Inside The Credits 020: Nascent
Nascent’s Ascent To Standing In His Value
At 20 posts in, I wanted to reserve this place to highlight a producer who is already achieving what I hope to from writing these pieces. It has long been my belief, that producers should be written about journalistically like main artists, rather than as they are often represented, as supporters of the vision of the vocalist. Chicago bred producer Nascent has followed the trajectory of his fellow Chi City native Kanye West in leveraging a building production catalog into his own artist project. Yet, unlike Ye, Nascent has remained behind the boards instead of stepping up to the mic. His last two full length projects are not your average curated compilations. They are album albums with clear throughlines orchestrated by a producer who remains voiceless lyrically, but conceptually speaks louder than a crowd at Wrigley Field in the playoffs.
When listening to the soulful, introspective, lowrider music of his last two albums, it may be a bit befuddling to find out Nascent’s first major producer credit came for 50 Cent. “Strong Enough” arrived on 50’s 2009 album, Before I Self Destruct. This album was at the tail end of 50’s reign and was not in much alignment with the emerging sounds of the time which would turn into the blog era. Nascent did come right out of the gate tackling a pristine soul sample though, a skill he would carry with him throughout his career. His flip of 1970’s “If I Were Your Woman” by Gladys Knight and the Pips fits hilariously behind 50’s aggressive bars. His next essential credits came in 2012 for the second volume of the Closed Sessions tapes which featured a plethora of blog era specialists. Nascent’s two songs, “Don’t Happen That Often” feat. L.E.P. Bogus Boys and “Good For Me” feat. CyHi The Prince allowed him to flex his soul sample proficiency alongside more fitting MCs to his sound. Particularly, Nascent’s flip of 1968’s “Much Better Off” by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles for the CyHi track achieved a stank face inducing bounce that would make other midwest production legends grin in satisfaction.
Nascent would have to return to Chicago to achieve his next major credit of elevation in 2016. He produced “Still Fucked Up” by G Herbo off his breakout album Welcome To Fazoland. It seems Nascent learned from the ‘09 50 Cent production and decided for this vigorous rapper to use his sampling more minimally. Impressively, with no prior credits in the space, Nascent maneuvered the Drill genre, providing a dense canvas with sharp sample cuts of 1970’s “This Love For Real” by Hands of Time. Herbo exploded over the instrumental.
Nascent had one more classic link with an essential Chicago MC before he’d begin a rapport with the first artist he had longevity with. “Grown Ass Kid” by Chance The Rapper feat. Alex Wiley & Mick Jenkins feels like a song that should have produced way more collaborative songs after than it did. The song was never released on streaming and is not even on Youtube (minus a ukulele cover with Einer Bankz). Potentially the reason for this is the impeccably flipped sample of 1980’s “If Only For One Night” by Roberta Flack and Peabo Bryson couldn’t get cleared. Yet, the Coloring Book leftover still has a reverberating effect. It sounds like the most Acid Rap-esque track that appeared during the Coloring Book era, which is about as high a compliment as I could give.
In 2017, Nascent finally found some undeniable lasting symmetry. Columbia, MD bred crooner Brent Faiyaz dropped his essential debut album Sonder Son and Nascent produced three crucial songs for it in “Gang Over Luv,” “First World Problemz/Nobody Carez,” and “Stay Down.” Suddenly, a real core sound emerged beyond just sample flipping for Nascent. On “Gang Over Luv” you can actually hear Faiyaz ad-libbing in the spaces in the instrumental where previously Nascent would’ve put a sample. I have always attributed Faiyaz’s grabbing nostalgia on this album to his late 90s early 2000s tonal similarities, but after re-listening while knowing Nascent’s trajectory, I think he also had something to do with it. To this point, because Nascent had been honing his craft using samples from the 60s, 70s, and 80s, when he no longer needed them for a singer who filled that sonic space on his own, they flourished together. Faiyaz organically fell into a reinvented nostalgic pocket that Nascent all too naturally offered him.
This made it so Nascent could now make incredible rap songs with ranging styles without samples as well. His first came for the label Quality Control’s 2017 compilation tape on the track “Wrist Thunderstorm” feat. Offset & Mango. The song’s blend of computerized flute, synths, and violin gave the Atlanta duo a winding array of sounds to weave within. Then in 2018 Nascent made his way back to both Chance and Brent. On Chance’s standalone single “The Man Who Has Everything” Nascent, for the first time, crafted around a more modern sample in 2012’s “Call Me When You Want Me” by Love Apple. He formed a really intriguing pocket for Chance which blended some of his melancholy sensibilities with something slightly momentous. If only Chance had worked with Nascent more to explore this style instead of leaning in the direction that was eventually The Big Day. Then Nascent got right back into his bag with Brent, but this time experimented with driving bass lines that leaned into a more melancholy space similar to Chance. On the tracks “Why’z It So Hard” and “Trust” from Brent’s Lost Ep you can hear the beginning of a much more forward pushing sound that would contain an undercutting of murkiness perfect for Brent’s expanding palette. The song’s cover topics like being a black man in America, trust issues, and complex emotions with Nascent’s instrumentals there to cushion the depth.
