NawfWest Nyce {Interview}

 NawfWest Nyce has been makin’ moves with his music for a while. He reps San Antonio to the fullest. GroundSounds very own A.D. had the opportunity to chop it up with Nyce himself check out the interview below. 

Nyce, whats good big homie, how you been?!

Ah I’m good g definitely can’t complain, just working hard as usual! How you g?

Now, I used to go to high school with you…John Paul Stevens High School in San Antonio, Texas…you were a big name in the area on the music scene even back then. You were part of the group, McGarity Ent. How was it being a part of such a widely known rap group in the area while you were just a high school teen?!

Mannn it was a wild ride and it all came so fast! I honestly never knew how known we were until recently; like people still hit me up for a copy of our mixtape we dropped in ’07! And they’ll see me out and they’ll spit those verses line for line, and I be seeing tweets quoting lines from that tape. But back then we were really moving too fast to really sit back and peep the following we gained.

You guys had a song with Texas music legend, Chalie Boy “Get Like Me” …how did that come about?!

Prior to Chalie we already had songs with Keke, Poke, and ESG, so one day we was in the studio and the owner of the label came thru and was simply like we got Chalie Boy coming thru next week. So he came thru we flipped thru some beats, found one, and put it down.

Now you’re a solo artist, what was the transition like going from a group to being your own solo act?

At first the transition was kinda rough cause I had to first learn pro tools then I had to do all my recording and mixing on my own.  Then the fact that there wasn’t always somebody around to give me that constructive criticism right then and there made things a little difficult.  But it didn’t take too long to adjust to the change.

Why did you choose to take the solo route as opposed to staying within the group?

I mean once we got outta high school we had to adjust to the “real world” in a sense as far as getting jobs and going away for school etc. We’d get show dates and set up studio sessions and most of the time everybody couldn’t make it because work or whatever and we slowly just fell apart as a group unfortunately. And one day I was laid up in the bed thinking that I wanted to get back into music so I said f it and ran thru Sam Ash and got my own lil studio setup and it’s been on since!

Are you still cool with the same guys from McGarity?!

Yea at the end of the day were all still family, we all came up together and we will always remain close. Every solo project I’ve put out I always reached out to each of them to get on it.

You used to have ‘beef’ with a fellow San Antonio rap artist, Yung Fresh…what was the problem between you two?! Do you guys still have issues or has that stuff been put in the past?

Mannn there was really nothing to it, I had class with one of his homies at the time and he would always go on and on during class how Fresh was the hottest rapper at the school. And at the time we was really just kicking off the whole “McGarity” thing so I wasn’t known at Stevens as a rapper. So one day I was like naaa fk that your homie can’t see me he’s trash, and it was on from there. I mainly used the opportunity to get my name known around the school though. But now were cool we was at each other’s video shoots not too long ago and we will soon be on a track together.

Since becoming a solo artist, you have started your own brand, Lifestyle Music…define ‘Lifestyle Music’ for me…

Lifestyle Music is a team of individuals that make music that represents the actual life that they live. We’re not out here rapping bout buggatis or claiming to be the hardest. We’re simply like this is what we do; this is how we do it. We’re everyday people just like you so you’re definitely going to relate to a large percentage of it.

Who all is a part of Lifestyle Music?!

For the most part it’s still my homies from the Mcgarity days. I got my dog Mac and A Wall then a few artist I’ve always been a fan of their work.. Baby Aztro and MV. Then I got my main homie Kenn hes working as a producer though. But I mean if you’re in my small circle of friends and your bout grinding with this music or art in general you’re gonna fall under that ‘Lifestyle Music’ umbrella cause I put it together for us all to come up as a whole! But what I want to make clear is we are not a “group” were just a collection of artist on the same mission!

How would you define your sound?!

My music mainly has a laid back feel to it, something you can pop in the deck and just ride to, kick it with your homies and smoke to. And it’s all real so there’s always something you can relate to. I made a promise to myself not to become a gimmicky rapper and just say a bunch of nonsense.

