That was how Todd "Speech" Thomas" described his rap group, Arrested Development, in a 1992 interview with Billboard magazine.

Speech was a Milwaukee transplant who'd moved to Atlanta in 1987 and met Timothy "DJ Headliner" Barnwell at the Art Institute of Atlanta. They'd started rapping together, and eventually adopted a socially-aware style steeped in the ethos of groups like Public Enemy and Speech's own growing Black awareness. Around these two creatives, a uniquely diverse musical collective soon formed. It would come to include: Speech's cousin Montsho Eshe, a teenaged dancer who lent a visual element to their live show; drummer Rasa Don and his fiancee, singer Dionne Farris, both of whom met Speech and Headliner after an early performance. And they were also joined by Baba Oje, an elder statesman of Afrocentrism whom they met on the Art Institute campus and who became the group's "spiritual adviser."

And the spirit looms large over 3 Years, 5 Months & 2 Days in the Life Of...

The debut album from Arrested Development was born of the political fire of Public Enemy and the bohemian sensibilities of early Native Tongues; and one can now hear and see in-roads that would eventually lead to the Dungeon Family and the neo-soul movement. But, even with recognition to its predecessors and semi-progeny, 3 Years... was and is something altogether unique.

Arrested Development brought into Hip-Hop a take that was informed by spirituality and Afrocentricity, but that was also decidedly southern, at a time when southern Blackness was still somewhat novel in mainstream rap music. Their debut album's first single was "Tennessee," an elegiac ode to grief and spiritual growth.

"That single came from a lot of pain. Tennessee was the last place I saw my grandmother, who was one of the top people I’ve ever loved in my life; and my brother, who was obviously one of the top people I loved in my life. The last place I saw them was Tennessee. My grandmother died, my brother was at her funeral and that same week, my brother died. The whole song “Tennessee” ended up being just a prayer, basically."

The look and the feel of the video was just as unusual as the subject matter. Up until this point, Hip-Hop's presentation had been decidedly urban. In the "Tennessee" video, however, Arrested Development presented themselves as ruralites, forever connected to the ancestral pain of the plantation.

"The roots and the blues, the down-home feel, that's all Headliner," Rasa Don said in 2016. "If you hang around him long enough, you'll see what he brought to Arrested Development. It was a formula that he and Speech came up with together, but then when you put something together it's hard to say what one person did or didn't do. After he wasn't in the band, I could really see what his element and what his role was. It was kind of like that of a quiet conductor."

Commentary and soul-searching are consistent throughout 3 Years... Speech's personal quest for clarity sits front and center. It's a decidedly human album. And one song, in particular, highlighted Speech's internal spiritual conflict. "Fishin' 4 Religion" was Speech's indictment of Christianity.

"It was basically 'You ain’t doin’ nothin,''" he recalled to RTB in 2020. "That was my frustration when I was writing that song. At the time, I wasn’t a Christian, but I definitely believed in God. The way I believed in God wasn’t formed yet. But I was talking about that even in those days."

The group reworked Sly & The Family Stone's classic "Everyday People" into "People Everyday," which saw Speech admonishing violence while advocating for respect of womanhood and brothers such as himself. The song became another success for Arrested Development, reaching No. 8 on the Billboard Top Ten.

It may have also contributed to a perception of the group; with some seeing what Arrested Development represented as a kind of boho elitism that thumbed its nose at gangsta-ism. But the ethos of the group wasn't to disregard any particular slant of Hip-Hop.

"We're not trying to be an opposite voice [to hardcore], just another voice," Speech insisted in an interview with Musician. "Instead of being seen as part of the pie--one perspective on black reality--some people in the media tried to use Arrested Development as their voice and say, 'This is the way hip-hop needs to be.' We never took the stance that our form of hip-hop was the only form of hip-hop."

Nonetheless, the success of those two singles put Arrested Development at the forefront of popular music. 3 Years... was a major hit, and the group was among the most acclaimed acts of the year. Third single "Mr. Wendel" continued Arrested Development's domination of radio: the gold-selling single followed it's two predecessors into the Top Ten.

An empathetic look at a homeless man, the song epitomized Speech's earnest approach to commentary and became one of the group's defining singles. Critics heaped praise on the production and the subject matter, and it wound down 1992 on the top of numerous "Best Of" lists.

The success of Arrested Development's first album is hugely important in Hip-Hop and Black music of the past 30 years. 3 Years, 5 Months & 2 Days in the Life Of... cemented the commercial viability of what could loosely be described as "alternative hip-hop." That term may elicit eyerolls, but that's an important trail to blaze. Yes, the Native Tongues struck first, but Arrested Development hit the charts in a way that made it impossible to ignore how broad and eclectic Hip-Hop had become. It was artsy Blackness on the pop charts. Too big for anyone to miss.

When asked in 2017 what was it that made 3 Years... such a success, Speech was succinct in his assessment.

"It's a few things: coming out as a different voice, a different feel really played to our advantage," he explained. "We were one of the first groups to be as melodic as we were, and also being from the South. At that time, there weren't a lot of Southern movements in hip-hop."