In this week’s showcase, I’ve went all the way down to the ‘dirty south’ for good reason.
‘Nilly’ is originally from New Orleans, but like many, he was forced to move due to Hurricane Katrina.
However, nothing stopped him from graduating from LSU in broadcast journalism. Currently, Nilly is working on getting his masters from Southern University.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention he’s a Nu Psi Alpha.
Enough about his excellent work in the classroom because he’s getting passing grades in the studio as well.
After listening to tons of music over the past week, Nilly’s versatility stood out to me the the most.
All the way from his ‘March Madness freestyle’ to his ‘Black’ track, the New Orleans artist shows the ability to touch various topics.
Adding to his already impressive resume, Nilly has opened up for the likes of K Camp, Dej Loaf, Young Thug, Tank and Tinashe.
Nilly opened up for K Camp at Xavier University.
Last night, I had the pleasure of chatting it up with the rising ‘Nilly’ himself.
For those who aren’t familiar with you, how would you describe Nilly in one sentence?
I would describe “Nilly” in one sentence by this statement. “He works hard when others stop working, because the only way you can make a difference is if you strive to make a difference all the time.
I’ve noticed #NillyNation is a slogan you push really hard, where did “Nilly” come from and what does it mean to you?
Nilly started out as a childhood Nickname given from my mom as an abbreviation of my first name Seanil (Shuh-Neel). One day my mom came to my basketball game in high school and called me that. My friends clowned me and started calling me that from then on. It started out as a joke to everybody, but I owned it until I was able to market in my music and on different styles of clothing. Nowadays, random people come up to me calling me Nilly and saying how they love my music. That name has come a long way lol.
One word that came to my mind when listening to your music was “versatility”. One song can be on some ‘black lives matter’ flow while another track can be a club record. What’s your thought process when coming up with different sounds?
I feel like versatility shows the greatness in somebody’s work ethic. It’s easy to talk about one specific type of thing and be good at it all the time, but I know that I don’t want to talk to one specific group of people. I want everyone to be able to relate to my music and be inspired to be better from listening to it. The beauty of being versatile is to be versatile, while staying true to yourself and not fabricating your lifestyle.
New Orleans and Louisiana in general has tons of respected artist in the game. With that being said, has anyone from your hometown inspired you through the years?
I get inspiration from all people from all over the world, but people from New Orleans who have inspired me are Lil Wayne and Peyton Manning. Wayne is the GOAT of the metaphor in my opinion, and he has inspired all artists from the city to understand that they can win grammys and sell out stadiums if they put the nonstop work in you need to get to the top. Peyton Manning was known for being a master in the film room. The best way to become the best at what you do is to study your competition to gain a competition edge. Although both have dominated in different competitive realms, they have showed that they are students of their game and strive for nothing but greatness.
Tell the people what to be on the lookout for in 2016.
My latest mixtape “5 Life” will be dropping in March/April. It will be debut on my brand new website which will launch on that same day (NillyNation.com). There will be a Music Video to “Black” coming soon, as well as me planning to hit the stage at SXSW.
Lastly, the launch of the NillyNation scholarship foundation will happen in August, donating money to one particular student to help[ them pay for school.
To check out all of Nilly’s latest heat, make sure to follow him on SoundCloud.
If you’re a music artist out there and you want some exposure like this, make sure to contact me on Twitter @MarkAGunnels or just simply email me your music at [email protected].
I’ll be doing this every Thursday.
