Stirring Self-Belief and Uniqueness: A Musical Journey with Tre’Jahn

Ever marveled at the raw talent and relentless determination it takes to break through in the music industry? Join us on a journey with the incredibly gifted Tre' Jahn, whose journey from beating on a trash can to crafting a unique sound in music, is nothing short of awe-inspiring. We explore Tre's story of passion, perseverance, and transformation, stirred from an unwavering belief in himself and a deep love for music. This episode is a stirring testament to the power of self-belief and the remarkable transformations that can occur when you dare to be different.

Strap in as we delve into the heart of Tre' Jahn's drive and purpose. His relationship with God, his upbringing in the church, and how these have fueled an unyielding fervor to pursue his dreams, despite skepticism and doubts from others. An undeniable love for singing and a dedication to refining his technique has significantly contributed to his unique musical style. Tre's goal? To create music that leaves a lasting impact on anyone who tunes in.

In this revealing episode, we explore Trey Jean's musical influences and inspirations, and how these have shaped his ascension in the music industry. From childhood idols like Lil Wayne and Chris Brown to more recent artists like Ariana Grande and Young Thug, Tre' has crafted a unique sound that amalgamates elements of diverse genres. He encourages all creatives to embrace their individuality and never be afraid to stand out. So come, join us in this exciting journey with Tre' Jahn, an up-and-coming artist making waves in the music industry. It's a story you wouldn't want to miss!

Chapters

• 0:39 Trey Jean
• 11:44 The Power of Drive and Purpose
• 20:18 Journey Into the Music Industry
• 31:07 Influences and Inspiration in Music
• 36:08 Encouragement for Rising Artists

Transcript

KIMBERLY: 0:39

Welcome back, dear listeners, to another electrifying chapter of Experiencing Amazing Transformation podcast. We're thrilled to have you join us as we embark on a brand new adventure through the realms of personal growth, extraordinary stories and profound insight. Get ready to be captivated by the extraordinary journeys of individuals who have undergone remarkable transformations, defying odds and pushing the boundaries of what's possible. So buckle up and prepare to be inspired as we delve into the exhilarating world of self-discovery and witness the power of change unfold before our very eyes. Feel welcome back to experiencing amazing transformations, where the extraordinary becomes reality.

KIMBERLY: 1:51

Today, I'm thrilled to introduce our special guest, trey Jean, an up-and-coming artist who possesses a remarkable ability to transform any room with his music and infectious energy. With his immense talent and boundless creativity, trey Jean has captivated audiences and left a lasting impression wherever he performs. In this episode, we have the privilege of hearing his inspiring stories, where he shares how his unwavering determination has allowed him to stand out in the music industry. So get ready to be inspired as we dive into Trey Jean's journey of passion, perseverance and incredible transformations that can occur when you truly believe in yourself. So welcome Trey Jean to experiencing amazing transformation podcasts. So tell us a little bit about Trey Jean.

TRE'JAHN: 2:55

Trey Jean is innovating. Trey Jean is different, unique in his own way. Trey Jean is me, so no more third-party talking. If you could take a blank canvas right and take like five different paint brushes and just throw the paint on the canvas and just let it work, I feel like I keep that myth vibe, like my energy is crazy but I'm never around. So when you get it, you get it, and when it's gone it's over with. Trey Jean is somebody you want to meet and you don't want to forget, and you can't forget because I ain't there too much.

KIMBERLY: 3:27

I love it. I love it. So before I get into your music, how long have you been this blank canvas? When did this artist in you start?

TRE'JAHN: 3:39

Young. It's like a loose leaf paper. That loose leaf paper is me beating on my mom and trash can before I got my first drum set. When the drums came in to play it was okay, we were going to kind of do the drum thing and then they developed. But I never thought that was what I was going to do. I just thought it was something I was around. So it went from trash can to church and I knew it was something because I would go to practices.

TRE'JAHN: 4:03

And now I'm playing at the church and we four, five years old I didn't know the ends and now I just watch my uncles and my grandpa and everybody else just do everything they did. But when it came for my time to handle it okay, I love playing in church let's see what marching band is about. So I got in a band like sixth grade going from Urie Drive to Huntington, and I was actually kind of good at it. But I didn't know how good I was, I just knew people liked it. But then I started getting better and scholarship offer started to roll in.

TRE'JAHN: 4:29

Oh yeah, yeah, of course God was telling me something, like it was everything I was praying for. It got to be something with music, because everything I prayed for with music it happened. I get signs from it versus me praying for like don't get me wrong, god going to be there every time, but certain signs you get and you see you post and run with it. So I was like, okay, this is cool, it's a nice little hobby. I probably go to college for real. Let's just keep doing this. But then as I got older, I started seeing the things that were needed. I need money and band is cool, but I don't see me being an eight year, nine year college student just because I want to be in a band. Like I just don't see it. I'm not knocking anybody that does that, because it's a culture that you can love and you can fall in love with it, and that's you.

