photo by steed media service

Singer, My Own Lane

If you'd ever played one-on-one basketball with Bertell, you'd probably believe he should have played in the NBA. But while attending Howard College in eastern Texas on a basketball scholarship, Bertell discovered another talent that caused him to put his hoop dreams on hold.

"I was bored one day and decided to sing and play the piano in the student center," Bertell says. "Before I knew it, people began to ask me to sing and play the piano every day. I fell in love with singing and decided to take it serious."

Bertell eventually moved to New York and began to pursue a career as a musician. After working with several producers, he returned to Houston and released a regional hit called, "Shawty What It Do." His single caught the ears of music impresarios Don Bowie and Bryan Michael Cox. "I was actually in the process of signing with a label when I met Don Bowie," he says. "Don [Bowie] saw my hustle and told Bryan Michael Cox about me. They believed in my project and my drive to do something different with music."

Bertell has since released the mixtape, Street Therapy, and is currently working on his debut album, My Own Lane. The album will feature Lil Flip, Dem Franchize Boyz and Brian from "Making The Band." "This album will be a good look for me," he predicts. "I'm going to show people what it looks like when you apply hard work to everything that you do." - amir shaw

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