For our second installment of the Nerdcore Spotlight, I wanted to highlight a dope West Coast geek. I first found out about Nathan Haskill by doing a search on Instagram for “Cobra-La Nemesis”. I saw an Instagram meme earlier that day with the winged enforcer, so I planned to screenshot it and re-post on Facebook.
I ended up finding Cobra-La alright…Cobra-La Records!
Believe me when I tell you that if Duke, Flint, and Sgt. Slaughter were to battle THIS Cobra-LA, the results would have been different. Of course, I’m sure that Nathan would be prepared to rap battle, but I think his skill level could prepare him for whatever the Joes decide to throw his way!
This is apparent in the new track from Nathan’s group, The Four Horsemen, “Slim Charles”. The production on this is straight West Coast dopeness!
This week, Â I had the pleasure of chopping it up Nathan!
What’s good fam! Tell me about the Four Horsemen.
Nathan: The Four Horsemen are myself, Otis Roycrot, Dustmightz and Midichlorian. Its basically 2 MC’s and 2 producers who decided to come together and do an album. Midi and Dust are the two dudes who produce 90% of my beats and Otis is the dude I collab with the most. We all have like minds and enjoy similar things, especially Otis and I. I’m really excited for this project, we’re already halfway done with the album and it’s coming out great. Another dope thing we’re bringing to the table with this project are visuals that will accompany the album on a bonus disc. A super talented dude in the Cobra-LA Records camp named Bometheus is doing mash-up videos for all the songs. There are visual clips for all the stuff we’re saying in our verses, its super dope. On my YouTube channel you can peep some of them already. They are innovative and we also incorporate them into our live show. I dont think anyone in Hip-Hop is doing this and I’m super proud of everyone involved.
Sounds dope fam! So tell the audience about your new jointÂ
Nathan: Our first single is called”Slim Charles”. It’s a dope track with a really West Coast sounding beat. The Intro and Outro samples are from the TV show The Wire. There’s a video for it by Bometheus on my YouTube Channel. We also just dropped a song for YouTube only called “Dog Day Afternoon” be sure to check that out.
What is it like being a nerdy emcee on the West Coast?Â
Nathan: Being a MC and living on the West Coast in Los Angeles in particular, is tough because to be honest EVERYBODY thinks they can rap. Hip-Hop looks so easy now because of mainstream radio that’s losing a lot of people’s respect in my opinion. There used to be a time when you would hear music on the radio and be like “Damn, thats dope. I wish I could do that”. Now it’s so watered down and auto-tuned with simple Dr. Seuss-style rhymes that it looks easy, thus everyone thinks that they can do it. Nobody watches pro sports and thinks that. Why should pro music be different? Everyone sounds the same and spits about the same old bullshit, everybody just wants to make “a hit song” not a good album. So when these albums come out, all the songs sound the fucking same. It’s gotten really stale. I consider myself a “nerd rapper” but only because of the references I use in my wordplay. Don’t get it twisted, I am a geek. I just don’t rap about Dungeons and Dragons for 5 min or anything. At the end of the day, I’m trying to be the dopest MC with the dopest cadence, wordplay and content. How I get there is just considered nerdy, I guess. There’s a huge geek community out here, I just gotta find my way onto their iPod’s.
So when does the Four Horsemen project drop? I have a feeling after the readers hear “Slim Charles” they are going to want more!
Nathan: The Four Horsemen project will drop after the new year and then I’ll have another solo joint in 2016. I try to drop two albums a year. There are also plans for a Cobra-LA Records compilation album with all of the emcee’s and producers that I’m affiliated with. Be on the look out for all of these projects. I promise that you will not be disappointed.
Thanks for the interview bro! Any final words?
Nathan: Yes! We’re dropping a Star Wars inspired track on the 18th called “Battlefront”. Make sure you check for that. Peace!
Here is The Four Horsemen – “Slim Charles”. Make sure you show Nathan some love on Soundcloud and YouTube! I would highly recommend that you cop his album Cold Slither 2 from the Bandcamp link below. Let us know what you think about the article in the comments!
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You can listen to Nathan’s music at these links:
youtube.com/channel/UCvaBAna63BfiPYGNeRhmdzQ