On the surface of the underground, tana has achieved more at 16 years old than most have achieved in their entire careers. Shedding his former moniker BabySantana this past year, the Georgia native experienced growth in all facets — well beyond a name change.
With a glistening soundscape and thick-end confidence, tana shows off his musical maturity with the release of his 11-track debut project, GAULTIER. Sharing its bonus version on Friday (Feb. 24) with a new track featuring Trippie Redd (“katch me outside”), the new wave savant continues to build his brand with another star-powered co-sign.
While most of Tana’s fans have grown up with him, listeners have been eager to hear this project after multiple snippets surfaced online and gained traction on TikTok. This isn’t the last fans will hear of Tana this year either, according to his manager Guiseppe at Galactic Records, who revealed he has “three tapes” on the way in 2023.
Tana’s three hit singles released over previous months, “hell yeah,” “swaggin like this” featuring Lancey Foux, and “fear no man” are all included on the rapper’s new effort. On first listen, GAULTIER has tana on a whole new wave as he displays his vocal range and ability to create celestial melodies. This is of course with the help of a star-studded list of producers on the project such as Internet Money’s Taz Taylor, Nick Mira, Paryo and pinkgrillz88 as well as underground up-and-comers in Zodiac and Saint.
In the album’s opening track, “y” sees tana explore his vulnerability by opening up about struggling with his feelings in a relationship. For day-one fans, this is something fairly new from the underground mainstay as tana pours his heart and soul into this one.
On “archive,” tana raps about keeping the right group of people around him with his increasing popularity and fame. Throughout the song, tana continuously switches his vocal pitch finding pockets to hold out the end of certain words and lines. This quality is a standout factor throughout the album as tana is able to add a whole new element of dynamics to his music.
On major highlights in “gon be ok” and “as i walk thru the path,” tana blends his atmospheric ad-libs into the beat itself with different vocoder effects and ethereal reverb. He also explores new genres of music on the two closing tracks of the album, “hills @ night” (a more electric pop-focused track), and “hope you feel the same” (a warm acoustic melody).
Simply put, GAULTIER is tana’s best body of work to date. He gives listeners an in-depth display of his new sound all while experimenting with different genres. In just 11 tracks, tana exhibits extensive growth within his music to create a staple body of work for his catalog in GAULTIER.
Listen to GAULTIER below!
