NICHOLS, SC (WBTW) – Music is an escape for 17-year-old Crystian Greene who has been writing and producing his own hip hop songs for four years.
“It allows me to make exactly what I want. Whenever you go online and get a beat, there’s not a lot of chemistry behind it; you don’t really know where to go, but when you actually get to make it, it gives you feelings, like nostalgia,” Greene said.
His mother, Crystal Greene, says music has also been helping her son fight a thalamus brain tumor, which currently has no cure.
Doctors found the tumor when Greene was 16-years-old.
“Our whole lives changed within a second,” Crystal Greene said.
Ever since then, his parents say music has been a healing tool for their son.
“He uses music creatively as an outlet to (deal with) the depression and all the things that mount up when a 16-year-old finds out he’s got a brain tumor,” Jon Greene, Crystian’s dad said.
On Saturday, Make-A-Wish® South Carolina fulfilled one of Greene’s lifelong dreams and installed a recording studio in his house where he can produce more music.
“I think (music) takes away from the thought of what he has in his head. I mean, that’s gotta be really hard on a 17-year-old kid- the thought of having a brain tumor,” Crystal Greene said.
While Greene’s tumor will likely never go away, he was recently told by doctors that it is getting smaller. His mother hopes the music will help him keep fighting.
“I could tell when (the tumor) was bigger, he was totally different,” Crystal Greene said. “Now that it’s shrinking, I hope I’m getting my son back.”
To listen to Greene’s music, click here.