KIMBERLY: 5:06

Yeah.

TRE'JAHN: 5:07

But that's not Trajan. So when I know this, that is like, okay, well, let's take it to another level, let's do music. Now I've been doing music, but let's be the person that's paying people versus the person that's getting the chicks at the end of the service or the end of the show. So once we got that dynamic of it, I knew I want to make music. But I knew, like my aesthetic wasn't, we're going to make trap music. That's all I grew up on. So of course it's saturated, it's overly saturated in my brain. So when we got to making music I'm doing this on my own right now. Let me try to come a little different and let's make sellable music. When I started to venture off and just listen to all my other influences for is bling 182. Or all the way back from different pop bands there's just doing what they're doing like I already had a trap influence. But I just knew my pop side was something that could really just shine through, and shine through the light of the city, because it's overly saturated with trap music. I'm not knocking nobody to make trap music, but they're just not me. So when you listen to it, don't come to Trajan music. Thank you, you're going to hear everything you've heard already, like it's off rip. I'm going to tell you strictly what I'm going through, strictly the lifestyle I'm living, what I've seen, what my people around me to see, and we ain't seen nothing too crazy and it's just my vibe and it's always going to be my vibe. So once I figured out how to sell that and I just realized I had a decent team around me to help me push that and sell that, I was like, okay, we really can do this. Then the show started rolling in and we kept doing music. And now we're here. So it's just getting better and better as it go, meeting different people, experiencing different things, show, podcast, sitting down with the amazing podcast right now.

TRE'JAHN: 6:35

But I knew this, the life I was going to be a part of, whether it was something I wanted to do or not, because I'm not going to cut your hair, like I'm not going to start cutting hair and I know I can't cut hair. If you let me cut your hair, we're not going to be friends anymore. I'm not going to go try to play basketball, it's not me. I'm not going to play football, no, nothing. I'm one of them people that if I see something ain't going to work. It's time to back out. Like, oh, it ain't going to work. After the first time I tried. No, like I'm trying to reach out to resources and it just ain't clicking. I'm going to give it up because money still got to be made. But when I was reaching out it started working.

TRE'JAHN: 7:07

Why not put it down? Like there is no other business in this world right now that alone use some money just because they believe in what you believe in. Nobody is going to do that. Nobody is going to give you a lump sum of money or nobody is even going to invest in your dreams if they don't believe that. So why not get in this business if you already figured out how to make sellable music?

TRE'JAHN: 7:26

You're not really a rugged kid. People like what you're doing. You got nice vibe and you're going to be you, regardless if you make it or not. Like the music match. So why not do it? When I figured out the why not, I tapped into how can we do it better? Because it's already a why not? So you ain't doing nothing else that you do, so sit down Like I don't care if you like it or not. Once I got a passion for it because I already had a passion for music. I got a passion for recording, a passion for making beats, a passion for just doing everything that come with the process of being a true artist, and once I fell in love with that, it was no going back. I went to college for two years How's?

KIMBERLY: 7:59

it going to end.

TRE'JAHN: 8:00

Facts. Like I went to college. I don't tell nobody, like, if you want to make music, you want to make beats, you watching this right now and you 12, 13 doing now. If you want to make beats and you in college, don't leave college to make beats unless you just know. Don't ever give up on something you truly want to do because you see it's hot right now because in this game it's a hot and cold. It ain't all hot all the time. You can make everything look good with some money, absolutely. So I wouldn't just tell nobody if they in school like, hey bro, you think I should leave school? Yep, night is your wonderful face. I'm gonna Colonel Great cektivitxx Because, yeah, I did that, but that worked for me, right, I don't know what's going to work for you because I'm not God. God got something written by your name that I don't know. So whatever is going to happen for you is going to happen for you and it's just what's so happening to be happening for me right now. So I'll be telling folks.

TRE'JAHN: 8:43

The only reason I really do music right now is because I knew it was for me and I fell in love with it. I got a passion for doing more things inside of music, not just going to the studio, being on Instagram, I really love what I do. I tell them all the time if I was dead broke, I would still record music. I would still go to the studio every day. That's not something I'm doing for the money. I'm doing it because I want to wake up and do it. Like I said, if you want to wake up and be a businessman, you want to wake up and get your CDL. It's nothing against that. Nothing against nothing that you do not have to wrap, you do not have to be no artist. But I knew this is what I was supposed to do and I knew I don't have to be no barber or I don't have to go to the NBA or I don't have to go to the NFL. This is what's for me and it's been in me. If you know me, you know I've been doing music forever. So it's not a facade or it's not something you looking at like huh, you know okay. Well, yeah, this was supposed to happen. We just ain't no when it was going to happen.

