Keeps Shining

Born to a biracial couple, Real Juan was named. However, when he was adopted as a baby, his new
family renamed him Brian Ralston. He (Real Juan) would like it to be known that “I’m not trying to make
any puns about real ones”.
From an early age he observed his father write songs, and begun to rhyme (rap) before he was 14 years
old. Then at 14 he begun penning his rhymes to paper. He was “inspired by Run DMC, and [had] some
friends from Barbados and Jamaica, that I would jam with. [They had] turn tables and would throw
down some rhymes”. Which would lead Real Juan to “enter battle of the band competitions in high
school”.
Real Juan left music in the mid 2000s and was building houses. He would build houses until his ”mental
health took a turn for the worse. I got diagnosed schizoaffective disorder and ADHD n have been getting
treatment and have been in therapy ever since”.
In 2015 Real Juan would begin his journey back to music and hiphop, creating an album named
“Robotica”. However, with the success of creating a critically acclaimed album he “continued to struggle
with mental illness concurrent disorders, until getting treatment in 2018 in Ponoka AB Canada”.
The time Real Juan spent in Ponoka would be spent healing, and he found that in writing. He wrote the
album “Sick as your secrets”, and say’s “The therapy of songwriting itself has been a big part of the
healing being done in my life. I think my main inspiration is the highest Yah! I should’ve been dead many
times over from my struggles n situations that I’ve been in. Like, [my name] “Juan” means “Yahuwah is
gracious” n I’ve seen it first hand. I’m a man of faith, not organized religion. I’ll tell you the truth cause
I’m not a liar; I rap for Yah because I couldn’t make the choir, lol, guess that sums it up as what
motivates n inspires me!”.
To date Real Juan has 12 full/EP albums to date and it doesn’t look like he’s stopping anytime soon. Real
Juan has begun tapping into the music video arena and looking to add more videos on his YouTube page
@realjuan3909 along with releasing new music.