Born in Compton, CA, Terrance Quaites, professionally known as TQ, began his music career in 1990 with the R&B quintet Coming of Age. The group disbanded in 1995 after releasing two albums.

In the summer of 1998, TQ released his first single, “Westside,” which ended up being his biggest hit, reaching #12 on the Billboard Hot 100.

During an interview, TQ talked about growing up in Compton and how his mom saved him from the hood life:

My moms was pretty much just fed up with my actions. I was young, maybe 14, 15 years old and I was, you know, I was just doing a lot of things. Hanging with the wrong people, gang banging, selling drugs, doing this and that, and it was just getting crazy. My moms found a gun in my room. It was somebody’s that I was holding and I had my own but she didn’t find mine.

He continued:

All of my friends and all of my people was dying or either going to jail before they was 21. So, I was living my life like I wasn’t going to see past 21. She just said, ‘Okay, you gotta go. I’m not gon’ let this happen to you.‘ When I went to Atlanta, all of this stuff that I was dealing with out here (Compton), none of that going on. It was no gang banging. That was about the best move my moms made so far.