PINION: TheGrio’s Black Music Month “Ever Wonder” series imagines the other side of Black music’s most iconic songs. Today, Tyrone tells his side of the story.
JUN 4, 2024
While investigating one of Black music’s favorite songs, theGrio discovered a surprising backstory. It’s the tale of a friendship that dried up like a raisin in the sun and sore feelings that still fester and run. It’s about a relationship that sagged like a heavy load and the failed love story that made it explode. For lovers of Black music, theGrio can finally reveal this untold, almost true story behind an iconic neo-soul anthem.
This is what happened when we called Tyrone.
A Broken baller
“I am tired of her sh*t,” Tyrone begins. “She didn’t even buy me nothing.”
Tyrone Lamont Saunders is a legend. People who know him from his high school and college days recognize him as a shoo-in to become a first-round NBA draft pick. Among those who know him today, Tyrone is a successful businessman and a doting father. To underprivileged kids in Baton Rouge, La., he is simply “Coach Ty,” a passionate mentor who is always willing to share his wisdom on basketball and life. The list goes On & On.
He was always big on helping others,” explains 19-year-old Damian Johnson, who played on Saunders’ AAU basketball team. “I never understood why my mama called him a ‘stingy, broke no-good scrub.’ I don’t even know what a ‘scrub’ is – I think it’s slang from the 90s. But for some reason, all the moms in my neighborhood hated Coach Ty. Then, one day, after practice, he finally let us hear the song.”
“The song” is “Tyrone,” the 1997 Erykah Badu hit that transformed Saunders into an unwitting legend of Black music.
No one asked her to pay,” Tyrone told theGrio. “Had I known it was going to cause this much drama, I would’ve paid for my own shrimp alfredo.”
To get the facts straight, theGrio spoke with multiple sources present that evening, including Jim, James, Paul and Tyrone and the song’s subject, Dexter T. Toot. Each separately confirmed that Badu was the one who crashed their boys’ night out. In their version of the story, it was Badu who tagged along and even offered to foot the bill. At the time, Badu’s successful music career had already taken off with the release of her critically acclaimed debut album, “Baduizm.” So, no one present thought it odd when Badu offered to pay Dex’s way, his homeboys’ way, and even his cousin’s way.
“It was five of us who played college basketball together, along with Dex’s cuz, Pras T. Toot,” explained Jim, who declined to use his last name because he “don’t want that smoke” from Black women. “We just wanted to hang out because — contrary to what Erykah’s claim that we ‘always come around’ — we didn’t hang out that often because it was always clear that Erykah never liked us. So why would we ask her to pay?”
While these details may seem inconsequential, the dispute is at the heart of why an innocent celebration with the crew known as the “Grambling Five” turned into a three-decades-long conflict filled with crushed egos, shattered friendships and one broken jaw.
So what really happened?
Crossed lines
Tyrone first met Badu during his sophomore year at Grambling State University. She was a freshman whose artistry and beauty turned every head on campus, including Saunders’. He was “Tyrone the Terrible,” the big man on campus who was destined for the NBA. After meeting Badu at a poetry slam, the star player was immediately infatuated with the eclectic theater major. “She was one of those artsy types who smoked clove cigarettes and was always in a freestyle cipher,” Tyrone told theGrio. “The guys on the team used to call her a “wrapper” because she only wore wraps. Head wraps. Wrap tops. Wraparound skirts. Plus she was so fine, everybody tried to rap to her. To me, she was the most beautiful girl on the campus. But to Erykah, I was just a brainless athlete, so she wasn’t interested.”Dex T. Toot, on the other hand, was the ladies’ man of the team. Known to his teammates as “Dexter the Sexter,” his potential as a point guard took a backseat to his status as campus lothario. So when Badu started showing up at games to cheer for Dex, Tyrone’s teammates told him there would be plenty of Erykahs when he made it to the NBA. Tyrone tried to convinced them that his attraction to Badu was temporary.
“No one was convinced,” said Paul, who spoke on the condition that we only used his first name because Badu’s “vibes are too powerful.”
The members of the Grambling Five each said it was obvious that Ty was heartbroken over Badu and Dexter’s relationship. Some even speculate that Tyrone’s infatuation doomed his basketball career. “He was a surefire NBA lottery pick until he injured his knee,” James said. “People think he injured it on a dunk in the 1993 NCAA tournament, but he actually twisted it when he turned to make sure Erykah was cheering.”
In any case, Dexter and Erykah moved in together after college. She pursued music while Dex continued his education in grad school. By the night of the Grambling Five’s 1996 reunion, Ty was running a private basketball academy and Badu was an international singing sensation dating her college sweetheart, a struggling graduate student. It was clear that Badu wasn’t happy. There were even rumors that she was dating a rapper from Atlanta. Everyone in the crew believed the relationship was nearing its end…
Except for Dex.
“You could tell that Erykah was over him,” said Tyrone. “She was traveling the world hanging out with stars, and Dex was broke, jealous and lovestruck. Dex always had this seething suspicion that I was still in love with Erykah. But I reminded him that Miss Badu is always coming for real; we knew the deal. It all came to a head on the night she hung out with us.”