Nathaniel Cole has been pulling his weight in the Halifax hip-hop community and making a name for himself. Now he’s not only releasing a new single but bringing the community together for a collaborative idea in the process.
In return for collaboration on his upcoming album, Cole came up with the idea to trade art for art. In exchange for an artist’s time and their efforts in aiding with this project, he will be creating studio portraits to commemorate the process.
“Suffocate” was composed and produced by Cole himself and touches base with our emotions and how someone can easily push their negative energy in our direction. Sometimes this pessimistic behaviour ends up bringing us down along with them, but when is the right time to let them go?
“The idea for the lyrics of this song came about when many people in my life were harbouring some negative energy,” explains Cole. “Essentially, those people I surrounded myself were going through a tough time — for various reasons, and in those moments I tried to provide those people I love and care about with as much help and assistance as possible.”
“The frustrating part became when they were not willing to accept the help; or to help themselves. And those who love them ultimately bear a large brunt of that negative energy trying to help their loved one into a better place. In these instances I was feeling suffocated, dragged down by this energy.”
Cole was eager to reach out to fellow artist and MC Paollo13 to help him construct the final product for “Suffocate.” The result gives us a memorable beat that does not overpower the emotion in the vocals.
“Paollo13 is a friend of mine from back in the day. I remember pushing my way to the center of a crowd of about 30 people outside of our high school to find him in the center, freestyling acappella — absolutely tearing it up,” says Cole.
“I started experimenting with free samples and loops as well as making my own loops, flipping them and making music that leaned more in the hip hop direction, rather than my typical RNB/funk style. So naturally, the idea came to invite local artists whose work I admire to collaborate, and Paollo was the first artist to jump on board this project when we recorded his vocals last winter in his apartment with my mobile studio setup.”
“I ended up sitting on this track for over a year, in the process of bringing on other artists to feature on the other tunes I had created. The intention being, to create a bank of music that will one day exist as a mix-tape but be released as singles throughout 2020.”
Keep an eye out, because in a week’s time, Cole will be releasing a video to coincide with his new track. The upcoming video was captured at Cole’s Studio 2o4 and was shot and edited by Alberta filmmaker Anna Kuelken.