VALRICO, Fla. (WFTS) — We all know just how powerful music can be.
For Tres Whitlock, his music gave him a voice to get out all of the things he had bottled up for 19 years.
The minute you meet Tres Whitlock, his smile and laughter immediately radiates. He has cerebral palsy. He's non-verbal, and communicates through his iPad.
"As a family, Tres' nickname was Smiley. He smiles all the time. He seemed very, very happy. We thought he was very, very happy," said his mother Tonya.
But his family realized that wasn't the case.
"One of his speech therapists just encouraged him to start kind of getting stuff out that she was realizing that was going on with him," she added.
So Tres took the advice a step further. He turned his emotions and thoughts into song.
"His first song that he wrote, one of the lyrics was, 'I've been trapped in a mental prison for 19 years, and I've shed many tears'. And so of course, as his mom, that was devastating to hear him say," she said. "All throughout that song, there were notes of suicide and depression. And basically, his lyrics gave us a view inside of him that we had not had an opportunity to see before."
It was a shock to his family to hear about Tres' mental health problems. They even asked him why he smiled so much and was always in good spirits despite his inner thoughts. Tres' mom says he told her it was all because he believed that was what they expected from him.
"It also made us realize how much he was, you know, really fighting depression. And now we realize that it's very, very common for individuals with disabilities, once they transition from high school settings, to go through what people call 'The Cliff', which is basically just this transition of feeling like they no longer are a part of society. That they're kind of outsiders, they lose a lot of interaction with their community, basically becoming segregated, which leads to depression and other types of mental illness. And so his music kind of gave us a view into where he was at. And that's when we started, you know, getting him in system counseling and things like that, but also really encouraging him to continue to write," she said.
Tres told ABC Action News reporter Jada Williams he was initially nervous to put his feelings out there.
"I had mixed emotions. I was nervous and he felt like a weight was lifted off a little bit. But don't get me wrong, I'm still learning. But back then, my main thing was how my parents would react to my music," he typed out on his iPad.
For the last 11 years, ever since he wrote his first song, Tres has used another artist to voice his songs. But the words are all straight his heart and soul.
He goes by 'Unknown Overcomer'.
"One day in school, I thought, 'There's always someone who's going to overlook me'. And then I thought up the name 'Unknown Overcomer'," he explained.
His lyrics are deep, touching on tough topics; like mental health and racial injustice.
"His music is very raw. You're literally getting what he feels at the time that he's writing it. But he does not have a filter. And we encourage him not to. It's him being raw and getting off of his chest the things that he's thinking about.," his mom added. "There a song called 'Black Trauma' just about racism, and just kind of the things that he goes through. But I think all of his songs, I mean, he has a few lighthearted, kind songs that he's written to friends. Or 'I love you (Momma)', which he wrote to me, which is pretty sweet and lighthearted, but most of his music is very just real and raw, and where he's at, at the time that he's writing it."
And his lyrics have crafted change.
"I definitely listen differently than I did before. I also have learned to ask the hard questions that we really didn't talk about before we realized that he was going through depression. Questions like 'How are you feeling right now? How are you feeling about that moment?' You know, there's a moment that we know that's kind of hard for him to go through, like really digging into those moments and talking about him. We listen much better and we listen not just by the words that he says but also we've learned to not assume that because he has a smile on his face all things are well," she said.
And his words are also touching his listeners.
"When he started writing, and just realizing that here's this, you know, nonspeaking young man who has been through so much, I really did feel that once he really got going with it, that he would be inspirational to a lot of people," she said. "There was a guy who just recently reached out who was dealing with alcoholism, right. And he told us that Tres helped him get sober, just listening to his music, which of course was wild. Amazing to hear that."
Despite the heavy subject matters, every song leans on the same message.
"There's an overarching theme in all of the all of his music to keep fighting, to persevere. And I just think that no matter who you are, or what you're going through, you could relate to that," his mom said.
"If you need help get it. Don't let people and judgment be a barrier. I know the thoughts of what people judge me about but please just get help," Tres added.
There's no signs of the inspirational rapper slowing down either.
"We are looking for a mentor for him actually, to go to the next level. Somebody who loves music that can like sit with him and like write lyrics and be creative with them. Because he's very creative. He's literally every single day, writing every single day thinking of ideas. So it would just be fun for him, I think, to have, you know, someone to bounce that stuff off with him, you know, and kind of mentor him with it," his mom said.
