We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jerahn Thomas . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jerahn below.
Jerahn , appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
The project that I hold nearest and dearest to my heart right now is my EP entitled “From A Blank Canvas.” This musical body of work was in the works for about 7 years. The first song that I wrote for it was the EP entitled song FROM A BLANK CANVAS ft. Jonathan Rashun which was back in 2015. This project means so much to me not only because I was able to get both my mom and dad to be a part of it but also because it is a symbol of me conquering myself and the negative self doubtful thoughts I had about my artistry for so long. As you can see it took me forever and a day just to put it out, from the first song being written in 2015 to me finally putting out the project in 2022. The reason behind that mainly was due to the fact that I held a lot of self doubt upon myself and wasn’t truthfully confident in my artistry. Negative thoughts and being worried about what other people might think of me and the music itself kept me from pulling the trigger on it for quite some time.
“From A Blank Canvas” is a very sentimental body of work for me, everything about it I feel authentically represents me or at least who I was at a certain period of time in my life. From my parents making the voice recordings on the intro and outro, to releasing it on my birthday September 5th, down to the cover art, made by my good friend and artist TyTheSamurai, depicting the house that I spent 14 years of my life in; I can say this project is uniquely me. Even though it took me a while to finally put it out I was still working on music throughout those years that I was being my own worst enemy. “From A Blank Canvas” to me is the purest form of manifestation in the sense of being able to take an idea from the metaphysical plane and turning it into reality here on the physical plane we call Earth. As we’ve all heard before turning nothing into something. However, this is more than just “some thing” it’s beauty, it’s creativity, it’s art, it’s ME!
This project consists of 9 songs for the duration of 23 minutes and 3 seconds total. It not only shows my versatility as a hip hop artist but gives you a peep inside of my mind on range of topics from the self doubt, to love, all the way to my dreams and aspirations that I have. After putting it out I received an overwhelming amount of support, feedback, and constructive criticisms that helped assure me that I am indeed a great artist and that helped boost my confidence to a whole other level. Since the release of “From A Blank Canvas” I’ve had two of my songs “DREAMS COME REALITY” and “SOUL FOOD” featured in two movies, both based out of Houston and playing on Tubi TV entitled “The Hooper” and “Make It Out.” My first musical body of work has been out for over a year now but don’t think that I’m done promoting it and putting the ground work in for it there’s still music videos, content, and merchandise in the works for it so stay tuned for that.
I’d like to give a special shout out and thanks to the mixing and mastering engineer Sean Ayyy, the cover art painter TyTheSamurai, and the talented artists I had featured on it Andre Carte, Jonathan Rashun, AdeLese, and most of all my parents Sandra Hobbs-Marshall and Edwin Thomas for giving such heart felt messages about me being their son.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Jerahn Thomas I’m mostly known through my artist name Rahn The Don. I’m a multifaceted individual/artist based out of Houston with a lot of complexities and skills under my belt. What I am mainly known for is my music, videography/photography, art, and skateboarding. However, under those three umbrellas which are my main focuses I have done everything from writing music for other artists, writing & performing poetry, becoming a certified audio engineer, creative direction, video editing, curating art installations, documentation of life, and competing in skateboard competitions. In short I am a jack of all trades because I don’t believe there’s nothing that I can’t do and not do it at a high level.
My videography journey started back in college when my brother Jermaine Thomas gave me my first camera. He’s a videographer and short film maker/director himself so I feel like it was just a symbol of him passing the torch to me. Even though I didn’t do much with it then outside of make a few short simple videos it definitely sparked the idea of me being able to tell stories visually through what I capture. It wasn’t until I moved to Houston when I actually started taking filming seriously. I ended up buying this old vintage camera from the 90s called a Sony VX1000. For those who know this camera is a staple in the skateboard community. After meeting one of my best friends and skaters out here John Clark and getting sponsored by Geometric Skateshop I got immersed into the skate scene pretty deeply. This led to me making my first full length skate video entitled “It Is What It Is.” Making that video and the positive feedback I received with it led me to believe that I have a eye for capturing life in its raw essence. I loved the vintage aesthetic of the VX1000 so much I started looking for those kinds of cameras when I would go on my thrifting sprees. So now I have a collection of 10+ vintage cameras that range from the 80’s to the early 2000’s. Some of them work and some don’t but that’s just the risk you take when buying them. Shortly after “It Is What It Is” released I ended up meeting a published photographer by the name of John Tucker who actually got me my first paid gig as a videographer with a local Latina singer Chelsea Avina. I filmed a show for her at Warehouse Live and I believe from that moment forward opened the doors for me into the very huge creative scene that is alive and well here in Houston, TX. I’m pretty much known as the VHS guy because wherever I pull up to in Houston I’m more than likely going to have at least 2 of them on me documenting life and what’s going on around me. Just the fact that a country boy from Valdosta, GA was able to come to one of the biggest cities in America and make a name for myself through my creative endeavors is easily what I feel the most proud of myself for. I’ve been blessed to work with so many people ranging from fashion, modeling, artists, and different popular events that go on in Houston.
