Life & Work with RLETTO of Los Angeles / OC

Today we’d like to introduce you to RLETTO.

Hi RLETTO, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I always laugh when I tell people that music wasn’t actually my original plan. At the end of high school, I was convinced I was going to become an FBI agent, mostly because I had watched movies like “White Chicks” and “Big Momma’s House” and genuinely thought that was what the job was like. Clearly, I had some research to do.

Music found its way into the plan almost by accident. My English teacher gave us an assignment to choose a college, research it, and create a project explaining why we wanted to attend. I had been involved in band, drama, and chorus throughout high school, so I figured, why not choose a music school? That school ended up being Berklee College of Music in Boston. I applied, was accepted with a significant scholarship, and suddenly this hypothetical school project became my actual life.

Berklee completely changed the trajectory of my life. I was pretty quiet in school, but somehow everyone seemed to know who I was. Outside of classes, I worked constantly, singing and touring with a wedding band while also waiting tables at Yard House next to Fenway Park. One of my first major performance opportunities at Berklee was sharing the stage with members of Beyoncé’s original all-female band. That experience lit something in me. I realized I didn’t just want to perform, I wanted to create experiences and bring talented people together.

That led me to create the Bruno Mars Tribute Ensemble at Berklee. What started as an idea grew into something much bigger than I imagined. We performed sold-out shows, traveled to Las Vegas for a showcase, and were even contacted by America’s Got Talent. It was one of the first times I saw what could happen when I trusted my own creative instincts.

As graduation approached, though, I was facing the reality that so many young creatives face: I had all of these dreams, but I didn’t have a job waiting for me. Then an opportunity came that changed everything. I was selected for an internship where I shadowed tour manager Tina Farris while touring with The Internet on their Hive Mind Tour. That experience gave me an entirely different education. I got to see the machinery behind a successful artist, the touring, production, discipline, relationships, and work that audiences never see.

Eventually, that path brought me to Los Angeles, where I worked as a personal assistant to Cardi B during Cardi Tries. That opened even more doors, including opportunities to work with Lil Nas X around major moments in his career, including the Grammys and the Long Live Montero Tour.

Those experiences were incredible, and I will always be grateful for them, but they also forced me to ask myself a difficult question: How long was I going to spend helping other artists live the dream that I still had for myself?

I knew I wasn’t supposed to be a personal assistant forever. Somewhere underneath all of the work, traveling, long days, and incredible experiences, the artist in me was still there. So I made the decision to bet on myself again.

That decision eventually led me to NBC’s The Voice, where I made it to the Top 20 on Team Chance the Rapper. From there, I continued saying yes to opportunities that allowed people to meet me as RLETTO the artist. I made a featured cameo on Love Island USA: Beyond the Villa, performed the National Anthem for the Los Angeles Lakers at Crypto.com Arena and the Orlando Magic at the Kia Center, and have been fortunate enough to perform at Pride festivals across the country, including New York, Miami Beach, Boston, Columbus, and most recently headlining San Pedro Pride.

When I look back, my journey makes sense now in a way that it couldn’t have while I was living it. I’ve been the student, the server, the wedding singer, the intern, the person backstage making sure someone else’s moment happened, and eventually the artist standing center stage having my own moment.

Every version of me taught the next version something.

That’s why continuing to grow as an artist means so much to me. Music isn’t simply the career I chose. In a lot of ways, it’s the life that kept choosing me, even when I tried to choose something else.

And now, I’m choosing it back.

This is more than my career. It’s my lifestyle, my purpose, and a story I’m still writing.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Absolutely not, and in a strange way, I’m grateful that it hasn’t been. I think if the road had been completely smooth, I wouldn’t have nearly as interesting or meaningful of a story to tell.

One of the earliest challenges I faced was simply trying to find where I fit. Being a Black male artist who wanted to make pop music, I quickly realized that people often had an idea of what I was supposed to sound like before they ever heard me sing. Early in my career, it was difficult to get certain opportunities because what I wanted to create didn’t always fit comfortably into the boxes people expected me to occupy.

For a while, that was frustrating. You start questioning whether you need to change yourself in order to be accepted. Eventually, I realized that the very thing that made it harder for some people to understand me was also what made me different. I didn’t need to become easier to categorize, I needed to become more confident in who I already was.

There was also the financial reality of pursuing a dream like this. I didn’t come from a family with significant financial resources. My younger brother and I were raised by a single mother on a middle-class income, so being resourceful wasn’t really optional for us, it was something we learned early. We understood the value of money, how to make things stretch, and how to create something out of what we had.

