Thi'sl tells story about his grandmother scolding him for trying to pick cotton

On Friday, Thi'sl dropped the first of a four-part video series called "Road to Redemption" which will lead up to the March 22 release of his album and book titled Against All Odds. 

"One of the most unique things about my life that most people wouldn't know about me that I didn't even trip off of growing up," he said, "was the fact that I was born on a plantation."

Thi'sl explained that much of his family still lived on a plantation in Minter City, Mississippi until the mid-to-late 1980s, so he visited his great grandmother there yearly as a child.

In episode No. 1 of "Road to Redemption," he told a story about how he — at around seven or eight years old — saw his cousin making about $10 an hour picking cotton and wanted to make money, too. When Thi'sl asked if he could do the same, his grandmother yelled at him.

"Let somebody tell me you put your hands on some cotton," Thi'sl said, quoting her. "She said, 'I picked cotton, my momma picked cotton, my kids picked cotton, my grandson is not gonna touch no cotton. That's why I moved you off of that plantation.' She was just like, 'If you want money, you call me.'"

Watch episode No. 1 of "Road to Redemption" below.