Nate Nics got his start in music as a West African drummer and poet as a 7 year old in Boston, MA. After experiencing several racially charged incidents that forced him to switch schools throughout his childhood he developed a knack for advocating against injustice in any form. However, for middle school he started attending a rigid charter school that offered little in the areas of music and social studies so his skill in his once primary focus areas became stagnant and dulled. It wasn’t until his senior year of high school at the age of 17 that he started rapping as a way to express himself. After a few successful stints showcasing his abilities in cyphers and freestyle sessions he quickly became known in that community as a rapper and helped start a collective of classmates and fellow artists called Abstract Society of General Fallacies (ASGF). That summer, Nate took time to hone in on his skills by starting his “Freestyle Friday” series of songs where he would write, record, and attempt to mix full songs all in under an hour. After 2 months worth of Freestyle Fridays and writing upwards of 7 verses a day for the entire summer, Nate began to branch out and collaborate with members of the local Royalty Music Crew as well as his own ASGF collective.

Around the same time, Nate started to become more vocal about the oppression he was experiencing as a black man living in America and his lyrics reflected this. In the fall of 2016 he began working for The Center for Teen Empowerment in Boston where he was able to reengage his passion for social justice that had long sat dormant within him through many years. He began to focus his artistry and organizing skills around criminal justice reform, prison abolition, and educational inequities in the city of Boston. In 2018 he recorded and released his debut EP “… gosh darnit” with Jared Circosta. The EP, which he wrote in 2017 in a little under in hour to an entire beat tape on Muck Fuppity’s YouTube channel, was recorded in a single session and was a playful approach to the more serious topics Nate would later discuss in-depth. From there Nate spent time opening for artists such as Billy Dean Thomas and Red Shaydez, while performing on bills featuring the likes of Oompa, Saint Lyor of Van Buren Records, Tim Hall, Kofi Lost, and Milkshaw Benedict.

In early 2020 Nate began to record demos for his debut full-length project with Jared who handled engineering duties for “…. gosh darnit.” The album was to demonstrate Nate’s growth as both a songwriter and producer and would center on his experience as a black artist while also incorporating his passion for community uplift in the porcess. Once the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns occurred, he continued to record demos from his apartment where he had some equipment (including a Presonus audio interface donated by Dorchester Art Project.) In late Spring 2020, Nate was called to organize during the ongoing rejuvenated civil rights movement. After a summer of protesting, organizing around police abolition, and learning about Transformative Justice practices Nate began to finalize the concept for what would become his debut album Human Guile.

After signing on to work with the startup artist management and services company Thrill as their first recording artist in 2020, Nate released Human Guile on April 9th, 2021 to both critical and local acclaim. The album was funded in large part by Club Passim’s Iguana Fund Grant which Nate was selected to receive at the end of 2020. Also in 2021, Nate was selected to be an inaugural member of the City of Boston and MassArt’s Radical Imagination for Racial Justice cohort which he served as a member until the end of his term in mid-2022.