy to be?

Leroy Barnes: I’ll tell you what I want them to say on mine. I want them to say: "Boy oh boy, he was old. Goddamn, he was old."