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Busta’s Person of the Week: DJ TLUV: From the dance floor to the pulpit

Busta’s Person of the Week: DJ TLUV: From the dance floor to the pulpit
January 12
18:08 2025

Busta Brown

Timothy Bryant is a name most people would be unfamiliar with. But DJ TLUV is a nightclub, party and radio legend from here in North Carolina. For nearly 40 years, he had clubs and venues jumping worldwide. He’s toured with hip-hop and R&B artists such as Fantasia Barrino, Blackstreet, Total, Jagged Edge, Bubba Sparxxx, Timbaland, and more. Tee, as most of us call him, was an internationally known DJ. 

In 1999 he began his rise to international fame, but his rise to stardom wasn’t a smooth ride, as Tee relates. “Well, life was rough as most stories start off! I was born in February 1968, my father was killed in Vietnam in December in 1967, so I never met my father. I was born to a single mom. She dated one of her high school friends not too long after. Within two years, my mother had my brother. I grew up feeling like I was the outsider. I felt like I was the reason they weren’t married and having the family that he wanted with my mom. 

“Having a child together, the favoritism was very obvious to me at a young age. So, growing up I felt like I was the problem because of the mental, physical and emotional abuse I had endured and witnessed by my mother. I wanted to run away to keep that from happening to my mother more than protecting myself. I wasn’t a problem kid, but I felt like I was the problem and he (mom’s boyfriend) made me feel that way in a lot of ways,” shared Tee Luv.

Tee used sports as an escape. “I wanted to be outside all day, every day, playing football, basketball, running around, riding my bike, and hanging out with the other kids. That was my refuge from the sadness of what was going on at home. It wasn’t until I got into middle school that I decided instead of playing sports, I wanted to play in the band. I used to beat on pots and pans just making noise.”

During his seventh-grade year, the talented young man tapped into his natural born gift. “I told my mom a guy came to our school looking to find some kids to teach drums. It was Daryl Spellman, who should be called the “Grandfather of changing HBCU drumming.” I was Daryl’s first and only student at the time. During that time, he lived in Durham, N.C., just across the street from North Carolina Central University. My brother’s dad was a security guard there, so I used to go to all the football games and events for free. So, I knew what Black college bands and drummers sounded like and looked like at an early age. When I was just 10, I went to NCCU’s campus gym alone, and sat and watched Trouble Funk, a go-go group out of Washington, D.C., play “Drop the Bomb” for two and a half  hours. That was my first experience with go-go music, and it’s a lot of music elements coming together as one. As a ten-year-old, I was so amazed,” said TLUV. “So, when I was approached by Daryl, all I can remember was all those drums and sounds and I wanted to learn.”

The journey begins! 

After years of learning under Daryl, Tee became the No. 1 ranked high school drummer in the state of North Carolina. He was so good they wouldn’t allow him to compete in the All-State competition. The other drummers (all white high schoolers and back then there were very few Blacks that could compete in All-State) noticed him warming up and knew it was something different in his skill set. They went to the judges and the judges (who were unknowingly watching Tee) found a reason to not let him compete, but gave him the honorable mention award instead. Tee didn’t let that stop him. His teacher convinced him that what happened was more of a compliment to his skills than an indictment of his skin color. 

During his senior year in high school the era of hip-hop was forming. Tee was a break dancer but had this desire to be a rapper. At the time his best friend was a DJ. At parties his friend would DJ and Tee would freestyle over the beats. During his sophomore year, a student moved down from Brooklyn and he and Tee became close due to their New York ties. So, they put a group together. The late radio legend Alvin Stowe loved what he heard and decided to record you them. 

“So we took us to the studio, and we made our first little record. Our group was called Cold Chillin’ Crew. We were one of the first artists out of that area to record a record,” he shared with a proud smile.

After graduating from high school, he moved to Greensboro to attend North Carolina A&T State University. His group, Cold Chillin’ Crew, had a hit song on campus called “The Dungeon Rocks.” “We had a dance to go with it that all the campus knew,” said Tee. 

The group entered a talent show during their freshman year at A&T. “The winners got $1,500 and opened up Aggie Fest, which was one of the biggest HBCU celebrations in the country at that time. We won the competition and we opened up for Aggie Fest. Salt-N-Peppa were the headliners. So now we’re the popular little group on campus. 

“I was also in the drumline. Being the best drummer from the moment I stepped onto the campus had its challenges. I didn’t have any respect for adult authority due to my upbringing. So, I was very defiant to the upperclassmen and drum captain because I was so much better than he was and he was a senior. But after my sophomore year, I got kicked off the drumline due to my bad attitude, arrogance and immaturity.”

If you want to know what happened, watch the movie “Drumline.” You may not know that the movie was written about TLUV. His friends asked him to sue the movie company for telling his story without his permission and compensation, but he’s humble and far from materialistic. So, he took the high road. “It’s more of a compliment to me that what I did was significant enough that somebody was willing to make a movie. Remember, I had a similar experience in high school with my drumming. So, I learned to take disappointments, and in some cases unfairness, and make it a positive.

Fortunately, God had bigger and better plans for the freshman. “I was the host and DJ P-Trol (his DJ friend) was asked to do a mix show called “The Full Moon Block Party” on 90.1 WNAA. It became the most listened to mix show in the Triad area,” said Tee. Two years later, he started doing afternoon drives on WNAA. The program director for 102 Jamz noticed TLUV’s growing popularity. “I got a call from Jamz, which at that time was a big, big deal. It was a nice run at WNAA, but at some point, I knew it was time to go to the next level. And 102 Jamz was it.

The word spread quickly about the impact TLUV made on the radio and in the local clubs. Tee was introduced to one of NBA legend Michael Jordan’s closest friends, Adolph Shiver.  “Adolph gave me a shot and I killed it. That started the DJ TLUV and Adolph era.” 

