Birth Name: Jadyn Ghalen
Stage Name: “Boa”
Date of Birth: August 14, 1996 (Age 26)
Origin: Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
Residence: Hollywood, California, U.S.
Occupations: Rapper, Singer, Songwriter, Instrumentalist, Record Producer, Businessman
Genres: Hip-Hop, Rap, Trap, RnB
Instruments: Vocals, Keyboards, Piano, Drums
Years Active: 2018 – present
Associated Acts: Orion, Kara Romero, Marina Balan, Aubrey Mikkel, Alexis Brooke
Label: Tric-Jam Records [Artist] / Dahlhouse Entertainment [Artist] /
Royale Vices & Virtues [Owner]
Jadyn “Boa” Ghalen (born August 14, 1996) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter and record producer. He’s widely known as one third of the rap/hip-hop trio ‘Orion’ following a highly successful breakthrough period for the group, beginning in 2020 with their debut single “Fuck Me Over” and culminating the first chapter of their breakthrough with their self-titled debut album “Orion” in January 2022. Throughout that period, the industry saw the trio rise to the precipice rapidly, releasing eight top-five charting singles. Alongside his brother and cousin and band members Jamal ‘Circuit’ Ghalen and Brayton ‘Bellows’ Carter, they all signed a first option agreement to solo record deals with ‘Tric-Jam Records’ alongside their initial record deal as part of the group, the deal stipulated that should the trio choose to release work on an individual basis they would have the option themselves to continue to release under the ‘Tric-Jam Records’ imprint, this gave the trio the freedom to know that a solo deal was there for them should they choose it.
Following the release of their debut album “Orion” in 2022, the trio following this up with an NFL/Madden supported E.P before they headed out on an extensive touring schedule in 2022 with the sophomore ‘Orion’ record expected to be written and recorded towards the end of 2023 with a likely 2024 release date expected. Of course, the trio are expected to expand their horizons throughout this period, they showed their willingness to partner up with different brands and organisations with their exclusive NFL deal and the group are slated to contribute further tracks to both the NFL in the upcoming season as well as songs being created for the Madden video game franchise. Following the released of their “Off-Season” E.P the trio supported Rum and Coke on their world tour before taking a break as a group, this allowed the trio to venture out into the industry in whichever ways they wanted before being expected to re-convene in later summer 2023 to continue working as a group.
Although he doesn’t tend to play instruments on recorded work, he can play piano and drums to a high standard, this is generally used in composing the general structure of the song before somebody else performs the instrumentation in the studio, often used via computer technology. He prefers to have the freedom to focus on his vocal performance and delivery in the studio which is his main attribute. Alongside recorded work as a member of ‘Orion’ he has also got production credits to his name on all ‘Orion’ releases so far, as well as the 2020 E.P release by long-term friend ‘Kara Romero’ with “The Therapy Sessions (Vol. I)” and her sophomore album “Post-Traumatic” from 2023, these early production credits are listed to the entirety of the trio, but it’s a path that Jadyn is likely to move into alongside his own solo recorded and production work.
Alongside the chart success achieved throughout ‘Orion’s’ brief career so far, he has three mainstream awards to his name picking up ‘Artist to Watch’ and ‘Best Urban Single’ at the FCA VII Awards in 2020 where they also performed live, one of which was the debut appearance of future single “Playin’” which featured Aubrey Mikkel on the track and saw the RnB star make her appearance onstage with the trio. This was then followed up in 2021 with the trio picking up the ’Favourite Urban Act’ award at the FCA VIII. Alongside this, he has picked up number one record accolades and has received critical success throughout his career for his work with ‘Orion’. 2022 saw ‘Orion’ release three singles and the E.P “The Off-Season E.P’ to critical and commercial success before opting to take a break at the end of 2022 following two years of constant work in order to fully establish themselves within the industry.
The decision for the group to take a break has been littered with rumours within the press of in-fighting and tensions within the group which has always been denied by all three members of the group, acknowledging that they don’t always agree on things and often have different ideas of where they want to go with their work together. However it is expected that the trio will join Rum and Coke on the final leg of their world tour in the summer of 2023 and return to the studio to begin work on their sophomore album.
During the break from the group, the trio have begun their first individual steps as solo artists with all three members signing solo contracts to Tric-Jam Records alongside their group deal. The first to release an entirely solo track was Jadyn as he dropped “Mentality Monster” on April 23, 2023 and the track garnered a lot of interest and found itself reaching the number one spot in the singles chart, setting the table for future releases as a solo artist and removing any doubts about whether he was capable of making waves in the industry on his own merit. It has been confirmed that he will be releasing a couple of more solo tracks and potentially a debut E.P before ‘Orion’ return to the studio towards the end of 2023.
BIOGRAPHYJadyn “Boa” Ghalen was born August 14, 1996 in Detroit, Michigan to Angela and Marcus. His mother worked as a teaching assistant during the day and a cleaner during the evenings and his father was a labourer/builder but left the family when Jadyn was only five years old and they have been estranged ever since. He was raised alongside his older brother Jamal “Circuit” Ghalen and his cousin Brayton “Bellows” Carter. Jadyn didn’t show the early interest in music, performing and the arts in general in the same way that his cousin Brayton did, but instead Jadyn found his passion in sports. As a child he was involved in all types of sport, he played little league baseball with a lot of promise and soccer but as he started to get older he began finding more of a preference in Basketball and Football, from the age of 10 years old he had fully switched out Baseball for Basketball as his primary sport and from the age of 10 years old all the way throughout his school years he was the best player on his team, to the point where a sports scholarship was a very likely option up until the age of 15.
