Tai Verdes has proved time and time again that, indeed, nothing in this world can replace or take the place of persistence. The American singer saw failure unlike anyone else at the ripe age of 25. His pile of rejected letters stands witness to it.

Once passionate about the NBA, the singer now uses his breakthrough story to encourage other aspiring artists not to give up.

"Get a haircut, change your name, do whatever it is to try again even if you don't succeed at first."

Tai Verdes was born in 1995 in the United States, and his passion for music sparked when he was in high school. He describes listening to 50 Cent as one of the fondest memories of his childhood.

Last year, after getting rejected from singing shows for the seventh time, Verdes decided to adopt a new regimen. He would do vocal exercises in his car for 90 minutes straight to enhance his ability to sing. The singer believed that his songwriting skills were much better than his ability to perform them. However, what's an artist without a struggle after all?

He describes how he came up with the lyrics to "Stuck in the Middle" when he was actually stuck in the middle. He would spend late nights scrolling through YouTube to find beats, and the rabbit hole finally led him to the instrumentals for his famed song. Interestingly, most of the lyrics were inspired by the things different girls had said to him. For instance, the opening line "She said, 'you're a player aren't you?".

As the singer started marketing his work, he came across TikTok and decided to give it a try. In the beginning, his clips only had a few hundred views, but as soon as he uploaded a teaser for "Stuck in the Middle," they soared to 300,000. He saw what clicked with people and decided to use it as a marketing tool.

Even though he did not have a label or manager to work with, he started promoting himself on TikTok. He used his account as a daily diary about "Stuck in the Middle." People have hardly been able to make use of TikTok as a promotional tool in their early days, the way Tai Verdes has.

He still uses this platform to share his story creatively. For instance, he recently posted a video attempting to tell the back story of a salesperson who wanted to perform in front of a huge crowd.

Many people have praised him for using TikTok as a storytelling mechanism and how it has been a great way to gather his own audience. Currently, Verdes has a massive following of 1.6 million on the platform, and it only keeps growing every day.

When Tai Verdes noticed that males made up a huge chunk of his aggregate listeners, he convinced them to play his song to women too. Soon after, Spotify data showed that his female listeners had climbed up to 33%. At the moment, as he continues to enjoy his success on TikTok, Tai Verdes is pumped up and ever motivated to release new work for his listeners soon.