Nico

What’s been taking up your headspace recently?

Lately, it’s really been content.

Figuring out how to optimize it for the viewer, but also for me.

What makes the most sense?

What content does the viewer like?

What content do I actually like making?

It feels like I’m learning the same way I learned music.

You have to learn what the listener likes and what you like.

Now I’m just learning that in a visual format.

What type of music do you make?

I’m primarily into trap and R&B music.

I grew up in Chicago listening to G Herbo, Lil Durk, and Polo G when they were really blowing up.

Then as I got older, I got more relaxed and started getting into R&B, like Brent Faiyaz and artists like that.

So that’s primarily the music I make.

Do you have any aspirations in the music industry?

Yes.

I would love to be like Metro Boomin.

He’s my biggest inspiration.

Someone who was just making beats in Atlanta, and now he has whole films with his music and his beats, while working with major artists.

That’s the biggest dream.

But really, I want to be a music producer and a voice for other music producers.

What’s your manifesto right now?

I think it’s probably to be real.

I’ve always said, “be real.”

That’s what I’m trying to do in the content and in the way I tell my story.

Always keep pushing.

Always stay true to you.

What does being true to yourself look like to you?

Being true to yourself, or being real, is never denying those core values about yourself.

It’s always sticking to what you believe in and not shifting it for someone else’s desires.

I don’t really like blanket statements.

For example, people say “protect your energy.”

While I believe that’s a good statement, I think people take it too literally.

But being real means doing something that supports what you believe in.

That’s why I feel like it’s something you can stick to most of the time.

Did your internship at BET change how you viewed your path?

Over the summer I had an internship at BET, and I was in a corporate lifestyle.

For me, it was one of the most important things that happened in my life because it was a reality check.

It was like, if I continue on this path, this is going to be my life.

In Chicago, I’m from the Green Line.

You get on the train and see people with button-ups, dress pants, nice shoes, and everything.

I was looking at them and looking at myself.

I was 19 at the time, looking at a 40-year-old, thinking, “that’s me in four years, for the next 40 years.”

I couldn’t do that.

I don’t want to call them soulless, because everyone has a soul, but that’s what it felt like to me.

That’s what I mean by being real.

I would not have been myself if I continued on that path and didn’t take the risk I’m taking now.

Do you ever see yourself going back to a corporate job?

I’ve always looked at college as a backup plan.

I’ve always wanted music and content to be what I did with my life.

But I’ve dealt with low confidence and mental health problems, like depression.

I was in this state where I kept asking myself, “what makes me different enough to be someone with a voice in those communities?”

If life turns out that way and I’m in a corporate job, that’s how it turns out.

But my biggest thing recently has been that I can’t live my life not knowing that I didn’t try.

Maybe as I build myself and build my network, it turns more corporate than I see right now.

If it builds into what I imagine, it will have to become more of a business.

But I don’t think it would feel like a job in that same sense.

What are your thoughts on AI and creativity?

With corporate jobs, I don’t think AI will wipe away jobs like people think.

I think it will get rid of older people in jobs because it may be harder for them to adapt.

I don’t really like believing that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but AI is something we don’t even fully understand yet.

We’re supposed to be the generation that kind of knows it.

In the music industry, I don’t think it will have the craziest impact creatively.

I think it will be more about optimizing things.

People look down on AI when it replaces the creative aspect.

That’s the main pushback.

But maybe in 40 years, when kids grow up with AI the way we grew up with technology, it will become more normalized.

That’s a little scary.