Every day, students around White Station High School tap into their creative side. They harness their energy and use it towards developing their crafts. Some build robots and some design clothes. Some even play instruments for music at weddings and concerts, but what about those that create it? For Maclom Sommerville (10), he did not pick up a robot, crochet needle or instrument. He did, however, pick up a pencil and a microphone to start his musical journey.
“I had always loved listening to music, so hearing some of my favorite rappers’ songs inspired me to put a beat behind lyrics that I already had come up with,” Sommerville said.
Sommerville started out his music career writing song lyrics. It was not until he frequently began listening to his favorite rappers, such as One and Only, that he decided to place a beat over his lyrics.
“The main focus on my music is just to rap how I feel. Whether it be feeling myself, or missing someone, I just write down how I feel and make it work,” Sommerville said.
This nervousness, however, went away when his first official song, “MOOD” was released. The song quickly gained praise and popularity, receiving 20,000 streams on Spotify. This marked the moment in Sommerville’s life when he realized he wanted to make his music into something big.
“As the streams got higher and higher [on “MOOD”], the effort and time that went into my songs increased knowing that I had to impress everyone that tapped on my song,” Sommerville said.
Sommerville is a solo artist who makes his own decisions. It is just his voice, a MacBook and a Blue Yeti microphone involved in the song-making process. He begins by choosing a beat, usually a popular sound on the internet and chooses one that would best fit the lyrics he has written. From there, it is all up to Sommerville. When he begins rapping, he sets the mood, flow and tone of his song. He then continues to experiment with the lyrics and beats a little more on the production apps on his computer until he feels the songs are ready to be distributed to streaming platforms, including Apple Music, Spotify, Soundcloud and Youtube. All his music is released under the name Teego. The original name was “Lil Toga” but Sommerville thought Teego sounded a bit more catchy. The name Teego stuck, and he is now referred to by his musical alias more than his birth name.
“I just want everyone that plays my music to enjoy it and feel themselves,” Sommerville said.
Not only is Sommerville dedicated to developing his musical career, but he also works hard to maintain his academic career as a high-school student. The reality of struggling to juggle a passion with schoolwork became clear to Sommerville this year. With music taking up much of his time, he found his grades slipping. Despite his love and drive for creating, his number one priority has become setting himself up for the future.
“Because school started, I haven’t been able to spend as much time on my music. I want to focus on keeping up my grades,” Sommerville said.
Although he is just starting out, Sommerville has many hopes for his musical career masked as his alter ego, Teego. Once he graduates from high school, Sommerville hopes to gain more opportunities to perform in front of crowds. He plans to snag gigs at local spots throughout Memphis and one day and maybe even perform as a band formed by himself and his friends. Like all who begin a music career, Sommerville wants to get big and become a household name while still formulating his own distinct style of rap.
“In five years, I’m gonna be in college, but hopefully I’ll be doing shows and making music videos,” Sommerville said. “All the money I’ve made so far from music I’ll focus it toward paying for my future.”