This is Part Two of the What’s Good?  interview with NSR (continued from Part One)

Retail DJ: Could you tell us a little bit about the writing process for you?

NSR: I think the writing process differs a lot. I really like to write to beats. I feel like the best stuff comes when you craft your words to a beat. But at the same time, sometimes I’ll be chillin’ on the train and I’ll get inspired by something that I see or think about. And then I’m writing ideas down. I have a lot of random ass ideas that are written down. There are pages of ideas, and I don’t know of how much use they’ll be to me in the future. The worst thing for me is that I’ll think of melodies, and I think I’ll remember what the melody if I write down the actual lyrics, but then I forget all of them. So I’ll try to go back to them and it will just escape me. It depends. Sometimes I like writing late at night, alone, by candlelight, with a nice cup of hot chocolate. But sometimes I like to go in the studio with a bunch of people around and watch the whole creative process and contribute in terms of production and figure out a concept, then throw on headphones and go right to it. Or I’ll have the beat just loop and write to it on the spot. So it totally depends on what the situation is.

Most recently, I did a project with another MC named Nickname. Our group’s name is Memory Laine. We just released an E.P. called The Spotlight E.P. That was like the most intense writing situation I’ve had because we basically had the studio for a week, and we were in there night and day just writing and recording and figuring out different concepts. We did that whole album in essentially a week, aside from mixing it and doing touch-ups. It involved a lot of bouncing ideas off each other, and writing, then a lot of re-writing, then me spitting some verse and Nick being like, “Yeah you could probably re-write that a little here,” and vice-versa. It was cool. It’s definitely different from you sitting by candlelight and doing whatever you want to do.

Retail DJ: I want to ask you more a little later about your collaborative projects. Before we get to that, I wanted to find out a little more about the production of your tracks. Besides feeling bad for some of the drunken hookups mentioned in “Better With You,” I found myself wondering who did the production. I listened to that song and thought, “Oh sh*t, that’s a Chaka Khan track (later sampled by Stardust)!”

NSR: Holla! You knew it was Chaka Khan. Most people just say Stardust, not the original.

Retail DJ: [laughs] Yeah, we’re not like that. So who does your beats? They’re really really good!

NSR: Thank you. I work with an all-star producer out of Boston named Turbz. He’s a big DJ in Boston, and a producer as well. I met him at Ithaca College. He is 3 years older than me, and he kind of mentored me in radio, and we did some stuff in Ithaca. We also have a good mutual friend/fellow MC who I’ve done some stuff with as well. He goes by Terrordome. We all went to Ithaca.

So about a year and a half ago, we reconnected, me and Turbz, and started making songs. He just started sending me beats. I remember one time, he sent me a bunch of beats, and I wrote on his facebook wall, “I just wrote three songs to your beats. What’s good?” We hadn’t seen each other in probably like two years, and he came down to the city, and we just went into the studio and did “City Life” and some other tracks.

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We kinda just went from there. The entire project, The Darling Limited, was produced by Turbz. We worked foreign exchange style. He would send me beats –and this was before I had a studio at all; now I have a studio set up in my crib—and I would just record on my Macbook. I remember the first one, “Better With You,” was done with me in my bathroom, recording on the Macbook. It sounds horrible, obviously! But I was really inspired by him and his ideas, his production. We made that whole album with him being in Boston and me being in New York. He took about three trips to New York, and I took 1 or 2 trips to Boston. For example, “Adrien Brody” was created in Boston, and other things were created here.

Retail DJ: Do you see yourself ever doing any production?

NSR: Yeah, I would like to. I really would. I think that’s definitely the next step as an artist. I have a good friend and artist as well—his name is Dash Speaks. Over the past year, he’s really gotten into production, and now he’s definitely stepped up his game. He’s releasing an album on February 1st called Geography. He produced the entire thing, and I think there are 16 songs. It’s f*cking incredible. To me, that’s super impressive: to go from just rapping and singing to creating an entire sound for yourself. You can look at a lot of artists today and say, “Ok, you can rap. So what? Everyone raps. There needs to be more. You need to be doing more.”

But yeah, I would love to. I already know what my first beat is gonna be.

Retail DJ: Do you want to give us a little hint. . . exclusive??? [all laugh]

NSR: [laughs] I’ve contributed in the production process before. I used to play drums, so I’ve contributed in terms of drums and ideas, etc, but I don’t know how to work an MPC. I don’t know how to work Logic well enough to actually make beats.

So, yesterday, I was listening to Jay Electronica. To me, he’s one of New York’s best right now. He’s incredible. I think he’s from New Orleans originally. He’s working on a project with Just Blaze, and he released a song that’s kind of been blowing up the internet called “Exhibit C.” It was produced by Just Blaze. It’s one of the best hip hop records I’ve heard in a couple years, truthfully. So he has some lyrics in it that go [rapping]: “When I was sleepin’ on the train / sleepin’ on Messerole Ave out in the rain. . .”

It’s talking about his life being homeless. But I was playing with it and I kept bringing back: “when I was sleepin’ on the train, sleepin’ on the train, sleep-sleepin’ on the train. . . “ So I want to take that and make a beat out of it. Alright, excited for that? [laughs]

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