That mentality followed me into my career. There wasn’t an endless budget behind my dreams. If I wanted something badly enough, I had to figure out how to make it happen. Sometimes that meant working another job. Sometimes it meant sacrificing something personally. Sometimes it meant looking at an idea that seemed impossible with the resources I had and asking myself, “Okay, so how can I still make this work?”

Looking back, I think those limitations actually gave me something incredibly valuable: resourcefulness. I learned how to build before I had all the tools. I learned how to keep moving without having every answer. And most importantly, I learned that not having access doesn’t mean you don’t belong in the room.

The road still isn’t always smooth, and I don’t expect it to be. But I’ve stopped measuring my journey by how easy it is. I measure it by how much I continue to grow through it.

Every “no,” every closed door, every moment when the money wasn’t there, and every time someone couldn’t quite understand where an artist like me belonged forced me to believe in my vision a little more.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
At the core of everything I do, I’m a performer and a storyteller.

I’m a pop artist, singer, songwriter, and entertainer, but I’ve always wanted RLETTO to represent more than simply releasing music. When someone comes to one of my shows, I want them to feel like they’ve stepped into my world for however long I have them. The vocals matter, the choreography matters, the wardrobe matters, the visuals matter, even the way one song transitions into the next matters to me. I love creating moments.

I think that’s probably what I’m becoming most known for, performance. I’m an artist who genuinely loves the stage. Whether I’m performing an original record, singing the National Anthem in an arena, or putting together a full festival production with dancers and wardrobe changes, I approach every opportunity with the mentality that the audience deserves a show.

What sets me apart is that I’ve had the opportunity to experience this industry from almost every angle. Before people knew me as RLETTO, I spent years behind the scenes. I’ve toured, assisted major artists, watched rehearsals come together, experienced huge productions from the inside, and learned how much work goes into creating the moments that audiences eventually see.

Now that I’m the artist standing on the other side of that curtain, I carry all of those lessons with me.

I’m also very hands-on with my career. I don’t believe in waiting until I have a massive budget, a huge team, or someone’s permission to create at the level I see in my head. I’ve learned how to be resourceful and how to take what I have and push it as far as possible. Sometimes people see the finished performance, but they don’t see the hours spent figuring out how we’re actually going to pull it off. That’s a part of the process that I’ve grown to love.

What I’m most proud of, though, isn’t one television appearance, arena performance, festival, or accomplishment. I’m most proud that I never allowed proximity to someone else’s success to make me forget about my own dream.

I don’t think I’ve reached the part of my career that I’ll ultimately be known for yet, and that’s actually what excites me the most. Everything I’ve accomplished so far feels like proof of concept. I’m still building, still evolving, still learning, and still becoming the artist I’ve always seen in my head.

I don’t just want people to hear RLETTO. I want them to experience RLETTO.

So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
What matters most to me is longevity, but not just longevity in the traditional sense of having a long career. I want to build a life and career that leaves people better than I found them.

Success, to me, means very little if I’m the only person who benefits from it. My ultimate goal is to reach a place where the bigger my platform becomes, the more people I’m able to help.

I want giving back to be woven into the foundation of everything I build. Sometimes that can mean donating to causes that need support. Sometimes it’s something as simple as buying groceries or Christmas presents for a family that may be struggling. Eventually, I want to have the resources to help people experiencing homelessness transition into stable housing and give them access to the tools they need to rebuild their lives.

I’m also incredibly passionate about creating opportunities for young musicians. I’ve experienced firsthand how difficult this industry can be to navigate when you don’t have the right information, resources, finances, or connections. There are so many talented young people who don’t lack ability, they lack access. I want to help change that by creating opportunities where young artists can gain real knowledge about the music industry, connect with the right people, and understand that there are multiple paths to building a successful career.

Ultimately, I don’t want my legacy to only be measured by streams, television appearances, sold-out shows, awards, or how many people know my name. Those things would be incredible, but they’re not the finish line for me.

If my career gives me the ability to change someone’s circumstances, open a door that was once closed to them, or simply remind someone that somebody sees them and cares about what happens to them, then I’ve built something much bigger than myself.

That’s the kind of longevity I’m chasing. I don’t just want to be remembered for what I accomplished. I want to be remembered for what my accomplishments allowed me to do for other people.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/Rletto
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/its_rletto
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@rletto6236
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/31wpmxLalAQMRQlkuBEwiF?si=5gaZvkQeSzijhKLQFQSrUw