Nascent then produced a slew of sampleless Rap and R&B track wonders for the likes of A Boogie, Pivot Gang, Emeryld, Jon Vinyl, and Hamzaa before returning again for a two track foray with Brent. On his 2020 pandemic album Fuck The World Nascent produced “Clouded” and “Been Away” for him bringing in an entirely new tactic. On these songs, Nascent actually began to use Brent’s voice itself as a warped sample fused into the beat. On both tracks, rather than the background vocals sounding like crooned ad libs, they have filters running through them to produce a real Hip Hop feel. Whenever Brent had a new project Nascent seemed to take it as a challenge to elevate his capabilities.
Nascent would meet Brent again down the line, but he had grown so much through working with him that it was time to take on even more daunting endeavors. Dynamic singles for the likes of Kiana Lede, Buddy, Guapdad 4000, Duckwrth, Saba, and Tobi all acted as a ramp towards what is still the biggest song of his career, “Good Days” by SZA. The Grammy nominated song is a celestial garden rumination on a complex romance, which Nascent expertly co-produced with Carter Lang and Loshendrix. The song truly sounds like nothing else before or after and was sort of time stopping upon release. Right when Nascent hit the peak of his powers and produced a song at the top of the music industry, he decided it was time to fully embrace his individual potential.
Minus The Bullshit Life’s Great is the title of Nascent’s 2021 debut album. It’s a meditation on gratitude grounded in the nuisances of reality. This theme manifests itself through a variety of distinct voices from Orion Sun to Jordan Ward to Saba and more. No song feels like a reach for a big name, but instead, a finding of the right voice to align with the overall perspective. Nascent advanced here drastically into more live instrumentation than ever before. It marked a shift for him from producer to orchestrator of a sonic world.
After he completed this career shifting album, he had his most intriguing path back to Brent yet. First, he co-produced perhaps still the best song to come from the post pandemic Kanye era in “Hurricane.” His biggest hit since SZA. Then he finessed an array of tracks for artists like Saba, Orion Sun, 80purppp, and Arin Ray before meeting Brent at what I personally view to be his opus. Wasteland is a concept album chronicling toxic relationship-Brent going through a ride to his own demise. Nascent helped him capture this personality distinctly on the aptly titled songs “Price of Fame” and “Rolling Stone.” He provided Brent with soundscapes to lean all the way into the persona he’d been labeled with. Together they balanced the suspenseful with the smooth forming deceptively enticing earworms vocally and instrumentally.
Speaking of earworms, some of the most memorable from the year 2023 came on Jordan Ward’s album Forward, on which Nascent produced four songs after his time with Brent. He had first linked with Jordan for his first album making arguably the project’s best song, “Straight Forward.” Nascent made Jordan’s best song here again in “FAMJAM4000,” an undeniable Alt Rap/R&B heater that could make even the most tuned out listener pay attention. You can hear how Nascent’s maneuvering with Brent set him up to elevate Jordan. He made bouncy but simple instrumental pockets for Jordan to groove within so he could melodically have as much fun as was required.
All it took was two great songs for Noname and Maxo Kream to lead Nascent back to his next solo project. His second album Don’t Grow Up Too Soon, which dropped last month, is easily Nascent’s greatest work thus far. He balanced even more voices to tackle even more nuanced thematic elements. The album is a group dissertation on allowing yourself the time to evolve naturally. It is partly an attempt at persuading the youth to enjoy their innocence for as long as they can and part a critique of a society that forces people to grow up before they are ready. This is an impeccably astute concept to use for a producer led album because it requires a sum of many perspectives to cover fully. Not only did Nascent keep some of his essential core voices around, but he also expanded to Houston with Maxo Kream and Paul Wall, Carson with Ab-Soul, and even the UK with Knucks.
Listening to the project makes you think that any future producer compilation should be done more like it. Where Nascent really elevated production wise is in the transitions. His first album proved his proclivity with using live instruments to round out an overall sound, this time he used all the sounds at his disposal to bleed each song into the next. Nascent even used nostalgia in an elevated way since he first experimented with it via Brent. Don’t Grow Up Too Soon grips your soul if you came up revering blog era soundscapes like I did, while still remaining progressive.
Nascent’s second full body of work conducts a sonic community discussion on something he seemed to be grappling with himself: the virtue of patience. If anything has been proven by his passage through musical collaboration, it is that the most orbit shifting sounds he’s made were never rushed. Nascent’s ascent has been like a winding museum staircase. Art laces the walls of each set of stairs between floors marking his step by step path to his purpose. Then as you get off at each of the two floors thus far, there’s an album led exhibition. Each with a driving theme marking a moment in time where he has outlined his value system via mosaic instrumental canvases.
Inside The Credits 020: Nascent- The Playlists
This was really dope, I learned a lot. Been loving Nascent’s new album and it was great getting to learn about his impact on Brent’s music too. Excited to read more of your work!