Born Darrell Roosevelt Walden Alston, D Real has been a creator since his early years. Growing up he gained music inspiration listening to artists like Tupac, the Notorious B.I.G., and Lauren Hill, along with other legendary artists of several genres. Raised in New York’s inner city, native to Brooklyn, D Real has had to face rough situations during his childhood. Although he lived in an unstable enviornment, sometimes not having the bare essentials like food and shelter, the struggles that he faced made him turn towards basketball, sketching and music to escape the stress of living in those conditions. As he went through the separation from his parents at the age of 13, he found his passion for creating music. Writing to the melody in his head, he started crafting lyrics and structuring his own songs. Inspired by Kanye West he pre-wrote six albums during the age of 16 when he started to take his craft seriously. However, it wasn’t until after he graduated and left his aunt’s house that he was able to record his first song at the age of 19 in his dorm room at Coastal Carolina University. This song was entitled ‘Flow till the Last Line’. This melodic piece was only public to the Coastal Carolina Community at the time. It reflected on his endurance to stay focused on his goals and dreams despite the obstacles he continued to face after moving to SC and even in college. This song was the first stepping stone to pursuing his passion for music.
Before pursuing music, D Real wanted to become a professional basketball player. He strove for this since he was young. He even underwent rigorous training to pursue playing college ball. However, it wasn’t until he failed to make the CCU basketball team at the walk-on tryouts that he realized God had other plans for him. Once he began to focus on music, he released his first mixtape, The Unleash Vol. 1, on ReverbNation in May 2011. He received a lot of positive feedback from his freshmen mixtape. After this mixtape dropped, he started to perform during the summer at different local venues. After releasing his second mixtape, The Unleash Vol. 2: Break Away, he performed in front of his 1st crowd of 1000 people at Coastal Carolina’s Homecoming 2013. After receiving much praise for his performance, he got the opportunity to open for Young Thug at the House of Blues in Sept 2014. This performance also brought success and pushed D Real into making a name for himself in the hip-hop community.
Surrealist Nation is born.
After taking time to develop his craft, D Real decided it wasn’t enough to just create and spread a message through his music. By creating a label for independent artist, he is now able to assist in giving other artists a platform to curate their music to elevate to the next stage of their careers. D Real looks to inspire the world through the music created by himself and his roster of independent artists. The first project released under Surrealist Nation was Choir Boy EP on July 4, 2015. Shortly after, D Real dropped three music videos, all a week apart, for The tracks ‘Choir Boy’, ‘Brooklyn Knights’, and ‘Lover’s Hit’ to further promote the EP. D Real was also contacted in regards to Choir Boy to do a live online radio interview with DJ Casper Banks. During the show they played and discussed the song ‘No Hesitation’, a fan favorite from this project.
His next EP was a collaboration with artist/producer JeaniusBeats entitled #rootofALLEvil$ released February 2016. The single ‘Passion Lights’ was released in April of that same year. Teaming up with JeaniusBeats from Georgetown, SC, #rootofALLEvil$ was created to highlight the struggle of being spiritual in a secular world as well as the battles with temptation and not selling out as an artist in the entertainment industry. This EP bridged the gap and allows the listener to peer into the life of an artist from two different perspectives. The single Passion Lights is about breaking continuous cycles in your life that sometimes can only be broken by God.
Drawing inspiration from Charleston, SC and traveling to visit places such as Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Miami, and his hometown Brooklyn, D Real released his latest EP Project Wonderful produced by WonderlustBeats & engineered by DubzNY. Now he is back with a team to help him carry out his vision. He also has a roster of artists that will be making their label debuts later during 2020. The first added to Surrealist Nation’s Roster is neo soul artist now known as Urthie you may have known her as Lia Marie. The other artist is Aisa Blue/Weird Blue who is a singer/rapper out of Columbia, SC. Aisa Blue is featured on D Real’s upcoming project Ride Free on the songs Nite Ride and I Thought I was Free. You can be on the lookout for ‘Money Trees’ with Urthie early 2021. His latest interview with Nephew Quan and Blue can be heard Tuesday September 1, 2020 live on iHeart radio on WDRB Media Radio station.
You can check out his latest singles Ride Free and AK2020 on all streaming platforms.