TRE'JAHN: 9:33

So once I figured out, everybody was locking in with what I had going, just me being trajanized by myself before the music came because we were throwing parties. So I figured, hey, if I could sell out a building based off my energy and how I treat people and I do good business with people on my own time why not have music to go with it? If there's something I'm doing with ease almost, and I just knew music was in me, so it was nothing that I had to really just work hard to do. The only thing I really had to just tap in serious with was the business side of it and that's just really everything we do from now on.

TRE'JAHN: 10:01

And we was doing back then studying the game, like I don't watch regular TV, I don't watch cable, my cable is not hooked up in my house. I promise you it's strictly. Youtube is strictly studying for five years straight, just studying interviews, studying shows, studying day in the life, and not just really to see or try to mimic what they was doing, to see the small mistakes where this went wrong or why they're doing this, why they're doing this. So I could be prepared for this game before I even made a song. I was studying this hands down, word for word, just mimicking.

TRE'JAHN: 10:33

Almost everything I seen was it was country pop, anything taking it, mimicking and putting it in my day in the life, like, okay, these the great, so this is what the greatest person is doing, so this is what you have to do times 10, because they already made it. So they're doing this every day as of this is their regular day, so this can't be your regular day. So once I kind of figured out, okay, well, yeah, you got to do this, like you got to wake up and record. You got to wake up and sit down. You got to wake up and network. You got to wake up and interviews, anything you could do, zoom calls, just tapping in, investing in yourself. You got to pay the play in this game, ain't?

KIMBERLY: 11:04

none of this free Like.

TRE'JAHN: 11:05

I tell folks it just don't come with money just because you can make a song. If there's studio pro tools, it's $30 a month. Anybody can go in there and make a song. So don't think you just being able to make a song is what's going to get people looking at you, or just because you could put it on your ground and people see it a little bit. That's what's going to make people know you got to invest, you got to do these shows. You got to tap into the market, tap into the people that actually love you for what you're doing. Like tap into the people that love you if you didn't make music or not, and then see what they really love from you and then attest to that, see what they going through and make music about that. That's how you really break the game down. It's not hard. But if you know you can't do that in that way, you do not have to do this. You could touch people in a different way.

TRE'JAHN: 11:43

Touch people by going hard for yourself.

KIMBERLY: 11:44

I've learned that you have such an amazing drive that people your age don't have. I don't know if you even realize how set apart you are from people your age. Surely you know, right.

TRE'JAHN: 11:58

No, I tell him all the time he come to me he be like you know this, you know this. Hey, this person said this, this person said this. And for a minute it could almost come off as nonchalant, but I promise you I don't pay attention to it. I just want to be that one person where people can be like, well, yeah, he showed me some or yeah, I learned something from him. But that's kind of crazy that you said it, because everybody say that. But I don't never look at it like that, because I feel like, even if I'm doing enough, I ain't doing enough.

KIMBERLY: 12:21

That's cool. Still saying that it's humbling, but at the same time it's just like where you get it from, because a lot of parents pour into their children and have hopes, dreams, desires you know what I mean and they come out different. They come out not having this go getter spirit that you have. So it's got to be a relationship with God.

TRE'JAHN: 12:45

Yeah, of course, growing up in the church.

KIMBERLY: 12:47

I know people grew up in church. They don't have to drive. You have this zeal you got. You've had a relationship with God longer than most, so it's like you tapped into your purpose and you're not letting anything hold you.

TRE'JAHN: 13:00

Yeah, I've been saying this for a while now, but I tell folks I know why I'm in your life. They be like what you mean, I'll be like bro. I know why I'm here. They be like what I'll be like. You gonna know this, bro.

KIMBERLY: 13:08

Don't not say that. Oh my God, where you come from. It's crazy. That's why I can say the same. At a young age I had the same drive zeal, like I knew my purpose. It's amazing to see it on somebody and to know that this is just the beginning for you and you don't even know it. I'll smile from year to year.

TRE'JAHN: 13:30

Thank you. Can I ask you a question? Yeah, I bet. So you really love podcasting, right?

KIMBERLY: 13:36

I do.

TRE'JAHN: 13:37

So this is something somebody asked you to do, this in four in the morning, for free. You would get up out of your bed, out of your sleep, and you would do it.

KIMBERLY: 13:44

Absolutely.

TRE'JAHN: 13:45

I always ask people that because I tell people it's your deepest sleep, no matter if you have been partying or not, and if you get up and do anything, whatever it is, that's what you're supposed to be doing.

