In Her Words: Teedra Moses On 20 Years of 'Complex Simplicity,' Loss, Motherhood and Rebirth

On Recognizing The Impact Of Her Debut Album

Teedra Moses: I didn’t go into Complex Simplicity thinking about the impact it would have. It was an indie album. I did that project with no intentions but to relieve myself of what I was going through. Just literally writing to survive… Trying to get out all this stuff that was drowning me. My mother had just died. My relationship with my children’s father had ended in a way that shattered my whole idea of what family was supposed to be. These are safeties for me that were completely gone. Shortly after that, my father died and it was just very different. All of these shifts in my life. Like an earthquake almost.

It was a relief to be able to be going through what I was going through and still go on the road and exchange energy with people. I had fun but didn’t get a chance to take it in because I was just working to survive and raise kids. I feel like in this space now I can receive it because my sons are grown, wonderful young guys, creating their own lane and making music for themselves. That makes me feel proud. And then seeing friends, I say friends because these people have uplifted me in times when I felt like I wasn’t going to continue doing music. I’ve been friends with these people from that first album for over 20 years. I didn’t have any choice at this big age but to stop and take it in.

Building Legacy: Family, Business and Lawsuits

My sister Tamia Moses, she’s my partner in this whole journey. She’s been with me the whole 20 years. She and I run our own business together. We own the publishing, the masters, the catalog. And I know people see headlines about how I made millions from “Dip It Low,” but they don’t talk about how I got sued.

Everybody was like, ‘Oh my God Teedra you made a lot of money.’ Yeah, I lost a lot of money. This is a business that ain’t linear at all. This is over a period of time, off that one song. But when you’re making that kind of money, you think you’re gonna be able to always take care of all this stuff. It was a very expensive lesson. Legal fees alone were drowning me. I had to pay money back. My finances started to fall apart. I had two places, a place in Los Angeles in the Altadena area and I had a condo in Miami and that’s when I chose to move to Miami.

I feel free because I own myself. I feel free because if you make a movie today and you want to use “Be Your Girl” remix, you have to contact me for that. You have to pay me for that on my publishing side and you have to clear the license because I own the masters clearance. We come from the era where it was like, ‘You got to get a publishing deal.’ My children’s father told me, ‘No don’t sell your publishing.’

I was raised by my father, who was an entrepreneur. We’d be watching a Lakers game and he would be like, ‘Look at Magic Johnson, he’s rich – but think about how rich the man is that owns the Lakers.’ He would always say, ‘You want to be the NBA. You don’t want the money to trickle down to you.’

Raising Artists: Motherhood and Music

My sons, Ras and Taj, are my best friends. We’ve been through everything together. They’re grown now, making their own music as part of Coast Contra, but back in the day, it was just us. No solid boyfriend, no extra help — just me and them. And we were a unit.

They didn’t even tell me they rapped at first. One of their friends said, ‘You know Ras and Taj rap.’ They were very shy about it And when I first heard their music, I was like, ‘Oh, my God. They’re really talented.’ But they wanted to wait until they were good enough to tell me because they knew I’d tell them the truth. When they were younger they’d go ‘Mom we’re going to be basketball players.’ No, you’re not. Regroup. I promise you’re not going to Spud Webb this situation.

When they moved to L.A., they lived in a studio apartment — four grown men, each with a wall to sleep against. I think their struggle made them really come together and create chemistry.

They’re also indie, which is a hard road and they know that firsthand. But we are owners, we’re not players. I told them, ‘Being indie means wearing every hat. Even when you hand that hat off, it’s still yours. You have to make sure the job gets done.’

Outside of that, Coast Contra is four young men who are morally conscious and extremely talented and have a mission to speak life and I think that’s really dope.

Losing Everything in the Altadena Fire

My sister — my business partner, lost her home in the Altadena fire. Her house was our office, our studio. We had thousands of dollars in merch, hundreds of thousands in hard drives. We lost all those things and it was tough.

My year started off crazy and I’m not used to that because I’m not in struggle mode no more. It was very scary for me, coming off last year where I allowed myself to receive flowers. It’s like a movie. Everything just got burned up. I went to bed, my sister saying they evacuated just in case. Woke up and everything had burned down. Me and my sister continued working. She was been bouncing from Airbnb to Airbnb, with two children.

I believe wholeheartedly that God is always in control. If He says ‘You’re going to have to start from scratch,’ there is something beneficial in that for me and my sister. I just have to see it that way. But it took me a while.

Aging Boldly, Living Fully

I want to speak on aging as a woman period, but also as a woman in this business. I feel like the biggest number that the patriarchal system ever did on women was make them feel like they’re not useful as they get older. I don’t experience that at all. There’s no loss of value as you age. If anything you gain value. If you take good care of yourself and you open your mind to all the wisdom, you open your heart to all the things that come with aging, it's the best f***ing thing you’re going to do.

I guess this might be important to me because my mother died at 52. So I’m going to live in this space without you putting boundaries on what I can wear, what I can say, what I can do, who I can date, any of those things. We have to lean more into our power. We can give birth to human beings. We are the incubator for life and I’m not saying anything less of those women who can’t do that. The fact that you were given the ability, whether it works or not. Don’t let anybody make you feel less than because of that, whether you’re older or younger.