An Inspired Chat with Damien Raye of South Portland, Maine

We recently had the chance to connect with Damien Raye and have shared our conversation below.

Good morning Damien, we’re so happy to have you here with us and we’d love to explore your story and how you think about life and legacy and so much more. So let’s start with a question we often ask: What are you being called to do now, that you may have been afraid of before?
Simply putting myself out there to the world & letting people see me again.. LETTING myself grow! Trauma and some of the losses I have had put me in a state of self sabotage/ self protection for a while. Was it intended? Absolutely not. Was it happening anyways..? YES! It is wild when the veil was lifted it suddenly all made sense, like no people aren’t ignoring you now unlike before, you just were unconsciously doing things that would keep you from being seen, feeling scared to lose the success again or whatever. Its a complicated but very interesting web of thoughts & actions that is for sure! Overall, we all have our reasons for why we do what we do & unique stories that made us who we are. No regrets or mistakes, only lessons! I had to go through every moment & come to this realization myself that I was being my own worst enemy once I started my music career over.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Damien Raye Alexander, or you can call me by my artist name Damien Raye (or even for the longtime fans, D-Raye) I am a hip hop artist/inspirational speaker on a mission to do what I love worldwide while also making the world a better place. Just loving my life & being an example for everyone else around me with a dream! My fans the sunrayes are all family to me & when I am on stage I am always trying to leave a good message for humanity itself! I care about others & I always have wanted to only use my fame for what I can do with it. I want to give to charities, help others dreams come true, buy my family a house & just put everybody on, ya know? I am all about sunshine & positivity. That is why my name is Damien Raye. Shoutout to my mom for drawing suns before she was born then giving me the middle name “Raye” knowing I would be a ray of sunshine in this world, pretty wild how I made that concept for my fans before she even told me that story. Meant to be! What makes me unique is that through hip hop I always have a positive message & it also has a spiritual flavor, with focus on mental health, positive living, & other things I have been through/ what I believe in. I never box myself in, I just say what I believe in or want to say that is real to me. I released my latest single “slow it down” in June which is all about my journey of overcoming self sabotage. Owning that it happened but saying don’t get it twisted sure I went through a lot but NOTHING ever changed. I am still the hard working, very ambitious & loving human being you always knew. I am working on some singles right now for this year & also a whole new studio EP for 2026.

Thanks for sharing that. Would love to go back in time and hear about how your past might have impacted who you are today. Who were you before the world told you who you had to be?
I was actually always this, a musician! I have been headbanging to heavy metal since I was a baby & I told my parents I wanna be a singer when I was just 2 years old. I listened to music all those years & would write lyrics as well, then when I turned 8 years old that is when it became real with hip hop specifically. My friend & I snuck behind our parents backs to watch 8 Mile (shoutout Robbie Pralicz A.k.a Slaughtamvne!) Then that night we started rapping and writing songs. Fast forward a few years later as fate would have it once I got to middle school I met another life long friend of mine, (shoutout Cody Townsend A.k.a Triple Gemini!) Life always had me on this path & even when others told me what to do or projected their doubts on me or whatever I always just ignored it. I have always been a rebellious person I hate being told what to do or who to be, I always do my own thing, never been a follower of society, more of a leader. That is part of what inspires people IS the energy and belief to go on your own path regardless of what society thinks. I am very connected to myself & to God, the Universe whatever you would like to call it. My intuition & heart have always been right & I understand it is because it is by design.. GOD made us like that. The dreams and visions we have were given to us because they can be real if we choose it to be and make it happen. Our heart and intuition is an inner GPS, a guidance system with some direction.

What have been the defining wounds of your life—and how have you healed them?
I have gone through honestly what feels like the whole spectrum of wounds in this life. Betrayal, heartbreak, loss, disappointment, embarassment, depression/anxiety/PTSD, you name it. By far though, the most significant wound & “defining” one of all is the bullying that I went through. It all made me who I am and made me even stronger in the end & gave me something very close to home to stand for & speak up on about in this world. People think bullying is all fun and games but what people don’t realize is that what is a “ha ha” moment to you & your ‘friends” is a lifelong pain & agony for the person being bullied. Before bullying I never had PTSD, nightmares, heart palpitations, shaking & chronic pain, constantly feeling on edge everywhere I go & not trusting anybody etc.. It messed with my whole nervous system & my bodys anatomy. What happens is after you go so long feeling on edge to the point it becomes a habit, to heal you have to train yourself OUT of it. Back to “normal” whatever that means. I healed that wound by speaking to my inner child & telling him that its ok, I am here, we aren’t in that place anymore, its ok to move forward and trust that people will treat you differently. You aren’t stuck in this feeling & way of being forever. I prayed, I meditated, I wrote about it (still do of course) The healing was a lot of recognizing that yep this did happen its not your fault you did NOT deserve it but for whatever reason it did happen so now what do we do? I trained myself to recognize that I am not what “happened” to me nor am I all of my thoughts & painful feelings. I, and we all of us, are so much more than our wounds that we never asked for, it just happened. I had to forgive myself & ACCEPT that I was in deep agony from all of this for so long, & it messed with my life more than I ever imagined. Honestly imagine being about to go on your first tour after working so hard for so long as a teen, boom you are finally there then you end up having to cancel that same tour because health issues put you in the hospital right before it happened. Talk about a culture shock/CRUSHING disappointment.

Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? What important truth do very few people agree with you on?
The fact that life is much more than we have been told/can see at a surface level.. They always say seeing is believing and whatnot but actually you BELIEVE it & THEN you see it. Manifesting is real. Different energies/frequencies/planes of reality, all of these things are real. We are a SOUL an infinite wave of energy in a temporary human body. The soul is eternal. The body is borrowed from Mother Earth. Life is wild when you really think about it & ask yourself why YOU are here. We all have purpose & it is on us to find what ours is and what makes our heart sing and go for it. We are all unique with different gifts/stories & circumstances, that is the beauty of it. You weren’t meant to do the same thing day in day out and just barely get by.. God wants us to thrive. We are CREATORS!! That is our power. There are certain external things we can’t control but our minds and our energy & self is ours, always.

Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: What is the story you hope people tell about you when you’re gone?
I hope that now and then people will talk about me as a huge inspiration! Someone that brought a lot of love and light to their life. Through my music, through my speaking, through my presence, through everything. I hope people talk about me like exactly what it is, it is in my name & my whole being I am a human sunshine. My fans are “The SunRayes” Each one shining more and more light as that sun grows even bigger. No matter what darkness I have been through or seen I never stopped shining my light. Even when times got tough I never gave up or stopped being me. Nobody could ever take that from me or change who I am. I always care, & I always put everything into this life. Trying to make it better for myself, my woman, my family, the world as a whole.

Contact Info:

Image Credits
Hero The Emcee
Jenna Irene

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