Tiyon Christian

Tiyon Christian Mack (born in Paris, Kentucky) also known by his stage name TC is an American songwriter, vocal producer and singer. He is best known for being a collaborator of Brandy, who discovered his talent and gave him his first placement on her album Human, as well as his frequent collaborations with Tamar Braxton. Additionally, he has written songs for Jennifer Lopez, Justin Bieber, John Legend, Enrique Iglesias and Keyshia Cole amongst others.

Early life

Christian aka "TC" began singing in church with 2 years old. Growing up TC cites Whitney Houston and Brandy as his biggest vocal inspirations, studying their vocal artistry day and night in an effort to mimick their sound. After he failed to get a gig as Mariah Carey's background vocalist, he proceeded to post covers of Brandy on MySpace garnering the attention of the singer and eventually writing the song "Acapella (Something's Missing)" for Brandy's 2008 album Human, the first official songwriting credit under TC's belt.

Career

Having written for Brandy opened doors for him to write songs for other professional music acts such as No Angels ("Down Boy") and Backstreet Boys ("Shattered") in 2009, as well as vocal produce and write songs for T-Pain, Jacob Latimore and Estelle, whose song Fall In Love featuring John Legend & Nas was released a single in 2010 and peaked at number 71 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.

In 2011, after TC released his debut mixtape Love's Asassin, a compilation of demo songs for other artists and original songs, and after having continued to write songs for performers such as Demi Lovato ("Together" featuring Jason DeRülo) or Cover Drive ("No Breaks") as well as lend additional vocals for Keyshia Cole on her 2012 songs "Wonderland" (featuring Elijah Blake) and "Stubborn" (both from Cole's album Woman To Woman), he would return to record and vocal arrange for Brandy. This time he lent the song "Wish Your Love Away" for her album Two Eleven. The song ranked at number 66 on Billboard's R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart. In 2012 his second mixtape Harmonic Fatality, a collection of cover songs, dropped. The mixtape included an original guest verse by Kalenna Harper.

In 2013 he began an intense musical business relationship with singer and reality star Tamar Braxton. Their recording processes are shown on national television through the reality shows Braxton Family Values and Tamar & Vince, where he has been a supporting cast member since that year. On Braxton's Grammy-nominated album Love and War TC co-wrote and co-produced on the albums five last tracks "Prettiest Girl", "Sound of Love", "White Candle", "Thank You Lord" and "Black Tears". On Braxton's Christmas album Winter Loversland TC served as the only additional background vocalist and provided songwriting on the track "No Gifts". The same year an acoustic version of a song he had written for Justin Bieber named "She Don't Like The Lights" was re-issued on Bieber's album Believe Acoustic after it has been included on the album's studio version.

In 2014 TC wrote multiple songs for Jennifer Lopez ("Trobeaux" and "Physical" with Enrique Iglesias) and also released his third mixtape Harmonic Fatality II, another collection of cover songs. In 2015 TC's work can be found on Tamar Braxton's fourth studio album Calling All Lovers, co-writing the bulk of the album with 7 out of 14 tracks, as well as on Elijah Blake's album Shadows and Diamonds. Two of his Braxton songs got a single release, including "Angels & Demons", and "If I Don't Have You", which both failed to chart.

TC also co-wrote on Braxton's 2017 single "My Man". That same year he released his first EP Trés Love under the stage name Tiyon Christian, his previous work came out under the moniker TC.

Controversies

Between January and July 2017, Christian garnered special prominence for being involved in a public fall-out with Brandy, where he ended up accusing Brandy of being jealous of Beyoncé and eventually wound up calling his idol and main musical inspiration a demon. The public tension between him and accusations made in relation to Brandy garnered him by far the biggest media coverage as a solo artist so far.

Discography

Mixtapes

  • Love's Assassin (2011)
  • Harmonic Fatality (2012)
  • Harmonic Fatality, Vol. II (2013)

EPs

  • Trés Love (2017)