From Astro Davis in 2015 to JuicyJad in 2018, Annandale has welcomed an upcoming rapper in 2019, “TraeSantana.”

Known as Traimne Allen, he is currently a senior aspiring to be an artist that not many people have seen or heard of before. He currently has two songs that he has released on SoundCloud, named “18” and “Explosion.”

“I believe that my songs are very diverse and they have flows that not many people are used to hearing,” Allen explained. “I think that having a different flow than these other rappers is good because people get tired of the same old music.”

The artist might have just started releasing, but he was introduced to music since his childhood. “I’ve been into music since a young age and I have always tried making my own music,” he said. “I could never finish making a song but after my attempt I guess that’s when my barrier broke.”

Allen says that writing music is not as easy as it seems, claiming that writing his song “Explosion” took him over three hours to write. “I thought about giving up so many times because I suffer from bipolar disorder, but I never gave up and continued getting better at what I do,” Allen said.

On Nov. 20, 2018, Trae unfortunately attempted to commit suicide due to severe depression, but he believes attempting such a act changed him. “I believe if I never tried commiting the act I would never be in this position of writing music,” the rapper said. “I would’ve never found out how much music can impact people emotionally. My biggest thing is to help kids out there that suffered just like I did.”

However, no mental health professional would ever advocate a suicide attempt as a form of inspiration for artistic expression. According to the American Psychological Association “National suicide prevention efforts have focused on school education programs, crisis center hotlines and media guidelines.” The APA states that suicide is never a good option and any troubled adolescent contemplating such an act should seek help immediately.

Allen says that after this event, when he was placed in psychiatric hospital for three days, he had a lot of time to think about music and reflect on his life, and what he was going to do with it from that moment on. He also began to write a song in order to put his thoughts to paper, and he fell in love with the sounds and songs he was able to create in his mind.

Allen’s musical inspirations range from artists such as XXXTentacion, Tyler The Creator, and JuiceWrld. “XXXTentacion’s music is beautiful to me and I love the flow that he creates,” he said. “JuiceWrld is another inspiration because he writes music about heartbreak and I have been heartbroken many times by females. Tyler The Creator is the biggest inspiration on me in my opinion. As a kid I wrote a song named ‘I’m Tyler’ based on him and I believe we are very alike.”

Allen also said he is finding new ways to market his songs and his projects, or create ideas for music videos.

He has most recently purchased a plan on Distrokid, which will make his music available on all streaming platforms like Apple Music, Spotify, and many more.

TraeSantana isn’t done yet, though. He has new songs that he will be releasing soon on SoundCloud, called “Better Days”, “Schizophrenia”, and “11/20”. Stay tuned and check out Annandale’s very own rapper today.