Q&A With Detroit Underground Hip Hop Heavyweight Frank Nitt
We are honored to be conducting this Q&A with you Frank Nitt. We are still rocking your new album “Asphalt Runways” since its recent launch. We want to ask you, how did you even get started in the Hip Hop game? Who put you on, or did you put yourself on? BTW, we are huge Frank n Dank fans!
Thank you.. My first rap I wrote was in 9th grade at lunch with T3 and baatin of slum village. Up until that point I was djing with Jdilla. It was Jdilla who put Frank n Dank’s first music out and we’re the only act he ever signed to his label.
You’re a huge influence in the underground Hip Hop community, being from Detroit, a mecca city for real Hip Hop, and you working directly with J Dilla himself, being a part of a legendary group Frank n Dank, we can go on and on. How do you feel about the word “influence” itself. Being amongst a top-tier class on MC’s who actually “Influenced” the underground Hip Hop culture.
Thats crazy to me, I don’t see myself in that way, but I think influence is a good thing. There are tons of artist that influenced me from their music and in some cases personal convo. These things shaped the artist I am. Influence not biting! I’m old-school.
Feel free to breakdown the creative process of your latest album “Asphalt Runways”. Also how did you come up on the album cover art as well?
It was very organic.. Being that Robroy lives in Milan and im in Hollywood we opted to allow each other a level of freedom.. He would create beats and i would let that tell me what the song was about. We were lucky on a couple of songs we were actually in the same city..lol.. So we recorded joints in L.A. and milan. The artwork was Robroy he had an artist in italy do the actual drawing and he made it a cover. He’s that dude..lol)
Los Angeles…We network with tons of big well-known Hip Hop artists that always mention that L.A is the biggest market. We are based out of L.A ourselves, so do you feel the same way? Does .possibly have the biggest draw and fan-base when it comes to real Underground Hip Hop? How has L.A treated you so far?
L.A has been very dope {hella expensive} but dope! I feel like L.A is the one place all facets of entertainment has to come to. So opportunities are more vast and the chance to link with like-minded artist and make some ill shit is abundant.
The “Welcome 2 Detroit” album by J Dilla is an all time classic in our book. How did that record impact your career? “Pause” was actually one of my favorites on that record. That song really influenced me when I was younger and made me get to know real Detroit Hip Hop.
That album changed the landscape for Frank n Dank. That was our first trip overseas (Japan and Europe) our first organized press run and all that. We were in the studio for the making of that whole record, doing adlibs and i even got credit for playing the clavs..lol. That experience gave us a different level of studio prowess. The result was 48 hrs we recorded that right after.
Any advice for young MC’s that are trying to break away from their local scene and become possibly someone as influential as you?
The key is to record record. Different producers different styles of music all that. The opportunity will come it’s rather or not you are prepared to seize it.
How soon will you be dropping your next project?
Well.. The plan is to drop another solo project before year’s end.. And Primo Atto Ent. (my label with Robroy) will drop some new artist/heat in the new year as well.
Our most popular question! What is your definition of “underground hip hop”?
As it relates to artist I think “underground hip hop” embodies all facets of music and life..not just ass shaking,
Where can people find you on the web? Drop all the vital links.
Primo Atto Ent:
Frank Nitt:
Robroy:
facebook.com/robroyprimoatto.ent/
instagram.com/robroy_primoattoent/
Lastly, and shout out?
Big shout to all my fam.. y’all know who y’all are.
