Tim Gent
Sometimes, ideas need years to fully take shape. For Tim Gent, one such idea was embodied in the phrase “life away from home.” In 2012, he planned to write and release a mixtape with that title, hoping he could, as he puts it, write what he saw into existence.
“I was in Clarksville, Tennessee, and I was a fresh artist,” says Gent, speaking to the Scene via phone while driving from his hometown, Clarksville, back to Nashville, where he lives now. “I’d only been rapping for a year at that time. My mindset for the concept was to write what I see into existence. I was seeing myself away from home, on tour, doing shows, stuff like that. So the concept was ‘life away from home,’ and I’m going to speak these things into existence.”
But the tape didn’t come together, and Gent moved on, releasing a string of singles, mixtapes and EPs over the years that have gained him a following well beyond his native Clarksville. Six years later, Gent has released a new tape. Its title? Life Away From Home.
“It just didn’t work out then,” Gent says. “Then I met the executive producer, A.B. I met him two years ago, and we started building up some rapport and some work ethic together. Then we decided we were going to do a project together. … Once we had the songs laid out, the name just came to me. It fit. I took that recycled idea and put it on this collective that we put together.”
The first track Gent and A.B. put together was “Pain Pills,” the project’s closer. Featuring Jamiah Hudson, Bammie Davis Jr. and Bryant Taylorr, the track is a perfect encapsulation of Gent’s strengths: his quick, nimble flow; his clever incorporation of melodic hooks; and his openness to the strengths and ideas of his rich circle of collaborators.
“I’m thankful to God that he’s placed these people around me and placed me in the midst of these people,” Gent says of his contemporaries. “It’s a plethora of things I’ve learned, especially around the collective I’m around now, because most of them are singers. Most of them like pop music and contemporary music and stuff like that. … Around them I’ve learned to pay attention to things like that and pay attention to my melodies.”
Gent’s profile rose significantly following his 2016 song “Lady America,” whose cover art caricatures Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. It takes to task politicians, on both the left and the right, over issues that include racially motivated police brutality, climate change, poverty and political apathy. Gent delivers his verses with ease and finesse, complementing each with a hook from Drisana DeSpain that riffs on “America the Beautiful.”
His probing observations find their way onto Life Away From Home, though his most incisive moments are those in which he considers life’s more mundane aspects. On “Fly Away,” which features a hook from local soul and hip-hop artist Case Arnold, Gent muses: “It’s funny, the sweetest kisses turn to awkward silence / Arguments that could be brought to violence.” Arnold’s feature doubles down on Gent’s personal disillusionment, with the lyric: “I just want to fly away from here / Stuck in this place where my view of what life seems to be / You and I in search of certainty / While we are here, here, here.”
“I had some situations going on personally in my life, like with my family, my son and his mom, stuff like that,” Gent says of writing Life Away From Home. “I was just writing based off the experience at the time and what I was feeling.”
Gent has a 3-year-old son, Benjamin, who is a major part of his life. He also works a day job selling cellphones. He’s dedicated to his family and has a close circle of friends and collaborators. In other words, he’s a busy guy, and finding time for music isn’t always easy.
“Just me having a real passion for music, it keeps me going,” he says. “Of course I would love to make that my source of income and my career and things like that, but I genuinely love music. I genuinely love writing and expressing myself and getting my thoughts off. So I think my passion for the actual art form that is music and poetry and creating, it just keeps me going. It always finds a way to make me focus.”
Gent’s focus is paying off. The vision he had for himself when he first conceived of “life away from home” is starting to manifest. He’s played shows in Miami and New York. He’s starting to see some financial rewards. And on Sunday, he’s playing a show at Exit/In that means a lot to him and to his development as an artist.
“It’s going to be my first show I’ve put together,” he says. “I’ve been part of shows that me and the team have done, and, of course, I’ve headlined, which is basically just me going last, I feel like [laughs]. But this show here at Exit/In, I’m not going to have any openers. I’m just going to have a DJ set in the beginning. And then it’s just going to be my show.”
