Q&A With Rising Hip Hop Artist Mad Nice

Whats Up Mad Nice ! We really enjoyed your latest EP “Astronauts” How long have you been making music? What area code(s) do you rep!? And how did you get your artist name?

Hey. Much appreciated. I’ve been making music since 2014 and actually writing a bit longer than that. I rep the 703, 757, 202, 225, and the 504. All of the places that have had a significant impact on my life. The name Mad Nice stems from the original name of Madnice (an alternate spelling of madness). For some reason it kept being pronounced mad nice so I decided not to fight the powers that be and just rolled with it.

Much respect on being such a hard-working underground Hip Hop artist out of D.C! Us Los Angeles, CA heads are really unfamiliar with the Hip Hop scene out there! Please tell us a little bit about it! Is there an underground Hip Hop scene? Is the Trap/Rap scene overkill over there as well as it is in LA??…LOL

Honestly like everywhere there is a couple of guys putting in work in DC but I would say most artists leave for bigger hip hop markets. DC just doesn’t have the right scene to get out there in the underground. You will find DC cats doing more in NYC, Philly, and Atlanta than in the capital.

Please breakdown the creative process to your EP “Astronauts” collabing with Jony Shelby. How did you come up with the idea/concept to EP? How did your guys end up linking up?

We ended linking up a few years ago and started recording music at Jony’s crib. Both of us were just starting out and we spent days in the lab coming up with new shit just messing around. The project is actually a compilation of some of the best songs we did together over that time. Even though it may not be an accurate representation of how good we’ve become, we dropped it as representation of where we came from, and the process of how you need to grow to get to where you want to go. A lot of great memories making this and what’s important to remember is life is all about the journey. The EP itself is called Astronauts as a metaphor for growing up in today’s society. Growing up you are told you can be anything you want to…to reach for the stars. A common dream of many young kids is becoming an Astronaut. Typically as many of us get older we face a loss of innocence and stop dreaming and one day the dreams of our youth become “unrealistic”. In the intro track also called “Astronauts” I say “How foolish was I to think I could become an Astronaut”. This line pretty much sets the idea and subject behind the whole EP.

As you can tell by our blog name, we of course cater to the hardcore underground Hip Hop audience! So that being said, let us ask you our most important question, “What is your definition of Underground Hip Hop”?

Underground Hip Hop to me is coming through with music that is true to who you are. Often times artists that are either slept on, undiscovered, or talk about things that are too controversial for the mainstream. I know people love getting mad at artists that “sell out”. But as artists it is a battle to make enough money to live. Even artists that have millions of plays are living paycheck to paycheck.

How often do you perform live?? Any indie DIY tours in the works?

I haven’t performed in a couple of years actually. Right now I’ve been grinding to come up with original material that is on another level. Hording tracks that are my best performances to drop one after the other in a sort of blitzkrieg. Performing is only half the battle, you need to have the dopest shit to perform.

Lets face it, social media since 2016 has grown tremendously, especially IG!!! Tell us how is your IG grind is looking, and how have you been able to keep up with the high demand on social media in 2018?

Honestly I haven’t been grinding too hard. I keep it 100 all the time, I don’t pretend to be someone I’m not. I see people following thousands of people a day just to wait for a follow back, and they wait a couple of days and unfollow everybody. This just seems fake as fuck to me. People are only real followers if they love your shit. Everybody’s out for number one these days and they grind for thousands of fake followers that they tricked into following them. Just so they can pretend to be famous. I could have been doing that to make my numbers look nice but I don’t care about what people think too much.

How do you feel about the whole MUMBLE RAP XAN & LEAN trend these kids nowadays are on!!!..LOL??? Be honest, do you use some of that stuff??..LOL

I spent years getting faded. I’ve done it all. But shit got pretty dark and I found myself in detox. As for mumble rap, I may not love someone’s music but you got to respect them as artists. I mean shit if you can say Gucci Gang on a track over and over again and top the charts you gotta be some sort of musical genius lmao. But for real, rap has splintered into many directions the past 10 years. The definition is Rhythm And Poetry. In the 90’s it had a strict formula that people followed. Over time the art has gone in many directions as people are always trying to create something that’s unique. I feel now some of the music is more rhythm and less poetry and vice versa. But art is art and you got to respect people who are on the same hustle as you.

What you got cooking next? Any special for the new year 2018!!??

I linked up with electronic producer Provo from Lembo. We are almost done with two different EP’s which we are dropping back to back around mid april/ may. We’ve really got some big things in the works.

Where do see yourself in 5yrs? (2023)?

Somewhere in California.

Where can fans find your music? Drop all links!!
Spotify-

Any new shout outs?

Shout out to my dude Provo. Probably the most phenomenal musician I’ve ever met. As well as my homie Jony Shelby.