Terrence Howard's role as aspiring recording artist Djay in the 2005 flick 'Hustle & Flow' shouldn't have been taken lightly.Immediately following his Academy Award nominated turn in the Craig Brewer-directed hip-hop drama, the versatile actor secured a two-album deal with Columbia Records, which plans to release his debut album, 'Shine Through It' on Sept. 2.
An expert group of musicians were assembled for the self-penned opus, including co-producer Miles Mosley on upright bass, guitar, drums and piano; tenor sax Kamasi Washington; trumpet player Serafin Aguilar,;keyboardist Kenneth Crouch and viola player Tom Lea.
Howard, himself, sings and plays lead guitar throughout the set.
Despite having an iconic producer such as Rick Rubin -- who is responsible for co-founding Def Jam Records and crafting recent tracks for Johnny Cash, The Black Crowes and System of a Down – helming the project, Howard's pre-meditated thoughts weren't easily influenced.
"I wanted to hear the world according to Terry," he recently explained to BlackVoices.com.
"After listening to it I see that I'm a bit dramatic, because I can listen to everybody else's music and I can't picture anything that they're saying but with my music I can see something, and it creates images in my mind," he further explained. "So I know I'm a bit dramatic about who I am with music."Not bad, considering the album was recorded live and completed within just 11 days.
As far as letting his emotions out on songs such as 'Love Makes You Beautiful' and the title track 'Shine Through It,' the 39-year old screen heartthrob had no problem letting us know how he feels when he's on and off camera.
"Who I am, how I'm acting, that's how I'm feeling," he explained. "There's never a pretend setup, and that's how I work as an actor. I don't sit there and smile for the goddamn camera, I hate the camera and I hate the people that are holding the camera."
"I'm there for me," he continued. "People think I'm a narcissist because I always talk about me but sh*t, without me there's no world, there's no universe."
And apparently with no budget, there's no music videos.
Howard said he feels that he may have to take matters into his own hands and finance a few music videos for the project.
"They're not giving me the budget that I need," he revealed. "I have to make some other choices with it.... I'm thinking about taking a guerilla approach to it."
"So I think I want to do the videos like that and pocket all the money they're talking about giving me," he quipped.
Although the 'Iron Man' star recently shot and directed the album's first music video for the song 'Sanctuary,' he also wants to release visuals for 'Nothing Makes You Beautiful' and 'Shine Through It.'
In addition to his new opus hitting stores next month Howard, who just completed an acclaimed stint in the hit Broadway play, 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,' is also starring in the Dito Montiel-helmed movie 'Fighting,' which hits theaters next month.
1. The album would be good if he didn't open his mouth to sing. He sounds horrible! I heard a couple tracks and literally could not get through 30 seconds of his vocals. Stick to playing the guitar Terry!
shell at 10:28AM on Aug 13th 2008