Born in Savannah Ga, one of the largest port cities in the country,artist, producer, and songwriter Ja1da is no stranger to commerce, or the blending of cultures. As the creator of a genre of music he calls Alt-Trap, Ja1da draws from a variety of sources in his music, attire, and brand. Alt-Trap is all about blending in while still standing out. Taking the internationally adored sounds and aesthetics of traditional Trap music but inserting Neo Soul, Alternative Rock, and Classical music elements, he interrogates Trap for its rigidity and sometimes inherently destructive themes. From a young age, Ja1da grew within the realities of poverty as witness to the drug trade, living in project housing and watching as the Trap simultaneously entertained, fed, and destroyed those around him. Watching as his friends sacrificed their lives and freedoms for a chance at fleeting material wealth, Ja1da knew that the Trap wasn’t as attractive as it appears, but was inexorably linked to it all the same. Choosing instead to create material wealth through the production of music, he sought to attain the same things those friends had, but with the knowledge that nothing he created himself could be taken away. As a self taught piano player &, poet,creativity comes naturally to him, with ruminations on growing up in a single parent home and the violence in his community as inspiration for lyrics. His music is laced with honest admissions of his past, present and the aspirations for a better future.