Literally, with no place to go, Greene turned to social media and reached out to members of her paternal family. Her aunt, who was miles away from the house she’d intended on making a home, answered the call and welcomed her with open arms. With some semblance of peace, she landed a gig at Walmart, then focused on her immediate goals.
“I actually didn’t go through with getting my high school diploma,” she recalls with an obvious sense of determination. “So, I was like, ‘I gotta get my GED because the next step got to be college, no matter how I make it happen’ because I didn’t know where my life was heading. I wanted to be a singer, [but] that just seemed like a dream — so far-fetched.”
If nothing else, Greene’s love for music and her God-given ability to sing was a means of escape and a way to satisfy members of her growing fan base. So, in between shifts, she decided to post some content that they would appreciate. She found the perfect cover, Kodak Black’s “Roll In Peace,” and the rest was history.
“I didn’t think it was gonna blow up … like that,” she says. “I didn’t think it was gonna blow up at all. The people that do know I can sing and … a lot of people on my Snapchat that did follow me at that point, they knew I could sing, but I never showed my face. I thought this should be different. I’m gonna show my face in this video. [I was] literally laying on the floor … doing what I do. And I just posted it, and everybody went crazy.”
When her newfound stardom became too much of a distraction for her co-workers at Walmart, Greene pivoted again. Her move from Tennessee to Atlanta proved to be worthwhile, as Quality Control soon anointed her its princess of R&B. And, even though a global pandemic has put a temporary hold on her budding singing career, Layton Greene has learned that proper perspective goes a long way toward achieving goals and more.
“I feel like I’m really kind of blooming into a woman now,” she says, contemplating the positive impact of her time in quarantine. “I just feel like I’m finding my womanhood, and I feel like I’m learning about myself. It’s helping me find myself. I’m just focused on myself. I’m in the house, so I’m focusing on my music and my next project, and I feel like it’s a good time.”
Indeed it is.
Story by N. Ali Early
Images by Tasha Bleu
