Jay Nivana - Philly’s Rising Star With a Veteran Mindset
Our favorite tracks:
KOOLKIDZKARTOON, EP 9
RATED R, EP 10
Barbie Tingz, EP 4
Reasons to listen:
Incredible passion for his work translates into a high energy product
High vocal production quality and instrumental selection
Frequent collaborator with a variety of artists
Catchy hooks get stuck in your head for days
Solid stylistic diversity
Check out Jay Nivana here
Jay Nivana is a complicated artist to put into words. Consistently shifting his sound, he evades definition and refuses to be confined to a box. This enigmatic yet incredibly accessible style can truly only be called his own - nobody else can do what he does, because nobody else has his perspective. Jay pursues a larger-than-life worldview that allows him to feel every emotion deeply and intensely, and he uses this to fuel his passion and drive his creative process. His music can be viewed as the direct result of every interaction and experience he’s had in his life, or as he puts it, “the people, the lessons, and the traumas.” By interpolating his hardships into artistic expression, he is able to craft something genuine and unique.
While he has a solid range of stylistic diversity, he typically utilizes moderate to heavy autotune and a variety of vocal effects such as reverb. His delivery ranges all the way from true singing to true rapping, with every shade of the spectrum of the two in between. By blending all of these differing styles he also crosses genres, with his clean-cut singing vocals plated firmly in R&B-influenced territory, his autotune sing-rap resembling the Lil Uzi Vert led rager era, and his darker and grittier rap with a fast pace and more aggressive tone. The best feature of his recent project ‘Rated R’ is that it seamlessly weaves from style to style, not only crossing genres but bridging the gaps and bringing them together in ways that continuously surprise and hold our attention.
He frequently utilizes a synth & drum instrumental, most similar to Playboi Carti or 40OzDai. This is actually the only thing that doesn’t vary on the project, and is the only noticeable area for significant improvement that we noticed on the project - every single beat utilizes that synth & drum combination, and even though they are distinct from one another and consistently solid, we would love to hear Jay experiment with new instrumentals.
‘Rated R’ contains multiple tracks that stand out as some of the best of the year, such as the title track ‘RATED R, EP 10’ and my personal favorite ‘KOOLKIDZKARTOON, EP 9’. On these, he best displays his high energy and catchy flows, and the feature artists B3nny Wok and Lilsaintsouture, respectively, both contribute high quality verses that boost not only the song’s sound, but the project’s diversity. Jay Nivana is an expert at avoiding monotony, and the high amount of features on the project are a major factor in that.
The Future:
Jay has over a decade of experience making music, which is even more impressive when you consider that he’s only 23. Looking ahead to the next 10-20 years of his career, he hopes to expand and continue diversifying his style, even considering taking a clean-slate approach to future projects and rebuilding his conceptualization of his artistic goals. He hopes to work with Kanye, Pharrell, or Tyler, the Creator as producers one day, as well as Mike Dean and Q Tip, growing and learning along the way.
Check out Jay Nivana on Instagram @jaynivana, or at the bottom of this page.