Hadiya Ray, a senior studying marketing and data analytics, celebrated the release of her first music album, “The Journey,” written solely by her. The album and behind-the-scenes documentary were released Sept. 5 with a watch and listening party at the Athena Cinema.
Ray, from Dayton, Ohio, has been singing and writing music since age five with her first song titled “Tweety Bird.”
“Music has always, not only impacted my life and changed my life but been a part of how I express myself,” Ray said.
The album and documentary was created by Ray as part of her senior thesis for the Honors Tutorial College, or HTC, program.
“My fear is to leave Ohio University not doing what I love to do,” Ray said when discussing recording an album for her thesis with faculty in September 2023.
Although she took a different thesis route compared to typical business students in the college, Ray said she was met with support from advisors.
Ray recruited Paul Benedict, the director of the Center of Entrepreneurship, and Liz Pahl, the assistant director of the Center of Entrepreneurship, as advisors for the project and began recording the album with money from the Bobcat Seed Fund and HTC student funding.
Along with help from faculty and university resources, such as Sean Parsons, an associate professor of instruction for the OU Contemporary Music and Digital Instruments Program, or CMDI, Ray also gathered students to curate the album.
Jireh Burton, a senior studying music production and CMDI, and Raymond Parker, a senior studying CMDI, were part of Ray’s production team and created all the beats on the album.
“I want to help musicians and artists put their music into my music and help them make their dream,” Parker said. “I felt like this was a chance I could do that and not just help an artist out, but also help a friend out.”
Burton and Parker, who have been friends since their first day on campus, worked together to produce Ray’s songs. The three held recording sessions at least twice a week, sometimes lasting longer than four hours, according to Burton.
“One of the main things that really stood out to me was how confident (Ray) was in her vision, and I could just tell she saw so much for this project,” Burton said. “Whenever she would talk about (the album), she just had this certain passion and enthusiasm about it.”
“The Journey” was the first large music project for the three musicians and mutual passion was a driving factor for its completion, according to Ray.
“I’ve never worked with people (who) were not only fun to work with, (but) were so hard working and passionate about something I’m passionate about,” Ray said. “Truthfully, (Jireh and Raymond) believed in me before I even believed in myself.”
According to Burton, the entire production experience pushed him and Parker out of their comfort zones, a valuable milestone in their careers.
When describing the conception of the album, Ray reflects on her journey to recording the album and overcoming self doubt.
“I was waiting for somebody to tell me, ‘No, you can't,’ yet everybody said, ‘You can,’” Ray said. “I didn’t expect that because I was killing my own dream before people could try to kill it for me.”
This shift in mindset can be seen in the album’s focus on self-love and acceptance, an attempt to make others feel seen in their struggles, Ray said.
“I made a promise to God,” Ray said. “I said, ‘God, if you get me through this, I promise I will create something that will help other people get through it.’”
Along with the eight-track album, available on Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube, Ray also created a documentary of her production process with student videographers Lokeder Natiom and Jayla Neal. The album and documentary premiered Sept. 5 at the Athena Cinema. Ray, Burton and Parker all mention being amazed by the public impact of the album.
“It’s still so surreal that we worked on this project, there’s tons of people that love the project, there’s tons of people that are talking about it,” Parker said.
After the release of “The Journey,” Ray and her team hope to continue building off this milestone and produce more music in the future.
