Uncommon Nasa: The Backbone of The Underground

Uncommon Nasa is authenticity at its finest. He’s comfortable in his own skin, and he’s been operating on his own terms for years now. His unapologetic commitment to himself and his art for over a decade is what has solidified him as an impactful legend in the New York Indie scene.

Nasa’s music is deeply rooted in New York culture, which is to be expected, considering he’s been there his whole life. It’s his default, in a sense. All of his music references home, sometimes more than others, but it’s always there. Despite some of the topical similarity that echoes throughout his music though, he refuses to stick to one sound. The classic, New York boom-bap influence is there, but Nasa understands the importance of pushing the ball forward, and makes his art with the intent that it won’t grow stale. His style is hard to pin-point, as his delivery can almost be classified as slam poetry at times, with extremely tight rhyme schemes and lyricism that demands the listener’s attention.

Incredible amounts of time and detail go into Nasa’s art. He takes his time to make sure that every aspect of a record makes for a cohesive and engaging listen. His albums have clear concepts that guide the listener from beginning to end, and each one makes for another installment in the Uncommon Nasa universe. Whether the concept dives into mortality, his New York lifestyle, or staying up past 3 AM, Nasa isn’t afraid to commit, because he knows that’s where the true gold is hidden.

His last full length project, 2017’s Written at Night, proved his artistry all the more so, through a layered and conceptual experience that drew the listener deeper and deeper into the late hours of the night with Nasa. His tendency to work so late into the night, knowing that everyone else was asleep, became a part of his identity, so he decided to embrace the idea for an entire project. This one cemented him as a detail-oriented artist more than ever, with every aspect of the record connecting to the theme, from the instrumentals to the guest verses. The result was an ominous record that grew hazy by the end and perfectly captured the feeling of staying up past bedtime to hone your craft.

In 2019, with City As School, Nasa brings it back to the beginning. Instead of looking forward, he looks back, and appreciates what has brought him to this point. A chunk of this record takes place in his earlier, more formative years, and he reflects on how his actions during that time have brought him to the place he is at today. With Nasa reaching a new stage in his life, but still in New York, it only made sense to make something of this nature at this moment. It’s fully produced by Kount Fif, which gives Nasa a refreshing backdrop of beats, ranging from atmospheric to grimy, that match the unfiltered reflection of his life.

I had a chance to speak with Nasa about his new project, New York, films, and more. Check out our conversation, attached below.

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Of course, all of your work is rooted in New York culture, however this one, alongside New York Telephone, embraces it more as a concept for the entire album. City As School reflects on your upbringing. Why was it time for you to make a record with a main focus of hometown pride? 

Good question. Honestly, it’s kind of an easy go-to for me. It’s where my headspace is most of the time. I work in the city everyday. I recently got a job in the East Village, so I’m sort of in the stomping grounds of where I came up in hip-hop and in music. It kind of took me back to that place, that’s probably why the timing happened the way it did. I walk past buildings that used to be other things and in some cases are still what it was back then, and it just reminds me of that time period. That’s the time period that I talk about a lot. 

Have you been in New York your whole life pretty much?

Yeah, pretty much. I was born in Patchogue (Long Island), which is pretty far from here actually. My parents are from Brooklyn, and when I was six, we basically moved back when we moved to Staten Island. So I mean I’ve been out here pretty much my whole conscious life. I remember things from Long Island, but not a whole lot. I’ve been working in the city every day since I was seventeen years old. 

Ok, so you grew up on Staten Island and came into the city for work.

Yeah, I mean I’m still on Staten Island. I live right by the ferry now. I live in a very urban city environment, even on Staten Island these days. I’ve talked about it in the past, but growing up, my parents always rented. They always had an apartment. We never owned on Staten Island. So I grew up on side door apartments around the suburbs, but not being able to be a real participant in suburban life, because we were always kind of hurting for money. As I got older and I got married, we moved to the north shore and rented for a while and now I’m kinda settled down up here. But again, just being in the city every day, I didn’t go to college, so straight out of high school I interned in the (East) Village when I was seventeen at a studio. So it’s just been a part of me, taking the ferry every day, taking the subway almost every day. That’s just the mentality I’ve had. That’s what went into New York Telephone, and there’s elements of that in all my records. You take a record like Halfway which is really more about mortality than it is about urban life. There are songs on there that reference the city. It’s all sort of part of that system of the way I was brought up and the way that I live. 

Let’s talk about the new record. This one is fully produced by Kount Fif. You fully produced your last full-length record, Written at Night. What was it like taking a back seat on the production side of things this time around?