KIMBERLY: 13:54

I agree that's crazy. I'm an encourager, I'm a motivator. I've helped people create businesses. My dream, my hope, is to make such an impact in someone's life where it changes not there now, but there forever. It's not just coming in here doing this, it's hey, cam, you need me. I'm there, no matter what time they. I leave work because I want to make sure you have whatever God has in me. If you need it, I'm gonna make sure you get it. So it's more about making sure my purpose is fulfilled through God. So whatever God has in me for you, I'm gonna make sure you get. Day, night, no matter what time it is, I'm gonna do it.

TRE'JAHN: 14:37

Thank God.

KIMBERLY: 14:39

Just made it where he was like okay, I need your voice to get out there and I need you to introduce my people. So I know anybody that come in here. They gotta have some type of relationship with God.

TRE'JAHN: 14:50

Yes, ma'am.

KIMBERLY: 14:51

So you like singing?

TRE'JAHN: 14:52

Yeah, like it's a lot harder than rapping. At first I didn't like it because I felt like my singing was mediocre, like you know how you go to a church and I ain't knocking nobody singing, but they just singing over the track and just like oh well, she must be the daughter of the church.

TRE'JAHN: 15:07

Yeah, so once I found out how to- sing better and just teach myself how to match pitch and learn my volumes, learning how to project my voice, learning what to do to take better care of it. It made me appreciate it a lot more. So I started doing it more and it made me like it because I was like, okay, this obviously sounds good because people are saying they like it, so you need to do it, because everybody can't do it. It's a lot of people that can match pitch. You might just be somebody that need to be in the choir, Right, it's a lot of people that can stand out, they can touch a microphone and they're gonna blow. So once I figured out that's like way cooler than being able to get a mic and like just rap through it, I was just like, okay, this is what we're doing, because it's always gonna be rapping my music, because it's what I started off as, like rapper, that's what we doing hardcore rap. But once I taught myself how to sing, it probably took me a year and a half just going to the studio all the time singing. Every time I was like, okay, yeah, I like this.

TRE'JAHN: 16:12

I grew up singing Christian songs and just Charlie Wilson, rk Lee when you make great music, like you can't touch that One of the greatest shows I've ever seen. But once I start figuring out, okay, I'm matching their pitches and I'm singing the lead vocals on these tracks now, not just singing these ad libs when I'm in the car, maybe you can do this. And once I figured out I could it's been there ever since it's just building it figuring out I could sing their stuff. So once I kind of put it in my perspective, I was just like, okay, maybe you can see, boy. So I just kept going and it played out how I played out and it's just getting better and better every time I took the track. So I like singing way more than I like rapping, but I still got a love and passion for rap. I feel like if you can sing, you got a job. Real. They just like playing piano.

KIMBERLY: 17:01

You're right.

TRE'JAHN: 17:02

You said you sing even for you. Yeah, you like it.

KIMBERLY: 17:05

Yeah, how the anointing hits the room. People actually get free.

TRE'JAHN: 17:10

So it's like a cold breaker for you. You know how you have some people that's in church and they're just too cool. Just too cool to pray.

KIMBERLY: 17:19

Yeah, yeah, how you feel when you see the people over in the corner. Then all of a sudden I know that feeling.

TRE'JAHN: 17:27

I'm like, I'm mad too, yeah, like it'd be like what girlfriend broke up with you before you came to kill her tonight?

KIMBERLY: 17:32

Who hurt?

TRE'JAHN: 17:32

you who did something? You can call her when you leave Face call and show you at the concert. Show you at the concert. No, you don't even Facebook. I know that we keep being on.

KIMBERLY: 17:42

You don't even Facebook. I like that answer. Yeah, I like that, that's true.

TRE'JAHN: 17:47

Because I seen so many people come in like in the churches I was growing up as like when I was younger and the way they impact their room when they just start singing, even if they sit in the crowd, like that's them people that they used to walk up to and they're handing the mic to them they sitting way in the back. Yeah, they like hey, bro, you know why you here.

KIMBERLY: 18:03

Yeah, you ain't just come here, just to sit down, come on. That's the story of my life. I mean literally. I remember when I was I was probably about 14, 15, and a pastor came down off the stage and just handed me the mic.

TRE'JAHN: 18:17

I was like we was just visitors.

KIMBERLY: 18:21

We was just visitors, like you, not gonna know, of course. You just take it over and people get free, people get free, people get to live, or whatever is holding them. You know, because you don't know what people are dealing with in that moment. So, god, just if you're there, and that's what God has you for, is for you to say something, that way they can release whatever they're dealing with at home, or you know that's why I love it, Patty.

KIMBERLY: 18:53

But I like this. I love the fact that God keeps sending me artists, or keeps sending me musicians, because he know music is my passion. Music is it and that's how I've been able to impact people, you know, from a little girl to now. But now I can actually verbalize it, talk about it and hear other people with that same power, passion, purpose I like that.