I’m fairly new to photography, I think this year come March will make 2 years that I got my first polaroid camera and started taking pictures. What inspired me to start taking pictures was mainly to document my grandparents as I was trying to visit them more throughout the years. My grandmother has these scrapbooks filled with pictures of the family both past and present, so I always took an interest into looking at them whenever I would go and that truly inspired me to get a camera and just start capturing life in its raw essence through stills just like I was doing with the videography. To match my vintage aesthetic from filming, I started taking strictly only polaroid and 35mm film photos. I think they just give a feel that you can’t really match with the modern cameras unless you’re adding filters to them to make the photos look a certain way. Over the 1st year of me taking only Polaroids I had accummulated around 800+ polaroids. Wondering how I could organize them I made this wall of polaroids which later became an art installation that I started getting booked to set it up for different events and shows as a photo booth/viewing exhibit. What I’m most proud of with my photography journey is being able to have my installation up in an art exhibit which I was able to do last year with the help of a good friend Alejandro whom I ironically met from making a skate video for his son. So that was just a full circle type of moment and very thankful I was able to have my art displayed in such a manner.
Rahn The Don is my brand with many different subcategories of services I provide and things I can do. What I want the people to know about me is that I’m a business man first. I pride myself in my work ethic, my creativity, doing a good job by others, and being uniquely and divinely myself at all times. Any one who chooses to work with me is guaranteed to have there vision come to life and not only love my work but love being able to work with me because I’m a genuine and outgoing person that loves to have fun in the name of creating.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
I think being more accepting and just genuinely showing more love to the artists/creatives and there work. Just like people say “cleanliness is next to godliness”, I like to say “creating is next to godliness.” Creating is such a spiritual thing for me and it’s us as artists taking the very nature of our beings and sharing it with the world. We’re sharing our thoughts, our pains, trials tribulations, joys, and our souls with the world. Artists come in all different types of packages whether that be from different looks, different backgrounds, different languages, etc, you get the point. I think it’s so easy for people to write us off as being weird, nerdy, or mainly just not taking us serious because we choose to go against the grain and create a reality and living off of our art and that hasn’t always been a norm. So I think if society just showed more love and were more accepting whether that be in places of business all the way down to the artist selling his works on the street it would create a more thriving and creative ecosystem.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
I believe the most rewarding aspects of being an artist or creative for me is receiving the love and support from clients and your peers who you put your work out to as well as the feeling of just being free. Like I mentioned before self doubt was a way that I used to sabotage myself and downplay myself for the longest. However, when I started embracing my creativity I started receiving so much love, support, and constructive criticism from so many people. I honestly didn’t think people would look at me in such a light through my creative endeavors so I went so long hiding them. Just to see that people believe in me and support the things I do creatively lets me know I’m on the right track and doing good things with what I create. “There’s no better freedom than having a peace of mind” is a quote from the lyrics off my song FROM A BLANK CANVAS ft. Jonathan Rashun. Quite honestly there’s no better freedom than creating because that’s what gives me my peace of mind. Creating is manifesting and as long as I can create I can manifest the life I want to live on this Earth during this lifetime.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @rahnthedon
- Facebook: Jerahn Thomas
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@jerahnt24?si=gcw4CvqXa8zad5kf
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@officialrahnthedon?_t=8j64vEyNP9H&_r=1
Image Credits
Max Hummels Nasa Lamode Alex G. MusixGeekz Entertainment Aaron X. Heather