Jonah Lindsey Donnell, also known by his stage name as Jaylin Santana (formerly Jay-D) is a rapper, singer, and songwriter. His music career began in early 2014 when he met high school friend and fellow rapper Darryl “De~Rail” Pioch of whom helped Santana launch his career by teaching him how to write songs, providing him beats, and recording his first singles along with his debut album Route 58 in his home studio under his independent label DB Recordz. Santana’s first singles “Far From Perfect”, “Destiny Defies Death”, “Welcome To SCN”, and “Christmas In G’burg” were released on Soundcloud in late 2014 under his then stage name Jay-D. He would promote his music by sharing the Soundcloud links on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. He would also promote his music by handing out CDs to his peers in high school. Also under his former stage name Jay-D, Santana released his debut album Route 58 on Soundcloud in April of 2015 and on YouTube in October of that same year. The album received positive feedback for Santana’s unique flow and lyricism as well as his songs containing truthful and moral messages. However, Route 58 also received negative criticism for its lyrics containing massive vulgarity, misogyny, and slander toward kids he grew up with as an adolescent. Santana was sixteen years old when he wrote Route 58, and he is twenty as of November 8, 2017, so Santana has decided to refrain from using such lyrics in his music as he believes he is more mature than that now. Route 58 was named after a street that Santana lived off when he grew up in Elgin, Illinois because the stories told in his lyrics on the album are based on Santana’s life growing up in Elgin and moving to nearby Saint Charles when he was fifteen years old. In May of 2016, Santana released a playlist titled Uprising on Soundcloud under his real name. For promotional purposes, Santana subsequently broke down the playlist into a project of seven singles that he released on YouTube and Soundcloud throughout 2016. The songs from Uprising are remarkably different from Route 58 because the lyrics contain more positive and meaningful messages without any explicit or degrading lyrics. Santana also believes he was “far more who he really is as a person down inside” on this project than Route 58, also considering the fact he released the songs under his real name rather than Jay-D. Santana would change his stage name numerous times due to Jay-D sounding “too close to Jay-Z”, multiple other artists using that pseudonym, and controversy with his peers and family over the other monikers he would experiment. In November of 2016, Santana decided once and for all that his stage name would be Jaylin Santana, and he will never change it again under any circumstances. Santana believes this pseudonym will signify his new persona as a musical artist, and it will grant him the opportunity to articulate his true personality. The name Jaylin was made by the first letter of his first name followed by the first three letters of his middle name. Santana was added to the pseudonym because Santana believes the meaning of Santana (Saintlike) precisely conveys who he is in his heart and what his music will manifest. Santana was born in Memphis, Tennessee and raised in Chicago. He endured a hardship-filled life in which his parents divorced when he was only six years old, his stepfather abused him all the way until he was seventeen (when Santana and his mom finally moved away from him), and he was bullied all throughout grade school, middle school, and high school because of how different he was than his peers due to autism of which Santana was diagnosed with when he was three years old. Music became Santana’s escape, especially at the age of sixteen when he discovered his talent in writing songs.

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