Tone Stith Has Never Been More Sure Of Himself

Mya Abraham
·7 min read
1

Tone Stith may only be 28 years old, but he’s been through some things.

The South Jersey native grew up loving R&B classics from Boyz II Men and Marvin Gaye and watching his parents experience the ebbs and flows of their relationship. As he got older, he experienced heartbreak firsthand, became the poster child for the phrase “hurt people hurt people,” but ultimately, took accountability for his actions. And like any true R&B cat, he poured all of this introspection into his latest EP, P.O.V. 

Described as “a story of a love deferred,” the seven-track project is reminiscent of Usher’s outpouring,  from My Way to 8701, and Confessions. While Tone’s presence as a sex symbol dominates, his romantic nature is equally instilled. This time around, he’s not as naive as he appears to be; he’s no longer doubling down on toxicity and moonlighting as a f**k-boy. He’s now ready to set himself apart from crooners who prefer to bask in lacking integrity.

As we explore what this all looks like for Tone Stith, so much more of his point-of-view is uncovered.

VIBE: The last time we talked was in 2021 when FWM came out, but let’s go back to 2017’s Can We Talk. How have you grown personally since then, and how has that affected your art?

Tone Stith: Man, I’ve done a lot of growing, a lot of living. Around the time [of] Can We Talk, I was a lot younger and figuring a lot of things out. I knew what I liked, the type of music that I love, but [was] just really figuring out how that makes sense for me and that took a lot of time, a lot of self-discovery. When we got to FWM, that was really the beginning of a new era; we were still experimenting and still trying things, but I think now it’s really locked into, ‘Okay, Tone Stith has an identity, a sound, and a story to match.’

With your new EP, you said your goal was to bring the world together one love song at a time. What are some of your favorite love songs?

That’s a lot, that’s a good question. You can’t go wrong with Teddy Pendergrass’ ‘TKO.’ Love ‘TKO.’ Most of the love songs I love are old school, so I’m going to say Marvin Gaye’s ‘Let’s Get It On,’ Boyz II Men’s ‘I’ll Make Love To You.’ I grew up on that era of love songs. Growing up with that era of music [and] my parents and their love story, really helped me understand what love really means.

It’s interesting because I feel like R&B is in such an interesting place these days, especially for a male singer. It’s like, “Are you a sex symbol? Are you a lover?” How do you figure out which direction you want to go in?

For me mainly, it’s definitely the story I’m trying to tell. I realized the best way to write music is to connect to it. I like writing off of real situations, so with ‘I Need You,’ a lot of that was inspired by my parents’ relationship. They were separated when I was younger and they got back together when I was 13, and they’ve been together ever since. I watched them literally have their differences, and then come back together and figure out how to grow together. They needed each other. That was the core inspiration. And ‘Girls Like You’ is really about my first real heartbreak. Genuinely, I think, anybody that really loves somebody, is betrayed and hurt is going to feel like how I felt in that song.

A lot of times guys don’t have that vulnerable moment publicly like, “This really f**ked me up.”

That song is made for everybody, but really, in my mind, it was just for the guys. But that’s why I did the open verse challenge too because it was like, ‘I want to get all perspectives of it because we all been through that.’

I was listening to “Lonely” and was happily caught off guard by this little interpolation of Ray J’s “One Wish.” Who is the genius behind that?

I got to shout-out my bro Aaron Page, Melvin [Villanueva], the Audibles. ‘Girls Like You’ was about me getting hurt, right? Now, I wanted to tell the perspective of me being on that other end—doing the hurting and I say, ‘Hurt people, hurt people.’ I’m taking accountability, and being like, ‘You know what? I hurt you. I can’t lead you on like this. I messed up too.’ I can’t lie, I think AP was the one that was like, ‘Yo, As a matter of fact, I was the one who said, ‘I love you’ first.’ I was like,  ‘Oh, yeah, we’re doing that bro, we’re definitely doing that.’ [With] ‘Lonely,’ I’m excited for that song because I think that’s going to be the sleeper on the project.

I remember on the last project you sampled Donell Jones, so it’s like, “Okay, we’re still in that vein of paying homage to the classics.”

You have to. We talking about R&B. [With] ‘Girls Like You,’ I would say, I was really into studying Usher and I still am. I think Usher has one of the most incredible R&B careers, and I was like, ‘I need a ‘U Got It Bad,’ a song with feeling like that.’ That’s really where that came from and the harmonies in it, it’s like a little Jodeci.

Well, speaking of Usher, he had that run between My Way, 8701, and Confessions. Would you say you tap into that trifecta with Can We Talk, FMW, P.O.V?

Yeah, you can definitely say that, because I really feel like P.O.V is going to take me [there]. It came from such a real place and there was a lot of thought that went into it. I was like, ‘How can I really tell my story about what I’ve been through?’ So I feel like people are going to be able to relate and love it and just get to know me.

Back in 2021, you said that you were the “king of the new wave.” Do you still feel that’s the case?

Oh, absolutely. But there’s enough room for everybody. The way I feel now, I’m mature enough to know that. I study. This is my craft and I have something to offer the world that nobody else can offer and I think everybody has that in their own light.

Who among the current male contemporaries are you also listening to be like, “Okay bro, I see you. I respect that?”

Absolutely listening to Lucky [Daye], Brent [Faiyaz], Phabo—who I think is having an incredible year. My bro, Reggie Becton, who’s on the come up. When everybody started talking about R&B is dead for males, I feel, we all just kind of linked arms and was like, ‘All right, hold up!’

Like the Avengers.

Right. ‘Hold up now!’ Jacquees is another homie that I’m like, ‘Yo, you’re killing this.’ So I pay respect to all of them.

But then why did you choose not to have features?

It wasn’t intentional, because there were some songs where we were like, ‘Okay, let’s see if this person wants to get on.’ But it just didn’t happen organically and it has to be organic.

What do you want fans, new or old, to take away from this project?

For my fans that’ve been fans, I’m just excited for them to see the growth. I’m excited for them to enter into this next era in this journey with me. For the new fans, I’m excited to bring them in with this project so they can experience all the music that has been out even before this project. People tell me all the time, they’ll hear a song and then they go down the rabbit hole. People don’t realize I got a catalog, but what’s cool about it, there’s still songs like ‘Miss California,’ ‘Let Me,’ ‘Secrets’ that are still getting love and still getting light shined on them. I’m excited to reel in the new fans and just welcome them to my world.

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