Today we’d like to introduce you to Tizie F. Cartel.
Tizie, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
As long as I can remember, I’ve always been a striving kid from knowing what college I wanted to play football for by the time I was 8 years old and even having a backup plan if that didn’t fall through. I just knew I wanted to be great at something early.
Growing up on the south side of Chicago I was forced to be aware of a lot of things at an early age, being that my mom didn’t want us to grow up with that lifestyle my mom moved me and my brother to Nashville where she thought we would create a better childhood for us.
Don’t get me wrong it did many opportunities for us but a little bit too much freedom for us city kids as we were growing into young teenagers things were getting hard on my mom so she had to send us to Memphis to live with our father which will not end so well I develop relationships with gangs and streets where my passion for football was slowly fading away.
Due to the lack of guidance and support and hip hop taking a turn with groups like three six mafia and the hot boys I was quickly captivated and knew I wanted to be next. Not knowing how to rap or even hit a flow one thing I did have an advantage in was writing and storytelling, by the time I was 14 we found ourselves self-back on the southside of Chicago because my dad landed a job with a cat.
So now again after gaining new friends and confidence in a new city now here, we found our self-back in the city my mom desperately wanted to get us out of right back in the middle of gang violence. I tried finding the passion for football again but the high school wasn’t that good and still no support I started to turn to the streets and the gangs.
When growing up as a teenager on the south side of Chicago once you walk out those doors, it’s like the whole world is against you so much temptation. By the time I was 18, I had gotten caught dealing drugs at which I was facing 6 to 30 years for a dangerous drugs conspiracy battling that charge for a year I took a plea bargain of 6 years with booth camp down state.
With my mom still trying to find herself and making the new move to California while I was incarcerated, I felt like that was my only hope and the last thing I had to come home top.
After my release at the age of 20, I had nothing or no one to come home to until I met the mother of my kids whose grandmother took me in at the time when I was at the lowest point of my life not only was it her and other elderly women who tried to keep me safe out the streets and a roof over my head.
Bouncing from house to the house didn’t lead me anywhere but back to selling drugs again which make it far because I landed myself back in prison after the Chicago police department raided my girlfriend’s grandmother’s home and found more drugs.
With another slap on the wrist I received another year incarcerated and had to decide with my life as the music scene was hitting big in Chicago I needed a way in things started to rapidly change to getting shot in two separate incidents and recovering from the shots we quickly were forming a group called the Cash Out Boyz with 3 other friends we were gaining notice with our short rise to fame but things weren’t going as planned.
But I kept writing songs until I got a call from urban grind tv who like what I was doing and the vision had to go and thought it was marketable and offered me a distribution deal which I couldn’t fulfill because a member of the team decided he wanted to go solo and everything fell off with the deal because it was either all or none.
Shortly after my song “Winning” aired on Comcast TV rotation for about 3 months other resources started to find me and reach out to me with opportunities to get my music heard DJ Shon hosted my first mixtape “Blood-Related” live mixtapes and got 20k hits in my first week was looking good.
For me back on the right track and one particular song that stood out to my audience ” love me” reached many platforms as a single afterward and is my number one single still today. My music can be found on all platforms, from apple music to pandora to TikTok.
I own my masters as an independent artist but yet my biggest dream has yet to come and that is to write and direct films just being allowed to pitch movie ideas to people like Tyler Perry, Ryan Coogler and Spike Lee will be dope.
I am a survivor of south side Chicago streets my story is meant to be heard but I know it just won’t fit in one article because there is so much more to tee aka Terrance Tizie Cartel Fisher the ones who know me love me and the ones who don’t will forever try to sweep dirt on your pathway.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I tried to get into the business, but it was not because entertainment can be tricky.
When you have young black kids out here living in poverty going through heartbreak and people dying around, it becomes a harsh reality for them; and the whole youth.
So, the only struggle for me was not being able to leave my city to prosper and come back for my city.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am an independent Indie artist my stage name is Tizie F. Cartel you can google me at www.tiziefcartel.com.
As an aspiring filmmaker, I will fall back on music and chase my real passion film making and maybe one day shed light on things through a real vision of my city to allow other black teens to become young TV stars.
As well that’s what’s going to set me aside for creating household names.
What do you think about happiness?
As long as I’m on planet earth, I’m happy. I can’t complain my kids are healthy, I’m healthy and living I couldn’t be happier.
Contact Info:
- Website: TizieFcartel.com
- Instagram: @tizie_cartel
- Youtube: Tizie F Cartel
