A vocalist who takes inspiration from R&B and hip-hop, Layton Greene became an overnight star in late 2017 when a homemade video of her singing Kodak Black's "Roll in Peace" went viral and gave her an audience of millions.
Greene was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on December 4, 1998. She grew up with a love for music and sang for her own enjoyment, but didn't begin taking it seriously until she was 18 years old. Greene began making videos of herself singing some of her favorite tunes and posting them on social media. One of them was a version of Kodak Black's "Roll in Peace," with Greene putting her own spin on the lyrics. To her surprise, after posting it, the clip began attracting attention far beyond her circle of friends, going on to receive more than half a million views. Greene next partnered with producer G-Styles, recording a more professional version of what she called her "Roll in Peace Remix," and after it was posted online in November 2017, it exploded, receiving over three and a half million plays. The track became popular enough to rise to number 12 on the Hot R&B Songs chart. A few days before the end of 2017, Greene dropped her second studio track, an interpretation of Derez De'Shon's "Fed Up" that she called "Fed Up Remix." With G-Styles once again at the controls, Greene had recorded another success, and she celebrated by quitting her day job at a restaurant to focus on music full-time. In 2019, she released the single "Leave Em Alone," which also featured Lil Baby, City Girls, and PnB Rock.
Before Fame
She began to earn her social media following throughout 2017.
Trivia
Her first activity on SoundCloud after releasing her song was a repost of the TrippieHippieBabie EP GoodVibes. R&B and soul recording artist who first became known for his contributions on Instagram where she would rack up more than 1 million followers. Her song "Roll n Peace Remix" earned close to 4 million listens in only one month.
Family Life
She was born in E St. Louis, Missouri.
Layton Greene - Blame On Me
Layton Greene – an iHeartRadio On The Verge Artist – released her debut EP, Tell Ya Story, today via Quality Control Music/Level’D Up/Motown Records. The seven-song collection includes her powerful new single, “Blame On Me,” plus “I Love You” and five brand new songs. Download / stream Tell Ya Story
The 20-year-old vocalist is the first R&B artist signed to Quality Control, a move that HotNewHipHop hailed as “historic.” Greene tells her story on the gripping “Blame On Me.” The handwritten lyrics – seen in the background on the EP’s cover – vividly summon painful childhood memories and explain how Greene blamed herself for the chaos around her: a missing father, a mother who grappled with bipolar disorder, drug addiction and domestic abuse and ultimately abandoned her 16-year-old daughter at the behest of her new man, racial bullying, homelessness and sexual abuse. Greene shot the video for “Blame On Me,” in and around her hometown of East St. Louis, IL with director Gabriel Hart, a.k.a. “Video God” (Migos, Young Jeezy). “Blame On Me”.
“I’ve been through some stuff, but I couldn’t go to my mother with my problems,” recalls Layton Greene. “I just adapted to what I was going through. I try to find the light in every situation.”
That fortitude has served Greene well, giving her the resolve to pursue a career in music. In 2017, she went viral after remixing Kodak Black’s “Roll in Peace” and uploading the homemade video to social media. This prompted the singer to go into the studio with producer G-Styles to record the extended version of the song. “Roll In Peace Remix” gained over 3.5 million plays on SoundCloud in the first month and jumped into the Top 15 of Billboard’s Hot R&B Songs chart. Greene co-wrote all of the songs on Tell Ya Story. G-Styles produced many of the tracks and served as an Executive Producer along with Pierre “P” Thomas and Kevin “Coach K” Lee.
The poignant “I Love You” and soulful “Open Wounds” deal the painful aftermath of a break-up while “Never Knew” celebrates a love based on mutual respect and commitment. Views of the official video for “I Love You,” which already exceed three million. Tell Ya Story follows Greene’s spring 2019 single, “Leave Em Alone” ft. Lil Baby, City Girls and PnB Rock, which has racked up more than 60 million cumulative global streams and is generating over eight million streams a week. The track went to #1 on YouTube Music’s “R&B on the Rise” playlist after its release and is now playlisted in Spotify & Apple Music’s top R&B playlists – Are & Be and A-List:R&B.
“Leave Em Alone” is featured on the compilation album Quality Control: Control The Streets Volume 2. Views of the official video have surpassed 16 million. In her career to date, Greene has amassed over 350 million streams worldwide across all of her songs.
Greene hopes that the Tell Your Story inspires others to do just that, to be imperfect, to be real. “It’s okay not to be okay sometimes. It’s okay to go through stuff,” she says. “We’re all human. Sometimes we forget that.”
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