Local Artists Series Number 2: Nate Williams
Nate Williams is a rapper based out of Hazleton, Pennsylvania. But it wasn’t always that way.
Before getting into rap, Williams was primarily a spoken-word poet. But after a moment of tragedy, the death of a friend due to a heroin overdose, Williams changed the course of his life.
“Before she did, she said, ‘I want you to do music, I want you to do this; this is something you’re good at,’” Williams said. “That’s the one promise I had to keep.”
Williams said that the pain of that situation is what drove him, in many respects, to create the music that he does, with much of his early career serving as a memorial to his friend. Now, though, it influences him in a different way.
“The openness, the honesty, they’re still there,” Williams said. “But I don’t think the pain of it--I don’t think I live in that moment anymore.”
Now, much of Williams’ influence comes from his familial status; he is both a husband and a father.
Williams mentioned how his lyrics used to typically be much more vulgar than they are now, and that he frequently beefed with other local rappers, going so far as to call himself the “diss king” of local rap.
Since becoming a father, however, Williams toned down the vulgarity, while still keeping a raw, aggressive edge.
“I don’t curse anymore,” Williams said. “I’m more aware of the content I’m putting out there, because I know eventually, with the speed of technology’s growth, my kid can find it, like, ‘Daddy, why did you say this, this, and this?’”
Williams mentioned that some of the calming of his lyrics also has to due with his turning to religion, something which isn’t always explicitly mentioned in his lyrics, but suggests that some of his success may be owed to it.
“Ever since I started removing the negativity from my lyrics, things started looking up,” he said. “Doing international songs was never a thought in my mind, but now I’m doing songs with people in Russia, in Canada...My wife likes to say, ‘You giving your life to God has something to do with it, too. You have to thank him for that.’ And I’m like, ‘Alright, dear. I’ll get to that.’”
As for the future, Williams said that he wants to leave his mark on NEPA hip hop.
“I would want to take a group of younger rappers and teach them what I know,” Williams said. “People think that rapping is not that hard. It isn’t--once you find your groove, once you find your voice. I’ve only been rapping consistently for three years, and people are already saying the massive change in my style, in my voice. And I would want to give that back to people, give them a platform to succeed.”
However, Williams himself has a wide variety of platforms to succeed. With a solo career, a membership in a raw and aggressive hip hop duo called Die-Polar with fellow NEPA rapper Blade, and doing the production on the upcoming Drew Breeze record, Williams has more than enough to keep himself busy.