TRE'JAHN: 19:20

That's a good answer. That's validated that one. Well, thank you, I like that.

KIMBERLY: 19:26

So what school did you go to College?

TRE'JAHN: 19:28

Yeah, the first year I went to Alcorn State University. Okay, I marched there. Then I left and went to Grammar.

KIMBERLY: 19:35

Really. Yes, you guys said it was time to go.

TRE'JAHN: 19:39

I kind of knew I wanted to do music. Then I didn't want to give up on college after my first year so I was just like, okay, I'm going to go back to my roots, because I went to Huntington so it was already a home. When I got there I knew what I was going to do. Let me try to do this music thing on the side. Luckily, one of my friends tapped me in with one of the nice producers on Grammarless campus and just got me started with recording late night just during campus life, like just doing us If I'm not marching okay class over, probably like two o'clock. I got the rest of the day now and then probably the next morning I probably don't have a class to like one. Well, let's try to just follow in the studio as much as you can. And, to be honest, I got tricked into making music. It was like my second week at Gremlin.

TRE'JAHN: 20:18

One of my homegirls her name is Shay, she actually makes music. Shout out to Shay she took me to the studio. So the night before we went to this music event because I was always going to the music event just to get my face shown. Even if this is the orchestra event, I won't try to see me in this music event. They're like, hey, I do music, so I'm there and we go. She had told me prior to she was like ma'am, introduce you to somebody that got a studio. We go to the showcase or whatever. And she's like come here, she talking to this dude, but I'm not thinking he the dude, I'm just like, all right, what's up? All of a sudden, just no introduce. She's like hey, this is my partner Trey. He right, I'm like what's up? He like what's up.

TRE'JAHN: 20:52

I'm like come to studio tonight 11 o'clock. I'm like, all right, bet, two things are going to happen right here. I'm either going to have to rap in front of whoever is in that studio tonight or it's going to go bad and my face here for rapping is going to be over with, based off how she done made it big. So I got this one song I've been working on. Anyway, if you let me record, let's do it. He cancels the studio session. But she's like hey, I got a session tomorrow, just come with me. So we go and we get in there. He breaking the beat down, just loading everything up, just arranging a beat for it to be wrapped on. Of course she's like I'll be back. I'm like all right, not thinking nothing of it. 30 minutes go by, I call her phone, it goes straight to voicemail. So he looked back.

TRE'JAHN: 21:27

He like I hope you've been writing because this beat for you. So she didn't pay for the session at left, but she made it seem like it was her session so I was like all right.

KIMBERLY: 21:38

Shout out, Shay.

TRE'JAHN: 21:39

Shout out to Shay. I had never been to the studio before, so he loaded the beat up. I wrap in my head. I'm like, all right, trash. Yeah, all right, it's cool. I'm like I'm going to be back tomorrow. They call me back when I get back tomorrow. I'm like, bro, this hard. We ain't stopped playing this since you left. You got to come back. It's like one in the morning. I'm in my bed. I'm like bro, what? I don't feel like coming down there, no car or nothing. I walk and if you know, grammyn Camp is big.

TRE'JAHN: 22:07

So I'm in the back and they stay in front of the school. So I go, I can hear the song while I'm walking down the hall. I'm like, okay, yeah, they jamming this because it's loud enough for me to hear. I walk in there. I'm trying to be all player.

TRE'JAHN: 22:17

I'm like, yeah, trying to make it seem like I had already been doing it the whole time, but that's when it finally clicked. As long as you make it look like something, you back it up. It's going to be straight Say like bro, they doing nothing, they doing nothing, what's up? Somebody want to do a feature for you. I'm a college student. No money, cool. They like how much you charge a feature. I'm not knowing nothing about feature prices or nothing.

KIMBERLY: 22:36

I'm like $100.

TRE'JAHN: 22:37

No, but $100 in college. I agree that's a thousand dollars, so we end up doing the feature and it is hard.

TRE'JAHN: 22:44

Now they playing the record around. Just the people that's in the underground scene. Before it gets underground, shout out to all the Ken Carson destroyers Sofago. Before it even got underground they were playing it. Well, this is cool, because the song they were playing of course, when I first was walking back to the dorm room that they were in playing my first song, it was a rap song, but the song they was playing around it was a song and I wasn't rapping.

TRE'JAHN: 23:06

Maybe this is what we should try to make, but school finna be over. No studio at home, I don't know, nobody to record, nobody trying to help me. I'm reaching out to folks and at first they started hitting me back and texting me back. Then no text back. We probably partners, though, so when I was reaching out because I really want to do this, I would double text, and I don't even do that, so I would double text for April. How I do this? How do I get this, like, how I upload this to get my music out, how I tap in with this person or how I can make this better? No response back. Cool, no lie.

