By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

LAPLACE — The saying “It’s always darkest before dawn” perhaps never rang more true then in the case of 28-year-old Tyler McKinnis. McKinnis lived through one real-life example of this. He’s doing his best to create another.

McKinnis, a LaPlace native, is a multitalented musician who performs under the stage name of “Se7en Stylez”. He is a singer, a songwriter, a producer and a rapper who has found success by following his passion in life. McKinnis has parlayed his abilities into income, be it through concert performance one day to creating an advertising jingle on another, as he has for Eric Hill Nissan.

The lively and upbeat McKinnis’ talents recently came to the attention of St. John the Baptist Parish President Natalie Robottom, who had a request for him: to write a song directed primarily toward the youth of the parish, imploring them to stop violence.

He accepted. The song, titled “We Can Change,” released earlier this week. McKinnis takes care of lead vocals while his good friend and fellow LaPlace resident Jordan Dorsey — of “American Idol” fame — sings the chorus.

“The violence goes on everywhere. You hear about it every day, just these horrible acts,” said McKinnis. “It’s not just here, in our parish. But we have to start at home, first.”

McKinnis tailored the song to be something that children today can relate to.

“The majority of younger people today listen to rap. We can use that to speak to them,” said McKinnis. “The lyrics speak to how the violence in the world is getting worse and worse and how we can stop this nonsense if we come together.”

It takes a few breaks to establish solid footing in the music business. For McKinnis, the odds were stacked against him a decade ago, and not only in the music business: personal tragedy struck in the form of a serious eye injury.

An alumni of the East St. John class of 2003, McKinnis is a former Wildcat football standout. But after scoring a touchdown in a game against Thibodaux, he took a finger to the eye in the endzone pile up.

The next day, McKinnis passed out in school.

“I just felt this sharp pain, like in the back of my brain. The next thing I remember is waking up in the hospital,” he said.

Doctors told him that he had a split in the middle of his eye and needed immediate surgery for a cornea transplant.

The surgery was a success, but not without a price. He retained an incredible sensitivity to light, to the point it caused him a great deal of pain and confined him to dark places.

“I spent a year in total darkness,” he said. “It hurt me to even see the light on a cell phone. I was basically stuck in my house, in my room, aside from going to the hospital at night. I lost contact with my friends.

“My doctor kept telling me to go outside, that he knew it hurt but I had to push through. But at the same time, I’m like, ‘It isn’t your eye. You don’t know how it hurts.’”

That long, arduous stage of his journey lasted almost a year and a half.

“I was depressed. I wanted to give up,” McKinnis admitted. “But then I found the Lord.”

A push in that direction came when his father-in-law and mother-in-law, Pastor Steven Perrilloux and Rita Perrilloux of Riverlands Christian Center, organized a large group of parishioners from the church to visit McKinnis and lift his spirits.

“When they brought the church to my house … I mean, everyone was in my room,” he said. “I thought people were giving up on me. I realized that they do care.”

Inspired, he pushed through. He’d finish a successful rehab, strengthening the muscles in his eye to the end that he could again function normally, with the help of his trademark sunglasses.

“People think, ‘OK, he’s a musician and he’s trying to be cool with the shades,’” he said. “But I’ve got to wear them.”

The time to himself was used to dive deeper into music. He wrote more and more music, finding relief in his creativity.

“Music was my medicine,” he said.

Five years ago, he had his biggest breakthrough to date: one of his creations, a hip-hop song titled “So fresh, so clean,” caught on and started getting play on radio stations in Louisiana, Georgia, Texas, Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama.

That song represented a major shift for McKinnis stylistically.

“I realized I needed to get away from street music,” he said. “It really hit home when I heard my son start to sing my lyrics … Young people look to entertainers as role models, and I knew I wasn’t setting the right kind of example. I want to inspire, to help give hope.”

Certainly, McKinnis has been inspired. His personal struggles of a decade ago are squarely in the rearview mirror. He has a wife, Robin Perrilloux McKinnis, and two children, Nehemiah Anthony and Madison Grace.

His name, “Se7en Stylez,” is inspired by the Bible (“Seven is the last number of completion,” he said) and the multitude of musical styles he performs.

“It’s also my lucky number,” he added with a grin.

McKinnis continues to work toward his dreams every day. He works as a blaster painter by day but does that job in conjunction with his musical obligations.

“They understand that this is my life,” he said. “They’ve been behind me 100 percent.

“It’s really my passion. Music is my life. When you look at that musical note, that’s me. I am music.”