Nana
On From The District To The World, Crenshaw, and Los Angeles
Q&A FEATURE
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Q&A FEATURE 〰️
Interview By Josh Kirshner
Article By Bailey Meyers
Nana, unlike many other artists that we cover at When I Make It To LA, can’t tell us about when he made it to Los Angeles, because Los Angeles made him. His recent project, From The District To The World, pays homage to the Crenshaw District of the city and hosts a diverse cast of LA features. Nana creates an eclectic yet tight-knit album in a pocket that acts as a record of his vision and experience of the city. FTDTTW works to reorient listeners’ minds to understand the varied traumas and successes of the city, and life, through Nana’s story, as well as those of his community.
Nana made his intentions for the album clear: “One thing that I wanted to make a point of on this project was just being free and having fun, and at the same time having everything come together cohesively.” On “Bet It Back,” Nana experiments with trap, while on other songs he draws influence from sampled instruments, soul, jazz, raw hip hop, and R&B. “I put it together in the sense of not having boundaries on myself, and not putting too much pressure on myself, but still making it true to me, and where I call home, Los Angeles.”
Nana certainly has authenticity in mind and his attention to the people and places close to him is apparent. Nana’s own name isn’t a pseudonym, but his birth name, which translates to “King” from his parents’ native Akan. Though Nana doesn’t carve himself into a single defined lane, he stated, “We all have multiple sides as humans. There are songs where we’re sad, in love, when we wanna turn up when we want to reflect on life and our journey, and I want to embody that.” Multifacetedness as a person is key, and Nana’s versatility as an artist shines through.
Contrasting with the 808s and claps of “Bet It Back,” “Real Real” ft. Kent Jamz uses atmospheric chords and layered vocals under the two artists to produce a song that sounds sexy, nostalgic, and fundamentally Los Angeles.
As for the artist’s story, one only has to listen to his music. Nana is a poet, and on the first track of the album he proclaims, “Growing up I had to decipher the rights from the wrongs/ shed my soul, give my life, put my thoughts in my songs.” A Crenshaw native, Nana strategically immerses the listener in his unique experiences. He said, “I feel like I’m in full control of my own story, and that I haven't gotten a chance to tell my full story yet. There’s a lot of stuff that a lot of people don’t know about me, and as my career progresses, I’ll reveal more, some of which I kinda haven’t even come to terms with yet.” As Nana continues on his ascent, we can surely expect more insightful bars into what he calls, “the real LA.”
We asked Nana about his LA and he poetically summed up the culture as: “LA fitted caps, the food. You can find a good taco spot on every corner. New York was such a culture shock, but I couldn't find any good Mexican food nowhere. That's what we have and hold near and dear to us, culture in all aspects.” Culture is experienced in all elements of daily life, and Nana intends to give the world a rendition of LA more based on the realities of the communities there than Hollywood glitz and palm trees. More geographically, he defined LA as, “Crenshaw Blvd, King Blvd, all the way to Slauson, even back down to Nicolette. La Cienega, La Brea, Vermont. If you’ve ever been to the real Los Angeles you’re familiar with those streets.”
On making music in LA as opposed to anywhere else, Nana reveled in, “Just the level of authenticity. We have our own language. The mannerisms, the way we talk, a lot of people feel like there is a certain proper accent in our speech or in our lingo. The culture, you know what I’m saying?” FTDTTW’s features are saturated with that culture. The album showcases contributions from Kent Jamz, Buddy, Rae Khalil, and Garren, each bringing their own dash of LA flavor to the album.
We asked Nana what he thought was the most valuable lesson he learned from a collaborator. His answer was simple: “Just be free.” He elaborated, “Kent Jamz truly just did what he felt. We got in the studio; me, DJ Khalil, studio musicians who were on speed-dial. It felt like a jam session— it was free, the beat and the music itself being the canvas. You can’t really put art in a box; do whatever you feel, whatever comes to you, and be free in that.” By relaxing the pressure to create something perfect, one can create something truly creative.
Though creatively free, Nana deals with the often intense realities of LA in his songs. There are many very real problems faced by LA’s inhabitants, and Nana is no exception. He finds solace in community, saying, “I like to find relatability in just having conversations with other people.” He also said that personally, he values, “being kind to myself and not putting any pressure on myself that I have to be perfect since we all have stuff that we have dealt with that takes a lot of years to cope with. I like to be as patient with myself as possible. Time will heal.”
Patience is essential to Nana’s philosophy, and he gave advice to his younger self:
“Be patient. Appreciate the present when you feel like times aren't working out. Those are some of the most humbling times ever, like ever, when I was struggling to be heard, and really doing everything in my power. I take no relationships for granted. I treat everybody with kindness, I try to treat everybody with respect.”
Nana: From The District To The World Album Artwork
Nana is not unreflective or neglectful towards the struggle and blessing to have one’s voice heard by a considerable base. Even with hundreds of thousands of fans, Nana said he responds to “damn near every DM” because he knows what it's like to struggle to get respect in terms of music and make a place for oneself in the industry.
His own aspirations, however, are far removed from DMs. Nana plans to take FTDTTW “around the world. That's what this project is about,” he said. “It's not only about me, but it's about taking what I have been taught and or retaught, and about taking Los Angeles across the world with me. Being able to put the world onto who we are as the West Coast, Los Angeles, Southcentral, the Crenshaw district, and put the world onto us.” Nana may not be the one to put LA on the map, but he may be the one to define what it really means.
Nana sees himself having a deep, reciprocal relationship with Los Angeles: “I’ve always had a love for my city, and I feel like I’m seeing the love that my city has for me now in the support that I’m getting.” More than an exchange though, it is the ensemble of people that make LA and what they represent. Nana added, “One thing that I am very strong on is community; the love that I have for my community.” Nana elaborated further and told us how he was appreciative of the opportunity to perform back home when the Crenshaw YMCA was rebuilt, showing the on-the-ground love that we can expect from the rapper between him and the community.
From The District To The World is a true LA album, from the artist himself to the bars to the features and production. In this project, Nana stalks, struts, and strolls down the boulevards of the tracks to show the “real LA” through his curated experiences and stories. Nana is a window into the city and the lessons, triumphs, and struggles that may come from it.
As a final note, he added, “Can’t know where you’re going if you don’t know where you're from. This is where I’m from, where I was born, raised, had a lot of great experiences, and where I learned how to be a man. It really taught me how to survive, and about the value of showing everybody respect.”