On Saturday, April 21, Atlanta rapper Nick Grant opened for Ab-Soul in front of a lively audience at WOW Hall. Grant is currently touring with Ab-Soul to promote his recently released EP “The Return of the Cool.”
Grant first gained mainstream attention after  freestyling on the popular radio talk show, “Sway in the Morning.” Sway, the show’s host, reacted by screaming, “You a wack motherfucker!” Not only did Grant earn the respect of the well-known radio personality, but he also established himself as one of the best up-and-coming lyricists in the rap game.
Although he discusses several topics on his EP, Grant flexes his rhyming skills on every track. The EP also has several standout features from guest artists. 2016 Grammy winner BJ the Chicago Kid is featured on the track “Gotta Be More.” The EP consists of 11 tracks that have a variety of beats that include everything from funk rhythms to classic hip-hop beats. While the production on the record is somewhat varied, Grant’s bars remain consistently impressive.
The Emerald spoke with Grant after his performance at WOW hall last Saturday about touring with Ab-Soul, “The Return of the Cool,” and his aspirations of directing horror movies.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and content.
E: I read that you started your rapping career by participating in rap battles in your hometown of Walterboro, South Carolina. What was that rap battle scene like?
NG: Atlanta too. I graduated high school in Atlanta and most of my ‘existence’ was in Atlanta. But I used to skip schools and go do the battles from age 13 up to when I was 17 or 18. That’s how I sharpened my sword.
E: So you’d just skip school and meet up with your friends to do rap battles? What was that scene like?
NG: In Atlanta, I would just skip class and walk up to [the Clark University campus]. I would challenge whoever I felt the dopest MC was and I would call them out or the person I was with would call them. They’d say ‘my guy’s better than your guy” and we’d battle it out. It’s an ego thing, ya know? There’s only one way to prove it so we’d engage in rap battles to show who’s the best.
E: Did that experience help shape your style and sound?
NG: It made me very witty. It made me very mindful because when you battle you gotta be mindful of the little things or of the flaws that the other person has and of your strengths. You gotta be a mindful person to be a battle rap person, but how that translates to my [recorded] music means that I have to be mindful in different ways. Like my everyday life and my everyday experience. If I keep that mentality of being mindful and knowing what’s going on in my world then I can try to find a clever or witty way to relay that to my fans.
E: Your freestyle on “Sway in the Morning” put you on the map as a premiere lyrical rapper. What was that experience like for you? How did it feel to perform so well on a national stage?
NG: That was the very first time that anybody ever really heard me do anything. So I’ll be forever grateful and indebted to Sway. Heather B and Tracy G too. They provided that platform for me, but I just felt like I had to go up there and do my thing. It could’ve went either way though. It could’ve been ‘oh that guy is wack. We don’t want him to ever come back or hear him again;’ or ‘That guy is great. I want to see him do more stuff.’ Fortunately, it went the latter of the two. That was my moment. You know when Eminem says ‘Lose yourself. You only get one shot.’ Not to be cheesy, but that was my shot.
E: Your debut album “Return of the cool” came out earlier this year. What was the writing and recording process like? Did you have those songs already written before recording or did you go into that process with a blank slate?
NG: A little bit of both. It was me sitting in the studio. It was me having some lyrics already and feeling like ‘OK, I have this topic and this idea, but finding which beat and which production fits each topic.’ For the most part ‘Return of the Cool’ wsa well balanced. It started out like a passion project. I wanted to contribute to what hip-hop was. It actually wasn’t supposed to be an album. It was supposed to be a mixtape that I was just going to throw out for free. It started sounding so good that the record label was like ‘it’s too good to just give away for free. So let’s just make people pay for it.’
E: Do you have any dates set for the release of your full-length debut album?
NG: I’m thinking end of 2017. Sometime in the fourth quarter. It’s titled ‘Sunday Dinner.’ I’ve worked with Usher on that project, hopefully Ab-Soul and a few other people. But I’m going to drop an appetizer before that record drops.
E: I know that you’re an avid Jazz listener. Was the album’s title a reference to Miles Davis’s “Birth of the Cool”? What does the phrase mean in the context of the release?
NG: To be honest I wasn’t thinking about Miles Davis, but that just shows you how the universe works. I did an interview with [hip-hop radio host] Ebro and he brought that to my attention and I thought that was genius in a way. It’s just crazy how it came full circle because I wasn’t even thinking that way, but it’s dope. Miles Davis is someone that I grew up listening to [along with] John Coltrane, Joe Sample. As I grew, it made its way into my subconscious so that when I make records now, all this stuff just pours out. I’m just grateful for all the people in my life who introduced me to that stuff and now I just can’t escape it, even if I wanted to.
E: Who got you into those records?
NG: Definitely my family. I was like 6 years old listening to that stuff. My grandmother raised me. She was born in 1919 so just had a long history of listening to stuff from that time. I would go to my grandfather’s house on the weekends and get those same musical and life lessons. His wife taught piano so that type of music was just around me all the time. My mother would play different stuff that was from her era as well. There was Luther Vandross,  Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, you know all of these people. My brother would be playing Tupac, Biggie, Jay-Z, Nas, Scarface, Outkast. So I really just couldn’t escape it.
I come from a small town where the only thing that goes on is going to school, selling drugs, killing people and listening to music. Music was just my life. I couldn’t escape it.
E: On the song “Gotta do more” you call out other rappers for not doing their due diligence when it comes to lyrics in their song. Why do you think rappers don’t focus on their lyrics as much anymore? What do you think of the current state of lyricism in the rap scene?
NG: I don’t know, man. That’s really a question for them and I’d really like to see their faces when you asked them that. I feel like people don’t really focus on what it was all about. Hip-hop started off in the parties, but it’s really about the message you put out there. People were living in these harsh conditions and their way out was to tell the world about them. Not that it has to be so depressing or that you have to look at it that way, but there’s so much going on in the world that you do these young kids injustice when you don’t speak about the pressing issues.
It’s cool to party, it’s cool to turn up, it’s cool to bounce, but you gotta have a message. For me, it’s like hiding the medicine in the candy. I wanna have fun, you know I’m still young and I still like to party, but for me it’s all about the message. I also don’t think a lot of MCs can be [lyrical rappers] with the exception of J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul and people like that. It’s gonna take a lot more than those guys. So I’m definitely going to contribute to what they’re doing and help lay the blueprint for the next generation. I want to help push the genre in the right direction.

E: What do you hope to accomplish in your career?
NG: You know I want to do everything. I’d be a fool to sit here and say that I don’t do this for money or for material things, but I also want to help change people’s lives. I look to Tupac as my muse. If I don’t ever reach that then at least I’ll know that I was on the right path. He was a very versatile person, a very revolutionary person who was very honest about his life and I strive to be like that.
I look at that as the reason to be in this business. To be authentic, to tell stories that people can’t tell themselves because they don’t have a voice. I feel like that’s my job. To come in and say ‘this is wrong’ or ‘this is right.’ People might listen to be more because I can say it over a beat instead of just saying it in regular conversation. So I feel like the number one thing is for me to speak honesty and truth. But I also want to act and I also want to make movies. I also want direct movies and music videos. I want to do all sorts of things throughout my career.
E: Do you have any movie ideas in the works?
NG: I’m a horror movie kind of guy, so something along those lines.
E: What are some of your favorite horror movies?
NG: I’m old school so I’m a big fan of “Friday the 13th,” “Nightmare on Elm Street,” “Candyman,” “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” — not the older, older one, but the one that came out like ten years ago. Those are dope.

Check out the Emerald’s interview with Tame Impala bassist Cameron Avery here.

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