“To be accepted like that was the icing on the cake, and it felt good,” he says. I wasn’t outwardly expressive about me singing, and one day I just woke up and was like, ‘Man, I’m about to just start singing.’”įrom there, Gemaine, with the help of his brother and his guitar, took the bus and frequented a local Guitar Center, where Vine devotees boosted his confidence through engagement from freestyles. He says, “Singing is something I like to do. He did it by outgrowing the pressure to be what he described as “somebody for someone.” Still, he had reservations about dedicating himself to singing.Īfter he finished high school, Gemaine found it easier to breathe life into his future as a singer.
The evolution of robin thicke songs series#
It wasn’t until he starred in a high school adaptation of the teen musical-turned-television series Fame that he knocked the socks off the director and girls who looked on at him, belting notes in amazement. When Gemaine immersed himself in playing instruments, he involuntarily ignored the gift stored inside him from the start: singing. “One of the first songs I beat into me was Bruno Mars’ ‘When I Was Your Man’ for like two-three weeks straight, I remember just playing it until I couldn’t anymore,” he recalls. Gemaine eventually progressed his skills from scales to pulling off entire songs. My hands would get locked from just being in a certain position for so long.” It was more about muscle memory and figuring out what keys to hit. Early on, I’d take a day and spend hours playing the same two chords over and over until I knew it muscle-wise. He says, “Lucky, I have the ear for notes and am able to decipher notes. Self-taught on the piano, Gemaine, a fan of the drums as well, credits his fast-tracked learning of the intimidating instrument to repetition. Like many great superstars, Gemaine, at a young age, also had church as a common origin to feed his hunger for music. You feel it,” he says, referencing R&B artists who were first ingrained in his mind as a child. “I have a thing for music that you feel, and that is the core of R&B. In the interim, he stayed in touch with that creative side of himself through his admiration for the vocal stylings of Motown titans Michael Jackson and Marvin Gaye as well as hit songs by Usher and Robin Thicke. “It was so different and not as common for somebody wanting to sing from Compton, or at least I didn’t see it as much unless it was somebody in the choir or school plays,” says Gemaine, who didn’t get a foothold into performing arts until high school. Gangsta rap had a near-constant, crippling presence in Compton, his hometown, where he kept his head low away from the temptations of the troubled streets. His controversial environment drove his misleading impression, mainly because he didn’t see pursuing a career in singing and arts as the standard. I just wanted to sing.”īefore “Freaky” gradually formed a foundation for Gemaine and his promising music career, the 26-year-old talent didn’t initially foresee the star quality he’s attained thus far. “I was just a kid, catching the Gardena 2 bus to South Bay with no worries, no expectations, just having fun and just doing what I love. “I remember waking up, like, ‘I wanna just make a video,’” he recalls. He remembers living under no constraints. Beyond his style choices and his youthful voice, he noticed far more about that time in his life through that quick clip. Supported by the viral smash, the 10-track release featured other favorites, including the closed-off “Let Me In.”Ī few weeks before this interview, Gemaine came across the Vine for “Freaky” on YouTube while searching for one of his most recent videos. As his star rose, Gemaine offered up his first project, Curious, in November 2015.
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