With the new age of rap coming in all shapes and sizes, it’s only right that this is the case for artists too. Tana (formerly Babysantana), is the 5’5”, 16 year old prodigy who has made quite the name for himself, coming onto the scene with huge drops in collaboration with his peers Slump6s & Ka$hdami. “Antisocial” and “14” (which landed a Lyrical Lemonade music video) were hits immediately and since then, he has been well mentored by someone who also made quite the name for himself, Lil Tecca. 2020 marked the start of their professional career with “Prada (Remix)” featuring Tecca himself, but since then, Tana has only seen more and more success including signing a deal with Galactic Records. He studied the game and made himself one of the most notable leaders in the next new wave of music.
Since his solidification into the music industry in 2021, we just received our first glimpse into how Tana will continue to evolve his sound and flow with his debut album with Galactic, “Gaultier”. Although it may lack in the amount of tracks (11 songs), Tana proves the cliche saying: quality > quantity. Before the release of the album, he dropped 3 vastly different singles, “hell yeah”, “swaggin like this” (w/ Lancey Foux), and “fear no man”. They each highlighted a different area of Tana’s strengths, whether it was his showing off his choir-rooted vocals or ability to use his voice as an instrument in itself.
My favorite part about this album was that my two most listened to songs are VERY different. “hell nah” is a song I can picture listening to in the car with the windows down, with its spacy pads and high-energy vocals, whereas “hope you feel the same” is a one you’d rather listen to yourself when you’re shuffling through your bag playlist. The track gave off a reminiscent vibe of something off of Trippie Redd’s “A Love Letter to You” series, which is fitting as he received a cosign from Trippie himself.
Overall, this album felt like a reintroduction to Tana, being his first album since changing his stage name. It felt like a coming of age and sign of maturity in the artist, which can be seen in the versatility and potency in each of his songs. A 16 year old capable of making consistently good music is an achievement in itself, but I think it’s time to acclaim Tana for being able to keep up with anyone, and most importantly show the younger generations that age isn’t a reason to not chase after your dreams. Be on the lookout for Tana and his influence on young artists in the future.
Gaultier by Tana is out now on all platforms.