TRE'JAHN: 23:39

I kind of got discouraged that. I was like, well, maybe this ain't something I supposed to be doing because it's kind of sold up. But then I took a step back. I looked at everybody around me. I was like, okay, well, they kind of rock it with us. So let me just try to lock in and do a little better.

TRE'JAHN: 23:50

So I'm in my room every day at this point because at that point I feel played with. I'm rapping every day in my room, just making songs, singing. I teach myself how to sing, teaching myself how to match pitch, learning my keys from A to G, learning my time signatures, learning how to come with different flows in my pocket, learning how to count bars. I didn't know how to count bars at first. This goes on too much. Now we finna get back to school. One of my friends, flex. He was like hey, bro, may hop on this song. We told me he was rapping. I was like man, send me something. I'm not thinking he's gonna send it. He sent it the same night. So I got to ask somebody and I get locked in with one of the DJs in the city and he ended up recording. Then I get the song back to him. He like bro, this is hard. And then everybody listening to the song, they like bro, this is hard. So every song they saying this is hard, I'm a feature on and I'm singing. So well, we got to keep doing this. Now Do like, let's do it. Time gone.

TRE'JAHN: 24:36

I go back to school, I go back and now I'm in the band so I don't really have the time. I don't go to practice, the night practice. I don't go straight up, straight up. If you in the band and they're grounded, don't do that. Mr D on your behind, he running them bleachers. So I'm like I ain't going.

TRE'JAHN: 24:51

I get a call hey, we at the studio and like pull up. They been calling. But I'm like I can't but this my shot and I'm wrong, let's do it right now. So he like I let do it, I'm going to record you tonight, let's go ahead, lock in. So I get in there and I'm sitting in the room but I can tell and smell that there's more people in there that are supposed to be up in there. So I asked I'm like, bro, you record me tonight. Huh, you just take me and say pull up to the studio. No, bro, I forgot bro. Oh man, he folks in camp. But they had walked in after me. So I get on some main right. So I just tap in, I'm going to keep marching.

TRE'JAHN: 25:22

This is my last year. I love school, don't get me wrong. I love the college campus, but I got to make me some money and I know the age gap between being the artist right now is real, real slim. I'm not finna be here no 27, 26. Time by trying to wrap. So I'm like you know what? I got to come up with a plan to tell my mom.

TRE'JAHN: 25:41

I had called her because at first I had just been making music on my own, going to the studio, scraping my money up, going to the studio by myself. She had just dropped me off, but I told her I was like hey, I'm finna rap. I did what we finna do. She like all right, I'm serious for real this time. She like all right. So I was like I knew that. All right, I got to do something because she rocking with it, because I'm her son, but she just like I ain't never seen no rapper blow up from around here. So no, all right, you gonna rap by. Go ahead, I'll take you over though.

TRE'JAHN: 26:13

So I like in with this other engineer. Shout out to T-Main to produce music master production on Instagram. I like in with bro and he like all right, I record you. So I go in, I record a couple of records and I can feel my sound evolving, because now I'm in a real studio. There's ain't no dorm and now we busing it down. This, how this pose to sound, this, how your voice actually sound, you need to perfect this. So I get in there and then go crazy.

TRE'JAHN: 26:35

I make a couple of songs, but it's none of the songs that I really just want to put out. I just know they hard. My friends plan them. It's cool, I made out 20. Yeah, I like them. Damn. My mom was like that's you, you on this song. Yeah, you like it. She was like yeah, I'm like for you. She like yeah. So it really kind of blew my copy Cause at that point I'm like bro along, my mama like it. I don't care who like it, I 20, no change. Songs like this start to come around and it's like all right. Now he probably know what he doing, because this don't sound like nothing that will pose to be coming up out of here. We just thought he was going to make music and talk about the normal streetport vibe and that's what he was going to be on. But then when you listen to it, you're like where is he from? Okay, I might have did something. It's time to figure out how you doing this now, bro, because people like it. I started recording more and more and now I'm probably 120 songs in a probably year in a half. I record every day Now.

TRE'JAHN: 27:31

I always had a relationship with God, but I wasn't praying for what I wanted. When I started to pray for what I wanted, I was praying for the wrong wrongs. I wasn't praying for wisdom to control what I get. I was praying like all right man. God, please, if I do this, but please give me some money, bro. Like I, I please. I just want my mom to be able to start working. I do whatever. I stop doing this. I stop doing this. I sit back and think I like no, but it ain't how it worked.

KIMBERLY: 27:53

bro, that ain't how it worked.

