For Milford, MI native Tommee Profitt, pursuing music was always the plan. As a child, he fell in love with the piano and learned how to imitate the songs he heard on television. At age 12, he sat in his basement for hours recording and producing music on his parents’ computer pulling inspiration from the sounds he heard in movie soundtracks and trailers. In college, he toured around the country with his band, “The Tommee Profitt band,” as a pianist and singer. His love for creating and his interest in the music industry never faltered but his main focus over the last few years has been producing for other artists and brands.
“I knew I was going to do music, growing up that was non-negotiable,” Profitt said. “That’s what I’ve always worked towards, I just didn’t know which lane I would end up in. I think the trick was finding a lane for myself where I could still do what I feel like is my strength and then collaborating with other people where their strength is singing.”
One of the first artists Profitt independently worked with was NF. They were initially producing and recording songs for fun when their music was noticed by Capitol Christian Music Group (Capitol CMG) leading to both of them signing onto the label in 2014.
“The music that we [NF and Tommee] recorded ended up making its way to Nashville to some major labels,” Profitt said. “They [Capitol CMG] ended up signing him and he was basically like, ‘Hey, I just want you guys to know that I don’t want to do this unless I keep working with Tommee.’ It took me off guard because I wasn’t expecting him to say that but that kind of brought me into the mix.”
Profitt has since produced with NF, along with other artists such as Fluerie, Migos, and The Score. His songs have been used in various TV shows, movies, and video games. One of NF’s most popular singles “Let You Down,” was produced by Profitt and has reached five times platinum and over a billion streams since it’s release in 2017.
“We wrote that song two years before it came out so to me it was old and done and I wasn’t even thinking about it,” Profitt said. “I felt far removed from the crazy success that the song was doing at the time, it just felt surreal to hear about the stats and the way it was traveling all over the country… When we made that song it didn’t necessarily stand out as this crazy super special song that it would change our lives but it did and it’s still hard to believe.”
While producing for other artists has been Profitt’s main focus, he has produced a few covers such as “In The End” featuring Fleurie and Jung Youth. His latest release, “Faking Love,” once again features Jung Youth and Nawas. Since its release in July, “Faking Love” has reached over 300 thousand streams on YouTube. This is one of the first songs where Profitt is the composer, producer, and artist.
“We’ve been talking for a long time about what it would look like for me to do some more commercial music,” Profitt said. “I can bring in my style of cinematic music, put some cool beats over it, have a rapper or a singer over it but it would be my own brand. ‘Faking Love’ is the first of hopefully many songs that fit into that category where I’m able to create something aesthetic with strings, piano, and cool beats.”
In the future Profitt hopes to be producing more singles similar to “Faking Love” as well as potentially some albums. His greatest passion is producing music and bringing out the talents of singers so he will continue to produce as much music as he can both for himself and for others.
“I honestly love making trailer music for movies and TV shows but I think I’ll always want to balance it,” Profitt said. “I’m still able to do what I love in all of it but it’s not the same formula being regurgitated 100 times every year.”
