More Than a Moment

The controversial winner of season two of Rhythm + Flow on Netflix, he captured the heartbeat of a city known for its historic fight for civil rights and glittering strip club culture, but maybe not the world. Like the city itself, DreTL is a new phoenix rising from red clay stained by civil rights marches and carjacked dreams, his music heavy over trap beats that echo Atlanta's hip-hop scene—raw, unfiltered, and unapologetic.

DreTL's story stands out in how it blends the all-too-typical struggles of Black boys clawing their way out of the inner city with his unique ability to rise from obscurity, overcoming personal and societal challenges and becoming a new voice for his city. His improbable victory reminds us that in this city of shattered glass ceilings and cracked concrete, impossible dreams don't just survive—they thrive.

On this day, rapper DreTL exudes confidence, even while battling a cold during our ninety-minute conversation in his southeast Atlanta drawl. "I want to be one of the greatest [hip-hop] artists, or else why am I even doing this."

At age 23, his life has flipped upside down since being plucked from what seems like obscurity by a talent recruiter for the show when he was 21. He had less than four thousand followers on Instagram, and his content at the time didn't scream, 'I want to be the next rap star.' It's been over a year since production wrapped, and DreTL is in the middle of his old life and his new life of celebrity.

"I never view myself as [famous] now until I walk outside and people know me, especially in my city," says DreTL. "They ask for a picture or an autograph, but I still walk to the grocery store. I don't look no different; I wear the same clothes. I still live in student apartments."

A recent graduate of Georgia State University with a bachelor's degree in music production and a minor in film production, his two passions, there is no denying that his life is different. "Being on the show while juggling being in school with no support as a full-time senior was extremely challenging. Mentally knowing I'm meeting Eminem, my favorite rapper, on a Wednesday or whatever day it was, and then I have an assignment due, to even mentally put myself into that headspace to keep doing the work was the hardest part," says DreTL.

Growing up in a dangerous MLK Atlanta neighborhood, DreTL describes his childhood as "complicated" with many "layers," a subject he finds exhausting to revisit. Some of his first childhood memories were when he was between four and five years old before his great-aunt rescued him and took him in and raised him in the Summerhill area of Atlanta when SWAT raided his childhood home, which doubled as a “drug house”. His mom was arrested during the raid while his dad was already behind cell walls. "That's one of the first memories I got. My house being raided and my mom getting locked up," says DreTL.

Visually reaching back in his mind for other memories doesn't seem to exist for Dre. He admits to struggling with anxiety and panic attacks, especially after the show, and likened it to post-traumatic stress syndrome. "Now that I know what depression is, I was basically depressed for my whole childhood, but I didn't know I was depressed because I didn't know what it was," says DreTL. "I thought it was just regular; I thought this how you supposed to feel. I kind of blocked it all out. Everything in my memory since [childhood] is kind of fucked."

It was music that started to set him free when he was in the fifth and sixth grades. He began freestyling with all the boys in his class at the lunch table. "It was around this time I realized, or everyone realized, I was much better than everyone else," says DreTL. "I started taking it more seriously in middle school. I bought a notebook, and I pretty much wrote raps every day. I did cyphers, rap battles in the schoolyard, all that type of stuff. The next point I took it seriously was when I was a freshman in college."

The spotlight is now on DreTL, with fans eager to see if he will rise to the occasion. Since the show, he's released two singles, "Don't Call It A Comeback" and "Like I Never Left." His first upcoming studio project, titled Even When I Win, I Lose, is the music he's banking on to win over naysayers, even though he doesn't seem concerned about capturing the moment.

"I'm okay going the hard route. I'm okay with building this shit up from the ground up," says DreTL. "People keep telling me I missed my moment, but this is not about a moment. I'm trying to have a career; this is my life."