TRE'JAHN: 27:54

He listening, bro, that ain't how it worked. So, like, can you just show, like, give me the wisdom to do this, give me the mind frame, or just build my brain up to be able to make different music, make sell up a music so I can put myself in position to make some money? Can you please put me in these positions? Can you please show me how to gain the knowledge on these positions? And then he just starts showing me, like, okay, this is how you do this. So start college bigger, so start calling. Now we meeting these people and they loving the music, like, bro, what is this? We need this. We're going to different cities and loving it.

TRE'JAHN: 28:28

I know I'm trying to take whatever I'm doing global. I want people in China to respect Trajan and respect RCLD, the labor from my manager, me to anybody. They know my cameraman in China right now. I just had to take myself and just make it sellable and I feel like that's what I did, cause at the end of the day, this could stop today or tomorrow.

TRE'JAHN: 28:44

I walk with God and he say we ain't rapping, no more, buddy, I gotta find something else to do. I do want to make another money right now, but my mom will stop working. That's all I ever want to do, cause I'm going to make music whether I'm rich or broke anyway. But I do want to make another money tomorrow and be like I'm chilling and now it's cool, cause I know I make timeless music. You can listen to any song I got out right now and it's just to start, and you can listen to it 10 years from now. You be like man yeah bro, you'll be from point A to point B anytime. So I just figured out once I knew how to do that and I had that in goal and started praying for that in goal. The sky's the limit.

KIMBERLY: 29:20

I listened to. That was the all you really did. We did we did?

TRE'JAHN: 29:25

Which one did you like? I liked it. You like I-20?

KIMBERLY: 29:29

Yeah, which one?

TRE'JAHN: 29:30

you like, I played it. I played it. Which one you like.

KIMBERLY: 29:32

Is it no Change? Yeah, that one did it for me.

TRE'JAHN: 29:36

Them songs, probably like 2020, recorded something. The Hard Night Life is when I recorded like the end of last year, and that's the new sound of me looking. My background's been changed, my beat selection has changed, my voice got a little stronger before singing my notes. So, oh yeah, it's gonna be nice. That's just the beginning. Gonna have some fun. We got a lot of new records and we finna give them to everybody Everybody but that was the whole, sole purpose of me. I took a year off from like just posting on social media and just posting music to build my catalog and just build myself as an artist to present myself the right way. So we got songs for days. We got tapes on tapes, ready to go Like, ready to go like release right now if we want to. So, oh yeah, it's coming. I'm glad y'all like those songs for real.

KIMBERLY: 30:20

Cause they're my babies.

TRE'JAHN: 30:22

They're my children. I call them my children because the safest you got a child and they're a newborn. You don't wanna drop them off in nobody's house.

TRE'JAHN: 30:28

That's right, you're like me here you go, there, you go right here. But once I put them out there and I seen a lot of people gravitating to that I-20 sound, that ride music, so I was just like man, let's give them Hard Night Life, because I knew what that was gonna do and they were gonna be able to like really hold on to it. But all the other songs, like no Change, duffel, i-20. I love them songs so much because you can tell the evolution of, like, my recording process, like you can tell, okay, he learned how to sing a little bit. Now you listen to I-20, you're like, okay, this good. Then you go to the next song. You're like, okay, this a little better. You gonna know change a beat. Like, okay, I like this. Then you get.

KIMBERLY: 31:06

Hard Night Life. What do you get your inspiration from when it comes to writing these?

TRE'JAHN: 31:11

Well, I grew up waning like coming up just strictly big time with hot boys. I was just like waiting for the rain of all the carters, just listening. I was there for the rock album, I was there for all of it. So it just showed me it's okay to sell different kind of music while you got this image of being a rapper, like it's okay to come and cross over, go for Wayne 2009. Then Young Thug come out and it's just like, okay, this is kind of like a spin-off of what Wayne is doing, but it relates to me a little more. So we go from there and then Chris, I'm done. It's been Chris Brown since I could, since Chris stepped on the scene in 2006,. He was my older brother. At that point I was just like, okay, look, this is what it is. The same way he was looking at Mike. That's the same way I was looking at him for it's doing stage presence, for it's looking at recording records, putting backgrounds in my vocals, singing, being able to rap and sing. So when you get that mixture, it's just like of course I get the mixture of the whole Atlanta scene from listening to Young Thug in 2009, because if it wasn't them, it was Young Thug, migos and Rich Home and Quant. And then you get Wiz. But as I got older, of course, wiz Gleefin, but as I get older, I start tapping into more pop bands or just pop groups or a lot of pop artists, from Ariana to Keanu LaDay to just anybody that really is just making good pop music right now Charlie Puth, just anybody that's really doing that everlasting music. So once that mixture kind of came together, now let's put it in the play. Okay, you got a little gumbo pot going, but let's try to make you sound like yourself.

