‘It’s the Best Decision for Us All’
The group says of the member, ‘We will love and honor him forever.’
Rap trio grouptherapy recently disappointed their fans with an announcement. Grouptherapy is an American music collective founded in 2019 by former child entertainers Jadagrace, Tyrel Jackson Williams, and Coy Stewart. On March 20, they released a joint post on X reading, “From our heart, thank you for everything.”
It included an image with the message: “hey GT fam, we wanted to be open with you and share something that we have been discussing for some time now but now feel it’s the best decision for us all. Our brother and best friend TJ will be stepping away from the group moving forward.
From our heart, thank you for everything❤️
Love, GT. pic.twitter.com/1Rybqfnrr2
— grouptherapy llc (@grouptherapyllc) March 20, 2024
It’s truly all love and the best decision for him, so we fully support him. He has been crucial to the birth and rise of GT and we will love and honor him forever. We look forward to carrying the torch of GT through Jadagrace and SWIM. Thank you all for your unrelenting love and support — we couldn’t do it without y’all.”
The three former actors formed the group after becoming disillusioned with American TV and film. The band has released one studio album, I Was Mature for My Age, but I Was Still a Child, a mixtape, There Goes the Neighborhood, and two EPs, Truth Be Told, and This Is Not the Album.
Jadagrace had signed a major record deal while in middle school and appeared in the 2009 film Terminator Salvation. Williams, also known as “TJW” and “TJOnline” starred as Leo Dooley in the Disney XD series Lab Rats as well as the 2014 Disney XD television film Pants on Fire. Stewart, also known as “KOI” and “SWIM,” was a child actor on Nickelodeon and TBS.
In a December 2023 article with RollingStone, the group recalled how they came to express themselves beyond being child celebrities and became fascinated with creating their own music. Stewart began to embrace himself and his gift of rapping. Williams, who is both an MC and producer, came out to his parents, who are both ministers and music professionals, about his sexuality. A veteran in the music industry, Jadagrace broke free from life as a dissatisfied teen and now owns her creative space and tapped into her grief over losing her father when she was 16.
After Stewart, Williams, and Jadagrace exchanged ideas for several months, a mixtape was finally in the works. They spent two months on the project Everybody’s Got One, an acronym for the word “ego,” which was considered a “major turning point” in the three friends’ musical careers.
“That was the beginning of what grouptherapy is now,” TJ told RollingStone. “It was just the three of us in the same room trying to bring Coy’s vision to life, and we fell in love with it and we don’t want to ever stop.”