Thomas Howard: The Dallas Artist Who Turned Poetry Into Rap and Is About to Drop the Most Personal Project of His Career

It started with poetry. Private pages that nobody saw, words that had nowhere else to go except onto paper in secret. Then over time the poetry became raps and the raps became something Thomas Howard could not keep to himself anymore.

He has been taking music seriously since 2015 and in the decade since he has built himself into a Dallas based artist, producer and engineer who handles every piece of what he creates without handing a single part of it to someone else. The writing. The production. The engineering. All of it done by the same person who lived the experiences that inspired it.

That level of creative ownership is rare. And it is exactly what makes "LUV IZ SUICIDE" the kind of project it is.

An audio autopsy

Six songs. One hundred percent self produced and engineered. A project Thomas Howard describes as a therapy session, a reflection of his life and a release of things he had suppressed for longer than he should have.

He calls it an audio autopsy of his life and that phrase alone tells you everything about the intention behind it. This is not a project designed to chase streams or satisfy a release schedule. It is a project built to say the things that needed saying and give other people who have been through similar experiences something to hold onto.

The project moves like a film from start to finish. Opening with "In The Meantime," a mysterious 87 BPM opener that pulls you in immediately, through lead single "When I'm Gone," a real breakup anthem at 82 BPM, into the sci-fi centerpiece "Digital Love," through the toxic R&B energy of "No Good For Me," into "214," a Dallas anthem that represents where he is from, and closing with "Want It All," a triumphant 92 BPM closer that leaves you somewhere completely different from where the project started.

No skips. Every song serving a different listener. A movie in six tracks.

When I'm Gone and the moment that started at 3am

The lead single "When I'm Gone" was self produced at 3am after Thomas heard a tone change on the phone. That detail matters because it shows how his creative process works. Real moments becoming real music immediately. No distance between the experience and the record.

The lyric video visualizes the song's central image, broken heart flames in a thunderstorm, which ties directly to one of the most powerful lines on the track. "My heart is on fire in a thunderstorm and it's still beating." That image alone communicates everything the song is trying to say.

But the moment that has been hitting hardest with listeners is in Verse 2. "All I really wanted was your attention. Not control, not your passwords, not your location, just your attention." That line has become comment bait for a reason. It says something that a lot of people feel but almost nobody articulates that cleanly. His latest reel featuring the moment hit 2500 views and 114 likes within hours of posting and it is still moving.

"Pain Into Purpose."

Building in Dallas and getting recognized for it

Thomas Howard has not been waiting for the industry to discover him. He has been putting in work and the recognition has started coming naturally as a result.

He has been featured through Cereal Box DTX in a Froot Loops freestyle collaboration, performed a mic drop set for TRSH'D Magazine and taken the stage at Come Thru Tulsa live. Each appearance adds another piece to the picture of an artist who is ready for bigger rooms and consistently delivering when he gets into them.

His signature is Pain Into Purpose and everything about how he operates reflects that. The late night production sessions. The suppressed experiences being released through music. The decision to make a project that functions as therapy rather than product. All of it is pain being turned into something that serves a purpose beyond himself.

The collaboration he wants most

Thomas Howard is open to collaboration and has one specific name at the top of his list. Clay Dubb, a California artist he describes as the new savior of R&B. Schedules have not aligned yet but the respect is mutual and when the timing is right something will happen. That kind of patience around the right creative connection is the mark of an artist who understands that the best collaborations cannot be forced.

From secret poetry to a six song statement

Thomas Howard started writing poetry in private. He developed that into raps. He took those raps seriously starting in 2015 and spent a decade building the skills, the equipment and the creative identity to make something as complete and intentional as "LUV IZ SUICIDE."

He never wants to be complacent. He always wants to be better than yesterday. And he knows that music touches lives and creates belonging in a way that very few other things can. That knowledge is what keeps him in the studio, keeps him producing, keeps him engineering and keeps him turning pain into purpose one track at a time.

"LUV IZ SUICIDE" is coming. And it sounds like nothing Thomas Howard has put out before.

Stream and follow Thomas Howard:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therealthomashoward/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TherealThomasHoward
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@therealthomashoward