Tate Farris always felt like a career in the music industry was within her reach. She also understood the inherent paradoxes of success in entertainment. Her mother is Dionne Farris, a singer and songwriter who earned a Grammy in 1992, with the group Arrested Development, for the hit “Tennessee.” Still, Tate—Dionne’s only child—would walk by that award some mornings without any lunch money to bring to school. “There were times when we were way up, and there were times when we were way down,” she says. “Growing up, because people knew who my mom was, everyone always assumed we were rich and I was this bougie, spoiled girl.” Shortly before Tate was born, her mother signed to Columbia Records, releasing singles such as 1995’s “I Know,” which would reach the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and earn her another Grammy nod. By 2008, Dionne had parted ways with the label and begun to release music independently, a move that came with much-desired creative freedom but also economic uncertainty.