I enjoy having other people produce my records in full like that. My next record is like that too, with another producer, Messiah Musik. And working with Kount Fif, it was good because I was able to get a different vibe and go a different direction than I had on other records. Every producer I work with is going to spark a different type of style or different subject matter for me. And working with Fif definitely brought something different. I think it helps me stay fresh and not do the same thing every time. I think thematically and conceptually I will go to similar places, but when you have different producers and different beats it will make those things sound different enough hopefully for the listener and certainly for me making it. I think that’s why I do that and I think that’s what was the most helpful thing about working with Fif. The challenge for me is that I’m a producer, and I’m a mix engineer, and I’m a mastering engineer, so I have an opinion on every aspect of the record, from the first take, to the last master of a track. So you know, that can become challenging when you’re working with different producers. But I think at the end of the day, there’s a lot of passion between Fif and I for the music that hopefully will be long lasting for people.

“Artificial Times” talks about originality being thrown in the trash. Why did you make this track, what inspired it?

Shoutout to Sadat X, he wrote that chorus. Obviously he kicked it, but he wrote it completely. There were two songs on this album: that one and “Sunrise”, that sort of came to me. To be honest, “Artificial Times” was intended originally for a different record. I think Kount Fif was putting together a production record. I was asked to be on that song, and it turned out so good that we just started clicking and said let’s just make this an Uncommon Nasa and Kount Fif project. So that was the first song that was done. And so that sort of ties into the theme of this record. I knew this record needed a theme and when I had “Artificial Times” in hand, it sort of built into other songs for the record, and it just fits. It could easily apply to retrospective thoughts on New York City and how it’s changed. It fits in really well and sparked a little bit of the themes for the rest of the record.

Speaking of themes, all of your records are thematically consistent. Would you ever make an album that didn’t have a theme?

I could never say never, but I do like it. I almost equate it to something like film, like being a film director. You know, when you’re a film director, you sit down and you’re making a film about a particular thing. The best directors can sort of string together their background and their experience and there’s a line that attaches all of those films, but they could be drastically or slightly different concepts. Kubrick has made a film about space, like 2001: A Space Odyssey and then he also made The Shining. And I see my records in that way. Like I’m the film director, and I’m trying to put together a theme for each record. I would say I’m going to continue and make thematic records in that way. We’ll see. I think if I made something that wasn’t like that, it would be interesting. I would probably have a distinct reason for that. 

Speaking of films, you included a quote about fame from Basquiat on “Speak Your Truth” and you sampled Basquiat again on “Van Gogh’s Ear” from your new record. What does this quote mean to you?

I think it’s a really cool part of the movie. Benicio del Toro is super underrated in that movie. That’s debatably my favorite movie of all time. It was the most influential movie for me. I saw that movie when I was about seventeen or eighteen, and as much as one film can change somebody’s life and perspective, that film definitely did. It kinda taught me what being a struggling artist is and what having the mentality of not giving a fuck and just doing what you do is about, and I really didn’t have that. When you’re in high school that’s not how people explain art or life. Then you see it on film and it’s like wow, you can just be yourself and do whatever you want. And part of that quote is about that. It’s a really good part of the movie where they’re just honestly talking about fame, but I think it was played really well because the way that Benicio’s character is talking about it, he doesn’t even understand what fame is. It’s like superficial in his head even though its written for the audience that knows what fame is. I mean Julian Schabel is a great writer and director. He did At Eternity’s Gate, which actually sort of inspired me to do “Van Gogh’s Ear” on the new record where I circled back and did a Basquiat sample again. But that’s another great movie that Schabel did.

I was wondering what the album process is like for you, considering you’re juggling quite a bit. Do you get to work on music every day?

I used to. I spent most of my twenties and thirties working on music almost every day in one way or another. Whether it was producing, mixing, writing, or doing the promotional stuff. I have trailed off from that rigorous schedule in the last year to two. As things keep moving, first of all, you tire yourself out a little bit. Second of all, the longer you walk around on this planet, the more real life stuff happens that commands your attention, whether you want to be making music or not. It changes you and hopefully it makes your music better as well, but it may cut into the prolificness of what you’re doing. And that’s fine. I’m sort of in a place now mentally where I’m comfortable with that. So that’s my process now. I try to make music as much as I can. I’m sitting on a lot of unreleased music so I’m sort of in mix mode right now. Like production, clean up, and mix mode, and I have been for a while. So just finishing things has become really important to me instead of just making stuff and having it.

One thing that has always stuck out to me about you is that you’ve stayed true to yourself over the years.  Especially being from New York your whole life, you’ve always kept it authentic. Is that just what has always made sense to you?

When I listen to hip hop, there are certain things that I don’t want to hear about or that I’m not a fan of. But for the most part, if someone is telling a story that seems authentic to me of them, I don’t have to agree with what they’re saying. It’s not a matter of one life story being better than the other, it’s just “is it authentic?” And for me, what I’ve written about and what I’ve put out, and what’s on City As School is authentic to me. It is biographical but it could apply to anyone’s story and someone could easily relate. “Best Laid Plans” for example is about me and my dudes’ weird scheme to buy and sell records when I was a teenager, and someone could think about something they did when they were a teenager that’s similar to that. I hope that’s what people get from what I’m doing. 

It was a pleasure speaking with Nasa, check out his new record City As School on BandCamp here and all streaming services now!