Maybe - Nito
Artwork - Maybe
Back when I was a martyr for my Hip-Hop causes, I was always on the side of the rappers. I don’t mean everyone who’s ever made Rap music, I mean the spitters. The lyricists. Whatever you wanted to call them. If the pen game was strong, I was tagging on. Lupe was the first rapper whose lyrics I really started to dissect after discovering The Cool (specifically “Superstar feat. Matthew Santos”, which I found on my friend’s MySpace page) and I was off to the races, trying to find out amongst the ocean of Rap, who was going to be my favorite? My answer was in California, and his name was Blu.
“Maybe this the day I finally change,
Maybe this the day I make a name for myself…”
I’m not gonna lie, East Oakland native Nito is nice with it. From his debut single to his newest release, Nito continues to impress. His newest song, “Maybe”, is an incredibly selfless and intimate look at the inner workings of a young man who’s battling the physical, mental, and spiritual forces of the environment around him, all while keeping a smile (even if it’s just for the cameras).
The production plays into those intimate feelings. Drums accompany Nito in the beginning as he paints a landscape of the pressure he feels and how he navigates his own personal anxieties, for better or for worse. Then the music starts to fill out the spaces with those lush West Coast sounds that feel like California Sunshine.
But it’s Nito’s pen game that stands out. Not just for the lyrics and how they bob and weave almost effortlessly; it’s what he’s saying that keeps me coming back because he’s telling my story. Vividly, too. Speaking on growing up and the anxieties of getting older. The anxiety of “Is all this work going to mean anything?” This man has a perfect balance of rap skills, self-perspective, and perhaps most important, the fearlessness to show himself to the world.
A piece of getting older is you start to lose some of that fire, especially that sort of unabridged fire you have when you’re a youngin. This rapper over that rapper, this hooper over that hooper, etc.
Nito might’ve unearthed some of that old energy in me.
S/o Yay Area…
Listen to “Maybe” by Nito
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