You used to go by D-Nyce…now you go by Nawfwest Nyce…what inspired the name change ?

D nyce was a name given to me by my homies back in like middle school, they kinda called me that to clown cause I was from NY. And the name always just stuck with me ever since then.  And then at one of my first video shoots I was messing around for the behind the scenes footage and I was like “I damn near say something bout the Northwest side of town on every song cause that’s where we came up so yall can start calling me Northwest Nyce from now on!”  But I was really just joking at the time but I thought about it like the next day and was like why not? Its unique and it separates me from all the other Nyce’s in the world! And the spelling of ‘Nawfwest’ comes from the influence of Houston’s culture because I came up on their music, (lil keke, UGK, ABN, etc.)

You now have your own website NawfwestNyce.com …I love it fareal, its very polished and well laid out…just wanted to throw that out there!

Aye preciate that dogg! I actually did it myself with no knowledge of building a website! I always attempt to do something on my own before reaching out to somebody, and I feel I did a pretty good job!

That “Business To Tend To” video featuring Baby Aztro is ill as shit! The visuals are extra dope…the song is fresh to!

Thanks g! Baby Aztro never lets me down on a verse! And shouts out to my homie Kam for always giving me fresh visuals!

Love the “City Lights” video too by the way…

Preciate it dog! Out of all the vids I got, that’s my favorite one, it came together perfectly.

What your favorite food spot in CountDown City?!

Lately I’ve been eating at Logans Roadhouse on the reg! Their steaks are great! And the drinks are good too!

If you had to choose between Whataburger or Taco Cabana, what would you pick?

Taco Cabana because I have different options that I usually get..at Whataburger its only one thing I get!

Are you a Spurs fan?

Keepin it real once is stopped playing sports I lost all interest in it, But of course ima hold it down with where im from so I can say yes to the question.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 10 years?

5 years from now I see myself deep into this music game and living comfortably; rubbing elbows and getting schooled by the Diddys and finding other things to invest my money in. Ten years I see myself looking back saying mannn that was a wild ride!

What are some of your short term goals?

Right now a short term goal of mine is getting my first single finished up and promoted correctly! I think this is the best song I’ve ever wrote and it will get me out of the “local artist” box that I’m in.

If you could collab with one artist, who would you choose?

There’s too many to name one, as for as locally I want to work with but haven’t had the chance to reach out to is Worldwide and Greg G.  Then as far as well-known the list is long.. there’s Juvenile, Stalley, Curren$y, Smoke Dza, Lil Keke, Young Roddy, 50 Cent,  Rick Ross, Fabolous, Pusha T I can go on and on honestly but those is some of the mains.

Whose your favorite rapper of all time?!

Mannn that’s a tuff one honestly! My music collection is crazy g! But if I had to only listen to one rapper for the rest of my life id prolly roll with Pac! He’s so inspirational and raw at the same time!

What is your alcohol of choice?!

That Henn Dogg mann! Anytime you see me sippin 9 times outta 10 it’s the henn!

Anything else you wanna tell the fans, listeners, readers?!

Be on the lookout for my first single I’m getting ready to drop entitled “Heart Made Of Gold” produced by homie James Colburn and the “Bullets Production Team.” The Bullets catalogue is pretty intense! They produced Tupac’s “Only God Can Judge Me” and wrote J Lo’s “Love Don’t Cost  A Thing.” You can visit they’re site to get a full list of who they work with http://bulletsproductionteam.com/discography. But I’m pretty excited to drop the track, they loved it as soon as they heard the original version. They’re currently tweaking a few things and I’m preparing to shoot the video on March 2^nd so be on the lookout for that!

Well we appreciate you sittin’ down and choppin’ it up with us at GroundSounds.com, keep grindin’ and ‘getting’ it’ !!!

Thanks for the opportunity homie~