Recently Nave sat down for a written interview with The Network. Check it out below!
What is your artist name? Nave Noblique
What kind of music do you make? Soul music. Music that’s honest. Music that tells the story of what’s really going on out here. Alot of artists today write at a very surface level, or don’t really have a clear message in their music, even if it’s lyrically or melodically sound. I know what I wanna say. Its bad out here. People are not looking out for the each other and the youth are being abused and led to destruction. People in high places are manipulating from the shadows, so even when you’re “woke” you’re still asleep. Someone needs to speak on it right? I like to party and have fun. I love a beautiful woman, and nice things as much as the next guy, but there’s more to life than that.
What do you hope to accomplish with your music? Someone needs to tell our story. I really just want to keep it real about what’s going on out here, and help people get free at this point. I feel like I was misled by the notion I was supposed to fall in line and go work for someone else. Graduated college and scooped a Bachelor’s in Literature. Once I was educated enough to really look at my life, and see how America is, I realized I was also misled in the streets by the notion that you can make it out while hurting other people, and destroying your neighborhood. Most of all I realized was misled about who God is, and my role as a black man in the world. I feel like I gotta let people, especially my black people here in America know the truth. God is real and black is beautiful, and powerful. You don’t have to supress yourself to be happy. Jesus was a man of color and God sided with the slaves in the story, not Pharoah. Governments lie to people. Def Jam Fight For New York is classic. Stuff like that.
What were your early influences?
As far as influence my parents always played music around me. My dad would play Parliament, The Message, Ain't No Sunshine, and my mom played stuff like Stevie Wonder, Prince, and MC Hammer. I found hip hop at a young age and started listening to Masta Ace, Immortal Technique, Snoop Dogg, Em, Kanye, and Luda on my own, and my older brother and cousins put me on to The Wu, Nas etc. Then I’d hear stuff like Superman by 3 Doors Down on the Radio. I think that’s who did that. Sorry my memory is trash sometimes. But yeah, there was always music around me, I did poetry but I didn’t start rapping and dropping projects til a girl broke my heart. Read an interview from Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance about using songwriting for therapy and I kept going from there. Oh and Wayne. Can’t forget Lil Wayne’s the Carter 2. Him and Nickelus F showed me I could do whatever I wanted when it came to punchlines. Nipsey Hussle was what made it all come together on the business side as well. That’s how I formed this partnership with The Hub Teen center in my hometown. We help teach youth in the city to record, mix, and drop their own projects. Salute to Nipsey for that business model. Don’t wanna forget anybody. Far as production I can rap or sing to anything. At this point it just depends on what’s being made.
How old are you and when did you start creating music? I'm 29 and I started making music at 19. I was in band in school for like 7 years before that though. Trumpet.
What does your career look like when all is said and done? Before all is said and done the plan is: To be able to leave a lasting and profitable legacy for my son and my family. To be able to wake as many people up as possible. To make enough to really be able to change things, and show these labels and artists new ways to do this. I feel like the last way I was misled was by the industry. They make it seem like songs just randomly blow up if you"re "good enough" and that fame equates to money. In reality they alot of em were selected and given that money or given that clout. I feel like alot of artists end up chasing fame they can't earn or keep, instead of building themselves up. I learned from Nipsey. I'm a boss myself, so I plan to interact with the corporatations on their level, not beg for scraps. I linked with a non profit in my city and it's really opened my eyes to the kind of opportunities you can provide, as well as the change you can make when you put in the work.
I wanna let people out there know it's possible, and that the marathon ain't end with Nipsey. We runnin laps over in Michigan too.
What do you want the reader to know about you and your music? Listen to it lol.
& you will not beat me in Mortal Kombat if I pick Sub Zero. Also if you’re a noob (have listened to 0 projects) start with the song Bein Alone and the project Put Down Your Phones. (Poverty from that project is a good one)