Over the past 10 years, you

may have passed Todd Thomas at the local grocery store or movie theater

and not even known it. That is just fine with him.

In fact, that is one thing

that attracted Thomas, a.k.a. Speech, to the Fayette County area. The

front man of the Grammy Award-winning hip-hop group Arrested Development

loves the area because of the privacy and quiet it affords him and his

family, as well as its close proximity to the airport.

"We love it here,"

said Speech, who has recorded all five of his solo albums and two recent

Arrested Development albums in his studio in Fayetteville. "When

I'm on the road I am always in the public eye. It should be different

when you come home."

When writing for himself or

Arrested Development, Speech starts with the beat and the music and then

the lyrics come from whatever is on his mind at the time. The songs on

his recent albums deal with everything from the passing of his brother,

Terry, to spirituality, love, and the current state of hip hop.

As for the current state of

hip-hop, Speech is irked because much of it is a glamorization of ghetto

life. The music industry, which promotes this type of music and style,

is more focused on marketing and strategy rather than the message. By

producing his albums on an independent label, Speech has more control

over the message as well as the means by which it reaches the audience.

Speech is an artist who encourages listeners to download and share his

music, wanting more people to hear it.

"The music I make is good

hip-hop," stated Speech. "It's got hard beats, no cuss words

and no gory lyrics. It's what I'd want to hear."

Speech was born in Milwaukee

in 1968 to parents who owned a newspaper, the Milwaukee Community Journal,

and who were very active in African-American issues and politics. Speech

was not interested in those issues at that time. He was more interested

in DJ'ing in his father's club, the Fox Trap, and a new brand of music

that was just starting to blossom, hip-hop. He began dabbling in professional

music with help from his father and began selling copies of his records

to local audiences.

In 1987, a week after graduating

from high school, Speech moved to Atlanta to attend the Art Institute

of Atlanta with plans on majoring in music management. It was at the Art

Institute that Speech met a young man known as Headliner and the seed

for Arrested Development was planted. It was also at this time that Speech

began to get more interested in political issues. However, while other

hip hop groups like Public Enemy and The Jungle Brothers voiced their

political stances and intrigued listeners like Speech, Arrested Development's

message was more about African-American culture.

The group was made up of Speech;

Headliner; Montsho Eshe, the group's choreographer, singer and emcee;

Rasa Don, percussionist, dancer and singer; and 71-year-old Baba Oje,

the group's elder and spiritual advisor. Oje is in the Guinness Book of

World Records as the oldest man in hip-hop.

Though by all accounts they

are a hip-hop group, they have always considered themselves more of a

family. The family eventually met up with Jermaine Dupri's father, Michael

Mauldin, who signed the group to the EMI label. Joining them on their

debut album, "Three years, five months and two days in the life of...,"

which refers to the amount of time that passed before they got a record

deal, was Dionne Farris, an integral part of their successful launch into

the world of popular music.

Farris sang on and starred

in the video for their first single, "Tennessee." The song quickly

became a buzz clip on MTV, which meant it got tremendous airplay on the

network and led radio stations around the nation to pick it up as well.

The group followed "Tennessee" with the singles "People

Everyday" and "Mr. Wendal," which was the group's most

popular song. "Mr. Wendal" tackles the issue of homelessness

and half of the royalties for that song were donated to the National Coalition

for the Homeless.

The group won two Grammys in

1993, Best New Artist and Best Rap Single, as well as MTV Music Awards

for Best Rap Single for "Tennessee" and Best Music Video for

"People Everyday" and an NAACP award. Arrested Development followed

up their debut with an MTV Unplugged and "Zingalamaduni." Together,

all three albums sold six million copies. The group had progressed from

touring in a van and a U-Haul to touring larger clubs, arenas and worldwide

venues. Arrested Development toured with Lollapalooza in 1993 and played

Woodstock in 1994, which was before an audience of 250 thousand people.

Eventually, the added stress of the business took its toll and the group

broke up in 1995.

The breakup led to a solo career

for Speech. Few artists have found more success after a breakup with their

initial group, but Speech has. In Japan. He has released five solo albums

in Japan and each one has produced at least one top ten single. Most of

his albums have gone Gold in Japan, which means they have sold 100,000

copies. Speech goes on sold-out tours around the nation and has collaborated

with Japanese artists over the past few years.

"Radio in Japan is more

like college radio over here," said Speech. "It is not as genre-oriented

as popular radio. You may hear Stevie Wonder followed by (the popular

rock group) Incubus in the same set of music. I think this makes the listeners

more open."

Speech regrouped with members

of Arrested Development in 2000 and the group has recorded and released

two albums in Japan as well. Both of which have been very successful.

Arrested Development is now planning a tour that will take them around

the U.S. and Europe as well as Japan.

They will perform at Centennial

Olympic Park's "On The Bricks" concert this Friday with Jason

Mraz and Jennifer Love Hewitt. Tickets are $3.

When asked when the group will

perform in Fayette County, Speech expressed great interest in setting

up a concert in the near future.

"I'd love to do an all-day

thing, teaching the art of DJ'ing, dance and rap during the day and then

have some local hip hop acts in the evening before the headliners,"

said Speech, who has a number of connections with popular hip hop artists

that have positive messages. "It would be an exciting day for people

to learn new things. Maybe someone's life would take a different and more

positive direction because of it."

Other things that Speech would

like to see come to Fayette County are a natural foods restaurant, a good

record store and perhaps a movie theatre in Peachtree City.

"I love Fayetteville and

I'm planning on staying," said Speech. "I'd like to see more

things happen here."

At the age of 34, Speech has

had a very sustained career that has taken him all over the globe but

always brings him back home to Fayette County. He credits God for being

the source of his vision and talent, which has enabled him to have a long

career that does not appear to be slowing down anytime soon.

For more information on Speech

and Arrested Development, visit www.speechmusic.

com.

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