TRE'JAHN: 32:55

And once I just figured out how to tell my story with what I was doing and perfect my vocal tone of how I was projecting everything, I was putting on records and putting it in the studio, and just figured out how to become Trajan as an artist, all that came into play. That's why you listen to all these different music and you'd be like this really sounds good. He kind of sounds like, but I don't really know if this is him. So once I got that feeling I was like, okay, you doing something right. So once I got those influences and kind of just listen to it like he'll tell you back in the day, probably like 10 years old I could rap the quarter three from top to bottom. Every song Like that is my favorite album to ever come out. He was one of the first ones, besides soldier boy, to get on YouTube and he dropped the Amelie video. So, okay, maybe this is possible. We look up like in the 10 cents and I'm like, okay, he's doing what I like to do and he's making music that I like to make. So let me just focus in on what he doing, even if I ever do make music like let me just see, because this is what's entertaining to me.

TRE'JAHN: 33:52

Then you take Chris and Wayne and you put those together. It's just like what is he listening to? And that's all his plans. That's why I always have headphones on. So if I'm not listening to myself, I'm listening to them do. So you could say Wayne and Chris for sure top. And then you got thug, I wait on this dedication one to drop. Then he gonna drop no siblings, then he gonna drop. Then Chris finna drop graffiti, chris finna, drop this. And this is what's planned.

TRE'JAHN: 34:14

The whole time from that era with Chris and T-Pain were just doing them Like I'm a duo dude If it was thug and corn or T-Pain and Chris. That's what I was listening to, whether it was Future and Uzi, that's what I'm listening to because I know what the collaboration is gonna do when those two canvases mesh together. But that whole influence just comes from wanting to have fun, like I watched Chris and him make records like Loyal and AO and all that stuff and I knew that's what I wanted to do. I was like I want to make music like that, but let's kind of put my style on it, let's just have some fun with it. So once I figured out how to do that, it was over with Shout out to them influences. Hopefully we can work in the new future.

KIMBERLY: 34:54

Oh yeah. This is definitely fun. It's definitely enlightening too, and it does not sound like it's from Streetport. I will say that I was like who is this young man Like for real? Play that again? Like, okay, okay, let's hear what he got to say. I just can't listen.

TRE'JAHN: 35:15

For sure. Even when you spoke on earlier in the interview, it was like you could tell he got this in you or you could tell you got this in you or what you done been through to be like that. Like I'm 23 years old, don't get me wrong, but I done been through more than the average man probably been through, but it is what it is. So I just know how to take the punches and roll with it. That's why, like, a lot of my friends got to say like bro, you're 23, going on 50. But it's just like I have older friends that are older than me and they look at me as I'm the oldest.

TRE'JAHN: 35:44

So I always say I know why I'm here. So their influence come from a lot more downs than ups. But no, thankfully now they got and got us. We up more than we down. So you got to keep rolling with the punches and we're going to be all right. Y'all got to catch one of my shows. If y'all watching this, I mean that was tonight, but look, this ain't gonna come out in time, but y'all come see me in the cold. Yeah, a couple weeks. I'll let you know why I'm here for sure.

KIMBERLY: 36:08

I am so honored and just blessed to have you on the show. Thank you, especially before your show. I really appreciate you coming in and just your humility and just your spirit. I just love it. I love everything about it. Before we leave, before I let you go, I do want to ask you to say something that will encourage the next rising star. You said so much. You really have. You've given a wonderful floor plan, but if it's like one particular thing that you could tell someone, Don't be scared to believe in your uniqueness.

TRE'JAHN: 36:51

Don't limit yourself. Do something because somebody else is doing it. If you're doing something, no matter music, acting, dance, whatever you do don't limit yourself. You don't want to be at your death bed and Lord forbid, longest Lord walking with us. We good, you don't want to be at your death bed and everything you could have done or could have been is sitting there and they're looking at you. Don't be scared to be you, because it's somebody in this world. It's just like you. It's too many of us.

TRE'JAHN: 37:18

If you're making music and you're scared to put it on instagram because you get two likes, two views, the views don't matter. What matters is who in them views and if they in your views and there's two people that you know and you love, take them people and put them under your wing because they obviously want to see you in, because they took the time Of the day to give you two views. Don't be scared to be different and don't be scared to go. Get what you get, because you never know, never know and don't sleep On another start, neither if you big right now and you already a star or just anybody that's doing something and you feel like you just growing, how we growing in this music, because we all gonna get there, but you never know who is next, right, you never know.

TRE'JAHN: 37:56

But that's all I got for the rising artist man, stay true to you and don't be scared to push you All right and pray for what you want and go get it. Don't pray for it. I think it's gonna fall out, this guy.

KIMBERLY: 38:07

I, I, I, I I.

TRE'JAHN: 38:17

I I.

KIMBERLY: 38:21

I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I.