I remember being 10 years old challenging my friend Kevin to a beat battle. For as long as I can remember I’ve always wanted to do one thing and that's- make music. At a very young age, I fell in love with music, how complex and diverse and even how challenging it is. Music can be a work of beauty, or it can be aggressive and angry. The fact that a few notes and progressions can provoke some to fear, or even built up such strong emotions that it could make someone cry, still blows my mind. And after my first time witnessing a song come alive from nothing, I was hooked. I knew very early that this is the thing I would spend the rest of my life doing. But if only it was that simple.

I was born and raised in the Washington DC Area which isn’t actually the music capital of the world. Don’t get me wrong some of the most talented and creative artists I’ve met have been here. But generally speaking, there are no major label headquarters here or a large distribution companies or place where the who’s who or music “gatekeepers" hang, like maybe you would find somewhere like a New York, Atlanta, LA, etc. Not to mention the fact that as much as people love listening to music and the fact that music is everywhere from inside our cars to commercials about our cars, to even walking in your local grocery store. Despite music being such a music big part of our day to day lives, no one thinks you should do it as a career. “Have a plan B”, music isn't for everybody. People love to tell you what the odds are. (you see where this is going)

Fast forward a little, it's 2014 I’m married with one child walking to the mailbox pealing off eviction notices on my apartment's mailbox, scraping together money for food working at jobs I hate making little to no money. It’s at points like these that a man begins to think about his life and decisions. By this time, I had been producing for over 16 years ouch! For those 16yrs I had been thinking if I was good enough then things would just work out for me, I just had to make sure my music was good. 

The turning point came for me when, at the verge of just giving up, feeling like I was selfish for even wanting to be a producer, why couldn't I want to be a doctor, lawyer, something that would make more money, something with more stability. one day something clicked that had not before. This whole time I had been hating and complaining about this and that person and how could they be there and I’m here.  But maybe it wasn't about just being the “best”, but being the smartest, maybe it just wasn’t who I knew but also and maybe more importantly what I knew. From that point on I went hen on a journey of discovering, learning and discovering not only how do I make the best music, but how do I make the best brand and build an audience around that. How do I “Beat the Odds “. So now not only do I try pushing the limits and boundaries with how I approach music but also with how I approach everything. I know there are a lot of Artists and Producers who may feel like I felt so another huge part of what I am passionate about and love to do is, use and share all that I have learned because I know it’s possible to Beat the Odds.

Don Arte is a Hip-Hop artist from Wilmington, DE. Don Arte is formally known as Jay Ferno and has multiple projects under that name such as, Life On the A-List, Nobody's Favorite 1 & 2, & Aspire, with a host of mixtapes and singles. Listen to the great music he creates and experience the "Arte on the wall".

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