Samaad Terrel Thompson (born August 7, 1995), Codiac, who previously went by the name Terrell in his music career. He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. He first started with music when he was almost 5 years old. One of his biggest idols, Usher, got him singing at the time, and to this day he credits him for sparking the interest in music. It was also during this time when he decided that he wanted to be famous in the music industry. He always had this sort of talent to memorize lyrics really easily. When he was almost 9 he started to rap a little but never wrote anything down, he would just randomly say things that sounded really good. From there its where he started. Back in his 7th grade year wrote a couple songs but didn’t take them seriously, it wasn’t until 2009, towards the end of his eighth grade year did he write his first official rap. It was for a poetry project in his English class. He wrote it and everyone really liked it. That’s what motivated him to start writing a few things seriously and see where it gets him.
During the summer of ‘09 he had written a few more songs, but it wasn’t until late October that he wanted to take it a step further. He found a really cheap computer mic and found the free program Audacity and a few weeks later he had his first mixtape, Crossroads, finished on November 26. The mixtape was more of a 'test-run’ to him to see what people would think. It went well and gave him enough positive feedback to keep going. So immediately after finishing Crossroads, he began working on a second mixtape. The mixtape came to be called Outta This World: All Out. Originally, the plan was for it to be finished and released in February of 2010. It was actually completed early January and it was also released on the 19th. Being what seemed like more of a success than Crossroads, people were telling him he was going to be famous already. He had his first performance April 22 in a talent search for young talented people around Cincinnati to show what they have. He fell slightly short but didn’t let it get to him. The following week on the 29th, he performed in a Hip-Hop Showcase where he was shown a lot of love.
He decided to try his hand at creating an album, which turned out to be more of a mixtape with a serious tone to it but knew it would take some time so he did a more fun mixtape in the meantime. The Shoutout was created and amounted a small bit of popularity amongst his peers.
Now, I won’t lie to you, this guy has made A LOT of projects so to go through all of them would be very time consuming so we’re going to fast forward a bit.
With each release, we saw an increase in skill from the MC turned artist and more attention being paid to detail.
In 2012, he began work on what would become his first album, FOUND. It followed the release of an EP titled The Journey. Both projects were scrapped as he did not feel “found” and able to release a project titled as such, which birthed a new project altogether. Scrapbook Stories. Terrell had released his first commercial song during this period, “Brand New” and by the end of 2013 was finally ready to release FOUND.
In 2014, he began working on an album with the idea of it being a direct sequel to FOUND, Memoirs of a Cincinnati Maniac. This project proved that he was as serious as ever. He marked a major stepping stone in his journey to becoming his own artist.
Originally released in June of 2015, he re-released the album in December of the same year to be his first commercially released album. It met decent reception, including a few reviews that were mostly positive, even earning a 4/5 rating and a 72% generally positive reception.
Very shortly after, he had a mixtape ready to release on Mew Years of 2016 with the name Cincinnati Maniac. This tape consisted of many songs that were penned during his time working on the album that didn’t get to go anywhere and a few new songs that weren’t meant for the album he’d been working on since MOACM’s initial release.
Terrell had moved to Florida in May of 2015 and it was a whole different thing for him making the move in order to be with his unborn son. Going through a state of serious isolation, he began making very introspective music and decided to title the album, XXI, as he was 20 years old during the creation meaning he was indeed in his 21st year of life. He was very dedicated to this piece of work and spent a lot of time recording and re recording nearly every song on the album. He moved back to Ohio in April of 2016 and continued to work on the songs until they sounded good to him and worked on a few new songs in the process.
By the time he was finally ready to release the album, he had begun creating new music that he resonated with better and lost interest in XXI. He never finished purchasing the beats and therefor also only mastered a fraction of the songs upon release, which never met a commercial release to follow Memoirs of a Cincinnati Maniac.
On the very day that Terrell released XXI, December 31, 2016, a couple important things happened to him. He changed his stage name to Codiac and was also kicked out and made to be homeless.
The reasoning for the name change was to get a fresh start with his current knowledge and skill in music. He also set out to get a new more original name to be recognized as he found “Terrell” to be too common of a name and it messed with results from searching his name on music stores and wanted to stick out a bit better.
In the month leading up to being kicked out, Codiac had begun working on new music. He’d come up with 4 songs in December with no plan of putting together an album until a mere two days before being kicked out when he penned the song “In My Skin”. After gaining positive reception among a few friends, he decided he would make an album and that would be the name. During his time of being homeless, he was also very depressed due to his family being in Florida without him and having a daughter on the way who he wanted to witness being born.
Codiac slept from couch to couch for a week and a half and also slept in his car in the middle of winter in the Midwest. He was then able to stay with a friend of his girlfriends until being able to move to Florida himself.
Within this time frame, Codiac had completed the album, In My Skin from December to being over 90% finished by the end of February. Not wanting to have the same problem as his previous effort, he paid all expenses that he’d need to get the album out including purchasing all needed leases and digital distribution. The album focuses on everything going through his mind during this time from missing his son and wanting to reunite, to the usual talk of wanting to accomplish his dreams. But this time was different, he made it clear in his music that he wanted to push and strive for his goals to set up a better life for his children.
It’s June 5th as I write this, the album drops in just a few short hours and since changing his name, Codiac has garnered a decent amount of attention with a couple music videos and an accompanying single to promote the album, became verified on Genius and Spotify, gaining control of the artist name of Google’s Play Store and Apples Connect as well as getting his entire album accepted by Pandora prior to the release of it.
These are huge accomplishments for a smaller local artist and it’s only the very beginning for him. He’s recently hinted to beginning work on even newer music that may come as early as the end of 2017.
Every project is a huge stepping stone for Codiac and he’s still got plenty to offer.