ALL STAR 2011 - Ozone Magazine

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NIOTHA GIFTWords by Ni SweetPhoto by D-Ray42 // OZONE MAG
“Succeed Never Fail,” is the motto thisBay Area artist eats, breaths andlives by. Since beginning his musiccareer at the young age of 14, NioTha Gift has proven that he’s hereto stay. The lyricist’s (calling him arapper would be an understatement)career has grown rapidly withinthe last few years. His highly anticipatedalbum H.I.P. H.O.P. (Here I presenta Hero of Poverty) released in 2009,has attracted over 40,000 viewersand downloads. With his hit singles“Grateful” and “Angels & Demons,” thislyricist has a profound way of speakingthat would make anyone have anemotional connection to his music.The first single, “Never Gon’ Change,”off his upcoming project, Super Hero,lets you know, “don’t play that Hollywoodcard with me, I am not thatdude, I don’t play that shit!”For the people who haven’t heard of you yet,what would you want them to know aboutyou as an artist?That every one of my lines are real and that I’mliving every single bar.Not too long ago you showed your fans adifferent side to your musical talent – Nio thaGift the Sang-er. How have most of your fansreacted to this? Have other artists asked youto sing on their tracks?It’s kinda just a mixture of both, a lot of peopletry to get me to do a verse and a hook on theirsongs. My fans haven’t all the way caught onto the fact that I’m singing the records ’causeit’s not like auto tune or anything like that.When they see me they don’t see the typicalR&B guy, they don’t expect this soulful typeof voice to come out of me. I think they justdon’t know, a lot of people just don’t know buteverybody has their time to find out.I’ve read a lot of reviews from people wholistened to your music, and even in my ownpersonal opinion, you’re style isn’t comparableto other Bay area artists. What wouldyou say sets you aside from other artists onthe West Coast?Well, I just feel like God makes everybodyspecial in their own way. Everything I do is Goddriven. I like to pride myself on just being me,being different. I don’t really like to get into thewhole West coast artist or Bay artist. I just tryto make sure I’m able to compete with the restof the talent in the world. I feel like whereverthe bar is, that’s were I’m trying to exceed. Alot of people fall into that shell of just trying tobe superior in the Bay and I think you shouldstrive bigger than that. Rather if you’re fromthe South, from the Bay, from NY, I feel like youshould try to be the biggest in each market,not just your market. I feel like if people juststick to their guns rather than just trying to dowhat works, if people just continue to stick towhat makes them, then people will succeeda lot faster. I think that’s what I do, I just tookthe job of giving the people me. I don’t hideanything, I don’t sugar coat anything. This isme in its rawest uncut form, I just dress it up soit’s presentable.Over 40,000 viewers got a chance to see aglimpse into your life when your video for“Grateful” was released. What kind of impacthas that video and single had on your careerso far?The funny thing about that record is, I actuallywrote that in January 2009, this was right afterthe Oscar Grant situation and I was in LA. Iwas sitting in the hotel with my cousin andstumbled across this beat I had in my emailfrom one of my producers JL. I had the emailfor three years and I never opened the email orheard the beat before in my life, until that day.When I first heard the beat, the hook instantlypopped into my head, as soon as I found themelody the words just popped into my head.I actually wrote “Grateful” in about fifteenminutes. I was out in LA with my boy Taj [whodirected the video], and I met up with himlater on that day and we were at a video shootin and he had walked over to one of his buddiesand he came back to me and said, “youwanna shoot a video?” and I said, “Hell yeah Iwanna shoot a video!” So he asked me, “wellwhat you got,” [and] I told him about “Grateful”and said, “its not recorded yet, I just wrote itlike three hours ago,” so I spit a little of it forhim. When I got back to the Bay I recorded thesong and I was back in LA a week later with afinished product. He was asking me did I wantto switch the song and I was like naw, I can’tswitch the song cause God wants me to putout this song. Ever since the day that I wrotethat record I knew that it was gonna be one ofthose ones ’cause that day my pen was movingfaster than usual, and it was kind of like I knewit needed to be said from me.After releasing a career changing album likeH.I.P. H.O.P (Here I Present a Hero of Poverty),do you feel that pressure is on you for yournext album to be just as great or greater?Naw, I don’t really believe in pressure...To read the rest of this interview, log on towww.ozonemag.comOZONE MAG // 43
Page 1: WELCOME TO LOS ANGELESALLSTAR2011**
Page 8 and 9: PUBLISHER:Julia BeverlyEDITOR-IN-CH
Page 10 and 11: LOS ANGELESEventListingThursday, Fe
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Page 14 and 15: YGWords & Photo byJulia Beverly14 /
Page 16 and 17: WITH THE UNEXPECTED SUCCESS OF THEI
Page 18 and 19: LIL BTHE BASED GODWords by Julia Be
Page 20 and 21: fense to that. Do you believe in Je
Page 22 and 23: goal you want to see this generatio
Page 24 and 25: 40 GLOCC, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS BIGBAD
Page 26 and 27: song by “40 Glocc.” It kinda pu
Page 28 and 29: TERRACEMARTINWords by Randy RoperPh
Page 30 and 31: YA BOYWords by D-Ray30 // OZONE MAG
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Page 34 and 35: NEWBOYZWords by Julia BeverlyPhoto
Page 36 and 37: is in a good state, and it feels go
Page 38 and 39: THE PACKThe Bay Area foursome follo
Page 40 and 41: dance flavor. The album is called W
Page 44 and 45: PROBLEMWordsby Julia BeverlyPhoto b
Page 46 and 47: names I just mentioned are included
Page 48 and 49: JAYROCKWords by Julia BeverlyPhoto
Page 50 and 51: AFTER GETTING RELEASED FROM WARNERB
Page 52 and 53: MESSYMARVWords by Julia Beverly52 /
Page 54 and 55: MESSY MARVEverybody knows you’re
Page 56 and 57: DOMKENNEDYWords by Randy RoperPhoto
Page 58 and 59: 25th Hour. I started up with my cou
Page 60 and 61: BOBBYBRACKINSWords by Julia Beverly
Page 62 and 63: It probably won’t peak for anothe
Page 64 and 65: 64 // OZONE MAGFORMER GANGBANGERS (
Page 66 and 67: Tell us about The Gang.Te Money: Ch
Page 68 and 69: Jim Brown started called “I Can,
Page 70 and 71: You mentioned your situation with A
Page 72 and 73: AFTER AN APPEALS COURT OVERTURNEDHI
Page 74 and 75: How did you learn how to read?One A
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