HJ Tray is next up out of georgia! The 19 year old artist who is originally from Albany, Georgia but moved to San Diego when he was 10 years old for a brief period has an interesting background. The artist’s name was first given to him by his uncle he says but his aunt still argues with his uncle to this today about who first made the name. The HJ are intialts from his first and last name (Henry Johnson) and the tray has a double meaning to it. It comes from him being the third Johnson in his family (Johnson lll) it is also from when he used to play basketball and hit a lot of threes (or “Trays”). The name became second nature to him; he used it for creating a instagram to when he would create a gamertag playing video games, So when he decided to start making music the name was a no brainer. We got the chance to catch up with HJ Tray and decided to start by asking him “When did you first start music?” He had this to say. “Really I’ve been making music all of my life subconsciously. I’ve always loved music since I was small. I was the kid that would make beats with pencils during class in elementary. I’d watch music videos of my favorite artist all day. I would freestyle all the time in middle school at the lunch table and through game party chats for my friends all the time and they’ve always said I was talented and should take it seriously but I thought of it as a hobby back then, I was still hoop dreaming then so I couldn’t see myself taking it serious and if I ever did “I wouldn’t be a rapper” I told myself. I wanted to be a producer. I. started actually making music in 2017. Originally I was more interested in the production side of things like I said. I started growing an interest in making beats in 2016 and would watch Zaytoven videos of him making beats as well as all of the other producers I liked all day long. I would just watch and learn before taking action and that’s how I’ve always been. I learned more about DAW’s and how to make beats but didn’t start taking action with making beats till a year later. Really the only reason I even started acting on it is because I realized I had GarageBand on my Mac and would play around making beats. Then my grandma bought me FL studio and I was hooked. I started rapping in 2019 in the same situation. I didn’t take it seriously at first but when I put out my second song ever and it got 20k plays in a month on SoundCloud I was like okay maybe I should take music seriously.” We found this to be very interesting as some artists just dive right into making music and do not take the time to understand the game. HJ Tray is the exact opposite of this as he took time studying the game as a producer before taking action in making music with his vocals. The creative drive for making music has also always been there for him as he would mess around and make music with pencils in elementary school. Hitting 20 Thousand views on a song is a great achievement that most artists never hit, For HJ Tray to hit this milestone within his second song is really incredible. HJ Tray told us more about how he first started making music as he talked about getting a hand me down Mac from his uncle. He said this to us when reflecting on his past and first starting in music. “I started making beats on my Mac laptop that was handed down from my uncle. He didn’t use it really anymore and I would use it to edit my YouTube videos so he was like “you have it, you use it more than me.” I found out about GarageBand and was hooked on making beats. I remember before my basketball games in high school I’d make beats just to get my mind right for the game. Then I got FL studio and started making beats everyday for like 2 years straight before I started rapping. How I started actually recording music in 2018–19 I was listening to a lot of Roddy Ricch & for some reason his music motivated me to at least see what I sound like on a track I recorded a hook and verse with a basic set up using my mic I used for YouTube videos and laughed about it and thought “alright I got that out of my system we’re never doing that again” then I got the bug again but this time to just record music for myself. I looked up how to make an in-home studio on a budget, got all of the equipment and set it up and started recording my first song. Let the close people around me hear it just for fun and they said “you need to release this.” I was like “no, it’s alright at best ‘’ and they were like “no Henry this is actually good and I wouldn’t lie to you”. Different artists enjoy different things about what they do, Some like the attention they get when putting out songs or the lifestyle that can come with making music. HJ Tray is different from both of these options as his favorite thing is truly enjoying the creative process of starting with an idea and transforming it into whatever he wants. “The creative process of making the music for sure. I love it. The anxiety you get when you have an entire song, video, meme, etc. played out in your head and you’re just so ready to get it out to see the outcome is next level. The high you get when you know you made something that only you could make as well genuinely liking your own work could never be matched. I love when you know who you are as well too because that comes out in your music. You learn a lot about yourself from making music, you find out who you are as a person. When it comes to music you can’t force anything, just let it flow, that’s a lesson I’ve learned to apply to not just music but life as well.” Learning about yourself is a great thing artists can do when making music, HJ Tray making music for himself is always the first step to a successful music career. If you can not make yourself happy with your craft then it will be hard to make others happy from it. Music throughout the Pandemic has been tough for most artists. For the most part I have seen artists go one of two ways, The majority of them lose motivation and sometimes even stop making music altogether. HJ Tray has gone in a different direction as he has been working harder than ever making music from his home studio throughout everything the world has been going through. Artists usually have a couple different creative inspirations when making music. We asked HJ Tray what his main inspirations were and he gave us a few names but told us he could name many more! “There’s literally so many I could fill up a whole page but Micheal Jackson , Kendrick Lamar , Jcole, Rae Sremmurd, Future , Prince , Roddy Rich , Lil Uzi are my main and biggest as far as artists. As far as producers I would say Dr. Dre, J Cole, Prince, DpBeats, Maaly Raw, Pi’erre Bourne, & Quincy Jones to name a few.” We find this to be very cool as HJ Tray has a couple different genres of artists from guys like Michael Jackson all the way to guys like Future. Even though those two are totally different artists they have both completely changed the game with the music that they have put out. We, like everybody else, do not know what the future holds but we know that it is good to have a plan set for the future so that you can take action on it. This is why we asked HJ Tray “Where do you see yourself in five years?” He had this to say “In five years I see myself financially stable from music and I want it to be my full time career. I also want a comfortable lifestyle, nothing flashy, I just want to be comfortable. A cool lil apartment, with a car that gets me from point A to B. My wife and our first baby. Being able to take care of all of my family and live life how we want to. Money won’t be an issue ‘’ We found this to be a very good goal to have, Most artists are very money and fame focused whereas HJ Tray just wants to make a living doing the thing he loves, Music! HJ Tray is without a doubt an artist in the underground that we all should keep an eye on. His most recent song “Marry Poppins” is available now on all major streaming platforms. To end off the write up HJ Tray had a couple things left to say to his supporters or anybody else reading this, We thought it would be best to leave this completely unedited. “I’ve always wanted to explain this but my alter ego is being “The LNOE.” Which stands for “The Lamest N***`` on Earth” being the lamest on earth has a double meaning. It means being yourself unconditionally without a care of who judges you. You don’t care about being cool, so you’re “lame” on purpose. It also relates to so many people calling themselves real and don’t do any real or stand up. They’re actually the fakest and grimiest people you could ever know or meet & since the vast majority are so “real” I can’t be blending in with the fake. So therefore I’m lame. 🤓”