And what an era it was! He was Adolph’s DJ at all of Michael Jordan’s parties, NBA All-Star parties, Essence Festivals, Super Bowl parties, MEAC, CIAA …  the list goes on. Then another friend, Shawn Bonner, (a bodyguard from Greensboro) and he worked for some of the biggest artists in that world at that time. This gave Tee a chance to get into the business at the next level. “He told me, because you looked out for me, when I make it, I’m going to look out for you.” 

Shawn kept his word, and what came next is how he became the world famous DJ TLUV. “He called me one day and said, ‘Look man, we got to do a show in Washington, D.C. You need to come up here.’ At the time Shawn was the bodyguard for Total, a female hip-hop and R&B group. It just so happened that the day of the show was my birthday. When I woke up, I looked outside and it started snowing and I said to myself, there’s no way I’m going to Washington, D.C. now. It kept eating at me. Get your tail up and go to Washington, I told myself. I put two crates of records in the car and my turntables and took off to Washington, D.C.,” said Tee.

Shawn was about to make him an overnight sensation, but Tee’s patience and faith would be tested. At the hotel, Shawn was with the ‘90’s super group Total. “As he walked by me, he said, ‘Hey girls, that’s TLUV, remember him.’” Shawn had introduced me weeks before in Hampton, Virginia. They said, ‘Hey TLUV, good to see you again.’ At that point you couldn’t tell me I wasn’t famous! They went to the front desk to check in and Total sat their bags down. As I was sitting down, Shawn looked at me and waved for me to come grab those bags. I’m thinking, I’m not doing this dude. I’m a DJ not a baggage handler,” Tee shared with frustration. “I was gritting my teeth. But I sucked it up and grabbed their bags, and they said ‘thank you.’ We were all in the elevator as Shawn would not allow anyone in it but me with the group. In the elevator the group was pretty upset that they caught their manager stealing and fired him. The problem was he had all of their music on a DAT (digital audio tape) used for concerts in the ‘90s. I told Sean I got all their records in the car, and he went and told Pam, the lead singer. Pam said, ‘That’s our new DJ.”’

That was the beginning of the world-famous DJ TLUV.

Over the years to come, touring all around the world and making tons of money took a serious toll on his personal life, which caused him to become a single father. “Again, I will always first lean back to my growing up and what I saw with relationships. I had access to women all over the world, so that there was no buffer to keep me grounded from being somebody faithful. I had a girlfriend and children. I tell people that cheating and verbal abuse is probably just as bad, if not worse, than physical abuse. So, once she got tired of my mess and left me, I was a single dad with three kids for two and half years,” he shared. Fortunately, his mom stepped in to take care of the kids during the summer while he was on tour. 

Tee Luv is a true man of God, so even though the touring took a toll on his relationship, he looked for the positives. “I’d say it had a positive effect because I started to mature in my accountability and responsibility as a man and a father. At that point, it kicked in at high gear. I think that was the turning point to understand that I got a lot of things more important than myself. And that was my kids, first and foremost.”

He also became closer to God, which led him on another path that clashed with his celebrity lifestyle. His wife was someone whom he loved, but due to his absence, she married someone else. However, they managed to have an affair and she became pregnant with their child. She eventually divorced. “At the time my pastor, who was one of my best friends, said, ‘Listen, we can’t do anything about that past anymore. But let’s make this right. Y’all have to get married.’ My wife said she loved me enough to marry me, but refused to marry me until I gave my life to Christ. And she meant so much to me that sounded like a small consolation prize to get the big prize to be her husband. But it goes the other way around. The big prize was me giving my life to Christ for her to be my wife.

Tee said that he always thought he was blessed because of the things that he had. “The first thing I wanted to do was thank God for the blessing. I was greedy, selfish, a liar, a fornicator, and a cheat. All these things I’m thanking God for. Think about that. That doesn’t make sense. So, as I started to learn that and understand that, it started weighing on my heart and my soul. My pastor said, ‘You know what you really need to do is really engulf yourself with the word because you have a gift to reach people. People listen to you. Think about what you’ve done all over the world.’ So, if they can hear you say something on that mic about records and tell them to scream and repeat after you, that has power. Have you ever thought about saying something about your Lord and Savior, what he’s done for you?’”  LUV is a member of Maranatha Fellowship in High Point, where Dr. Harvey “Chip” Rice is the senior pastor. 

Tee went back to school and received a theology degree and took classes and became an ordained minister. “I decided it was the right time because God stripped me from those desires, those things,” said Tee.

I asked the father of three, what’s the difference between using his gift to move a club and party crowds to the dance floor and moving those same people to Christ?

“When I was DJing and talking to the people, it didn’t always have a positive effect at the end of the night. People would leave the party drunk, go fornicate, smoke drugs, fight, lie, etc. But now when I’m giving the word to them, I’m talking about getting them to the Kingdom of Heaven. So, if I don’t ever make another person dance again, I’m trying to make sure I can get them in the Kingdom of Christ. He gave us a great time on the dance floor. And he gave us an even better time to get to the Kingdom,” said Tee. 

The ordained minister is also one of the deans and head football coach at Jackson Middle School in Greensboro. “I love helping parents find resources to help them better engage in positive things to make a better life for their children. A child would change his or her ways if that parent did the same thing. I can’t hold a 12-year-old accountable for a parent’s responsibility. I’ve seen bad days. I’ve seen depression. I had days where I didn’t know where I was going to get food from or how I was going to pay my bills. Instead of me falling on the ground, it made me stand up even taller and stronger.”

My Phenomenal Person of the Week is Timothy “World-Famous DJ TLUV” Bryant. 



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