ALL STAR 2011 - Ozone Magazine

“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