Nahoa Life is a rapper, singer, producer, and pianist from LA who creates a distinctive brand of thoughtful hip-hop colored by folk and jazz. He stays thoroughly original as an artist while being inspired by many such as Stevie Wonder, Andre 3000, Joni Mitchell, Kendrick Lamar, Smino, Pharrell, Quadeca, Mavi, Nina Simone, and The Roots. Nahoa is intentional about well-developed, beautiful music, whether the particular song is programmed or acoustic, high-energy or mellow, self-assured or pensive.
"On The Verge" is a melancholic, introspective song that captures the experience of resolutely moving toward greatness and success while bittersweetly moving away from home and comfort. There is calm singing and dynamic melodic rapping over live felt piano, trumpet, and guitar; it feels like a relaxing yet powerful current of water, or a coming-of-age movie. Even with triumphant trumpet and guitar solos at the end, the song is overall steady and soothing.
"Nice, in the Mean" is a clever, hard-hitting hip-hop track with unconventional drums and persistent, varied flows. There are multiple tasteful beat switches that help keep the song engaging, and there's a catchy hook that's the backbone and theme of the record. Lyrically, Nahoa explores how he'll eventually find peace with spiritual imagery and jazz references, but for now–"in the meantime"–he's focused on being as dope an MC as possible.
Press photos coming soon — full-resolution files in the press materials folder.