Bonds, Beats & Beliefs
After a decade of music production for other artists Tee finally did his own album "Bonds, Beats and Beliefs". All the tracks were produced by Tommy Tee - who even put down a few rhymes himself - but the album featured a strong line-up of ridiculous rap cats. The Tee Productions roster represented lovely and included Warlocks (Norway's most successful rap crew of all time), N-Light-N (Norway's most respected and critically acclaimed rapper), Spanish-Norwegian MC Diaz, and Opaque. The rest of the vocals were done by some of the finest U.S. Eastcoast's finest:
Legendary Juice Crew member Craig G represented with his partner in rhyme, Will Pack. Brick City rapper El The Sensei blessed the track "International Connects" with Mike Zoot - one of Brooklyn's newer rap-talent. Zoot is best known for "High Drama" with Mos Def, and "Midnight Run" with Tek from Cocoa Brovaz. El The Sensei released two albums on Atlantic as one half of the Artifacts. The Tommy Tee track was one of the first songs he recorded without his former partner Tame One. Talib Kweli is the main man behind the group Reflection Eternal which released one of 1997's biggest indie-singles "Fortified Live" on Rawkus Records. Talib Kweli and Mos Def broke up from the underground the following year as Black Star, and Kweli was featured on "Day By Day" with Punch & Words and A.L. This was Tommy Tee's first commercially available single in the the U.S. Punch & Words was featured on A Tribe Called Quest's last album and Punch also had a single with Ras Kass. IGOff and Hazadous are signed to DJ Spinna's label Beyond Real and they are currently working on new material.

Another (former) Rawkus artist Tommy worked with on "Bonds, Beats & Beliefs" was Shabaam Sahdeeq who had an underground hit last summer with Xzbit. F.T. (of Street Smartz fame) created a crazy buzz on the hip-hop scene with the single "Metal Thangz" featuring O.C. and Pharoahe Monch, and on Tee's album he teamed up with Queens native P Dap on the track "Blood Rush". F.T. is now signed to Stretch Armstrong's 550 Music imprint Spit, Inc.

COD Crew is one of the few original crews consisting of both MC's and graf writers. These hip-hop veterans were Tommy Tee's first contacts in New York. The Bronx crew together with singer Debbie Dro, did the track "It's All True". Cover recently got signed to Tommy Boy Records and released a single with Memphis Bleek.

Originally from Virginia, Shawn J. Period has produced for artists as Q-Tip, Tash, Mos Def, Mike Zoot, Artifacts and more. He added his funky touch (this time singing) on the Tommy Tee track "Hip-Hop Love" with labelmates Star Orion and Wizdom Life.

Zombi Squad is one of Europe's veteran rap crews. Tee invited them to Norway to do a show and to lace the track "The Conjunction". Also featured on the album are Black Sun, Basheeba Earth, Tru Personna from Network Reps, and Norwegian singer Line. "Bonds, Beats and Beliefs" was recorded at D&D Studios (NYC) and Tee Studios (Oslo), and was mixed at D&D by Tommy Tee and veteran engineer Kieran Walsh.

The album was released in Norway June 2, 1998 and went straight to the # 8 spot on the official album-chart. The album's first single - "Takin Ova" - was in the Top 10 in Norway for eight weeks. "Bonds, Beats and Beliefs" received 5 and 6 (out of 6) from the main Norwegian music critics and great reviews in Sweden, Denmark, Australia, Germany and England. Needless to say, it ended up being Norway's most successful rap album ever. The set was not released in the U.S., but many American heads bought the album on import and it received much love from college radio, DJ's, and hip-hop magazines in the U.S.