Thomas Anatole "Tommy" Richman (born March 21, 2000) is an American rapper. He is best known for his 2024 single "

Million Dollar Baby ''Million Dollar Baby'' is a 2004 American sports drama film directed, co-produced, scored by and starring Clint Eastwood from a screenplay by Paul Haggis. It is based on stories from the 2000 collection ''Rope Burns: Stories from the Corner' ...

", which received major virality from a snippet on

TikTok TikTok, known in mainland China and Hong Kong as Douyin (), is a social media and Short-form content, short-form online video platform owned by Chinese Internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which may range in duration f ...

before peaking at number two on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. The single was included in former President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

's Summer 2024 Playlist and was a huge success worldwide.

Life and career

Richman was born in

Woodbridge, Virginia Woodbridge is a census-designated place (CDP) in Prince William County, Virginia, United States, located south of Washington, D.C. Bounded by the Occoquan River, Occoquan and Potomac River, Potomac rivers, Woodbridge had 44,668 residents at the ...

, to a drum teacher father and a legally deaf mother. He began singing as a child, taking

voice lessons Vocal pedagogy is the study of the art and science of voice instruction. It is used in the teaching of singing and assists in defining what singing is, how singing works, and how singing technique is accomplished. Vocal pedagogy covers a broad r ...

and performing

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

, having studied at

Manhattan School of Music The Manhattan School of Music (MSM) is a private music conservatory A music school is an educational institution specialized in the study, training, and research of music. Such an institution can also be known as a school of music, music a ...

with Cynthia Hoffmann. Richman began releasing music on

SoundCloud SoundCloud is a German audio streaming service owned and operated by SoundCloud Global Limited & Co. KG. The service enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio. Founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud is ...

and

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a List of companies of Sweden, Swedish Music streaming service, audio streaming and media service provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. , it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services ...

in 2016, where he released his debut song "Ballin' Stalin". He continued to release singles and

EPs An extended play (EP) is a Sound recording and reproduction, musical recording that contains more tracks than a Single (music), single but fewer than an album. Contemporary EPs generally contain up to eight tracks and have a playing time of 1 ...

, with genres including R&B and

punk rock Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...

. Richman released "Pleasantville" shortly before he was set to return for his sophomore college year, though he would drop out of college to pursue his music career after the song was well received. In 2022, he released ''Paycheck'', his first EP. In 2023, Richman was signed to

Brent Faiyaz Christopher Brent Wood (born September 19, 1995), known professionally as Brent Faiyaz, is an American singer, songwriter, rapper, and record producer. Faiyaz rose to prominence following his guest performance alongside Shy Glizzy on GoldLink's ...

's independent

record label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of Sound recording and reproduction, music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a Music publisher, ...

ISO Supremacy, with a partnered signing with Pulse Records. Richman later opened for Faiyaz's tour F*ck the World, It's a Wasteland Tour, while additionally appearing in Faiyaz's track "Upset" from the 2023 mixtape '' Larger than Life''. Throughout April 2024, Richman made teasers for his upcoming single "

" on

, the first of which being posted on April 13 and which garnered millions of views on the platform. He later released the song on April 26, 2024, quickly receiving 38 million streams, having a U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100 debut at number 2. It has been considered by some as the song of the summer, and, after debuting at number two on the TikTok ''Billboard'' Top 50 on May 11, 2024, it reached number one the following week. His follow-up single, " Devil Is a Lie", peaked within the top 40 of the chart. Richman's debut studio album, ''

Coyote The coyote (''Canis latrans''), also known as the American jackal, prairie wolf, or brush wolf, is a species of canis, canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the Wolf, gray wolf, and slightly smaller than the c ...

'', was released by ISO Supremacy and Pulse Records on September 27, 2024. Despite the success of "Million Dollar Baby" and "Devil Is a Lie", neither was included on the album, which only entered the

Heatseekers charts The Heatseekers charts were "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. The Heatseekers Albums and the Heatseekers Songs charts were introduced by ''Billboard'' in 1991 with the purpose of highlighting the sales b ...

at number ten.

Personal life

Richman moved from Virginia to

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, in 2022, where he has lived since.

Discography

Studio albums

EPs

Singles

Other charted and certified songs

Notes

References

{{reflist

External links

Tommy Richman
at

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

2000 births Living people People from Prince William County, Virginia Rappers from Virginia Singer-songwriters from Virginia American contemporary R&B singers Bedroom pop musicians American male pop singers 21st-century American singer-songwriters 21st-century American male singers People from Woodbridge, Virginia