It was around the age of 15 that Jadyn began to get influenced by things outside of school, he started regularly skipping school and began hanging with a group of disruptive people, he was initially brought into this by his older brother who was a leader of this group, the group generally consisted of stealing and selling products, electrical goods and sneakers and sports clothing eventually leading to selling drugs. During this period was a time where he was starting to try various things, alcohol and drugs as well as sexual encounters and was a period of destructiveness that could have derailed his entire life. He was arrested a couple of times for violence related incidents and has been forced to do community service. This period of self-destruction lasted from around the age of 15 to 20, until an incident involving one of his friends being shot and seeing the effect this had on both his young cousin who was left completely shaken by the incident and the trouble that they were all bringing to their mothers door which was the reason for him to re-valuate his choices alongside his older brother and younger cousin.
He took on a job working in a sporting goods store and due to his cousin Brayton’s obsessive interest in music, his focus turned to working his job and working on music with his cousin and older brother. They went on to form ‘Orion’ in 2018, it took a little while for them to figure things out and gel together but they worked on writing songs together and playing around with the technology and instrumentation of music, they realised that they had a lot of passion for the project and quickly decided to start taking it seriously as a possible career path. They worked together tirelessly to create their own songs and got some minor success with regular touring patterns in their home state of Michigan, but it was clear that there was more interest in them as DJ's in the local clubs than holding audiences attention with their own original material.
It wasn't until a run of shows in New York in the summer of 2019 when things started to really begin happening for the group, they were hired to DJ for a surprise birthday celebration for New York based rapper Kara Romero, with the rap artist stating that she was so focussed and blown away by what they were doing and the mixes they were putting together that she spent the majority of her own party at the booth, stating that they probably had a lifetime of bonding and getting to know each other in one evening. She made sure to keep in touch with them and asked them to head back out to New York in the winter for some live shows that she wanted them to provide the backing music for. This in turn led to her asking them to produce some material she was working on, initially this wasn't intended for anything but her own self-reflection but later led to becoming her 2020 E.P “The Therapy Sessions (Vol. I)”.
Following on from their work producing the E.P and it's summer 2020 release, they were praised for their work as both backing musicians for the recording and as a production team, with particular reference to their ability to understand the lyrical content and craft the sound of the E.P to match the tone of the lyrics without taking away from the lyrical content of the release. It was at this point where they were able to consider a number of different offers within the music industry, one of which was continuing solely as supporting musicians for Kara Romero, as well as a couple of offers from record labels as a group. Eventually they agreed a two album recording contract with Tric-Jam Records, falling under the Studio60 corporation, a move which saw them rise rapidly within the music industry, dropping their debut single around a month after signing to the label and immediately becoming an established name in the industry.
ORION DISCOGRAPHY;Studio Albums:•
"Orion" (January 30, 2022) [#1]
Singles:•
"Fuck Me Over" (June 24, 2020) [#1]
•
"Make America Breathe Again" (July 25, 2020) [#2]
•
"Playin'" (feat. Aubrey Mikkel) (August 30, 2020) [#1]
•
"We Bring Em' Up" (December 26, 2020) [#5]
•
"Remedy" (feat. Alexis Brooke) (March 13, 2021) [#2]
•
"Dynasty" (June 26, 2021) [#1]
•
"Rookie of the Year" (August 15, 2021) [#1]
•
"Homecoming" (October 24, 2021) [#3]
•
"Unstoppable, Unplayable, Unkillable" (feat. Marina Balan) (February 20, 2022) [#2]
•
"MVP" (August 20, 2022) [#4]
•
"Off-Season" (August 20, 2022) [#4]
•
"All Accelerator, No Brakes" (February 17, 2024) [#1]
Features:• TBA
E.P's/Mix-tapes/Live Albums/Compilations;•
"The Off-Season E.P" (August 21, 2022) [#1]
SOLO DISCOGRAPHY;Studio AlbumsTBA
Singles•
“Mentality Monster” (April 23, 2023) [#1]
•
"Euphoria" (May 28, 2023) [#1]
•
"Judgement Day" (August 6, 2023) [#2]
Features•
Radio Vine - "Jury" (feat. Jadyn Ghalen) (July 15, 2023)
E.P’s/Mix-Tapes/Live Albums/Compilations•
"Mentality Monster E.P" (August 19, 2023) [#1]
PRODUCTION;•
Kara Romero - "The Therapy Sessions (Vol. I)" (June 13, 2020) [#3]
•
Orion - "Orion" (January 30, 2022) [#1]
•
Orion - "The Off-Season E.P" (August 21, 2022) [#1]
•
Kara Romero - "Post-Traumatic" (February 4, 2023) [#1]
AWARDS;• FCA VII - Artist to Watch [2020]
• FCA VII - Best Urban Single - "Fuck Me Over" [2020]
• FCA VIII - Favourite Urban Act [2021]
• Universal Music Award - E.P/Mixtape of the Year [2024]
• Universal Music Award - Artist of the Year [2024]
