In the Field With NHO Bravo
Monticello rapper NHO Bravo made a rare repeat appearance on In the Field Radio to promote his new project Who Is Bravo, which dropped on all streaming platforms on November 27, 2020.
His latest project, Who Is Bravo, has something for everyone. It's got hard-hitting street records and slow jams for the ladies. "All Night" is a super catchy street record, while "Real Thing" finds the emcee trying out his hand at singing. The freaky slow jam is nasty enough to make you blush as he lyrically makes love to a woman.
The hardworking rapper is already set to release new music, collaborating with area producer and engineer Drawzilla on a new project due out before the end of the year. Make sure you stay in tune!
Bravo was interviewed on location during an appearance at the Holiday Stop & Shop event in Newburgh, New York.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. This interview aired in its entirety on November 30, 2020, on 91.3 FM WVKR. Tune in every Monday at 10 PM EST. Outside the area? Listen via the TuneIn or Simple Radio app by searching WVKR.
Lady D: In the Field alumni, NHO Bravo is in the building because he just put something out. He just put out some heat for the holidays. Why don’t you tell us about it?
NHO Bravo: What’s going on? NHO Bravo. I just dropped Who Is Bravo on all platforms. It’s a project that’s real personal to me. I’m giving you every side of what I’ve been through and trying to make it relatable to you.
Lady D: Is it going to be different at all from Welcome to the Trenches?
NHO Bravo: It’s very different. I think it’s a better project. It’s more personal. I think it touches more feelings and more levels of who I am. It’s conceptually better.
Lady D: You got some joints for the ladies on there?
NHO Bravo: A couple. Two or three.
Lady D: Did you make them about anybody?
NHO Bravo: One of them, yeah. Nah, we ain’t gonna do that (laughs).
Lady D: So, are you on the market or off the market? ‘Cause you know Valentine’s Day is coming up.
NHO Bravo: I’m off the market.
Lady D: He is off the market, ladies. But still, pick up that Who Is Bravo. You’re an artist, so; I’m, going to ask you: is the Grammy’s rigged? Is it a waste of time? How do you feel about it?
NHO Bravo: Grammy’s is a cool accolade, I’m not against it, but I’m not chasing it either. It’s not really for us, I feel like.
Lady D: What do you mean “for us?” Do you mean independent artists?
NHO Bravo: Well, I don’t feel like it’s for the culture. I feel like it’s more based for a different type of audience. They never acknowledge the people that are really putting in the work in our industry.
Lady D: So more mainstream?
NHO Bravo: Less hip hop, more mainstream, more what they want the public to listen to.
Lady D: What do you think, Erin Boogie?
Erin Boogie: I think they nominated some pretty lyrical artists this year. What do you think we, as consumers, can do to change how it is going forward? It’s our fault for consuming the music.
NHO Bravo: I feel like as consumers, we can just be more in tune with the messages we’re allowing to be put to the masses. Like, I have street content too, but it’s also giving both sides of it. It’s not just giving good things; it’s bad things too.
Lady D: I like some corny music sometimes. Do you think that there should be less catchy tunes? Do you think that’s lazy?
NHO Bravo: I don’t feel like catchy tunes are lazy. It’s the concepts that are lazy.
Erin Boogie: It’s also the big machine behind the radio. There’s a reason you hear a Drake record 40 times in an hour or a Nicki [Minaj] record 40 times in an hour, and you’re not hearing independent artists. You don’t hear independent artists like that will breakthrough. As consumers need to say, they work for, which is what I think is really great about this station that we’re on. They let us do whatever we want. Nobody is telling us that we can’t play what we want to play, and people used to have to slide records in, do all types of finagling to get their song on the radio.
NHO Bravo: I know at one point it was unheard of for one of us to get a song on the radio.
Lady D: I know of a lot of people that have been on Hot97, and it’s like dropped, played, and that’s it. How do you get your song played over and over again?
Erin Boogie: You send it to In the Field Radio because a lot of those same artists that are paying for play on those type of radio stations, because they’re paying somebody for that relationship, we don’t ask for that. You send us your record, and we’ll spin it at least once unless there is some underlying situation why we can’t play. Aside from that, if it’s a decent record, it gets added into rotation. It’s not one and done here. It’s not commercial radio.
NHO Bravo: I think it’s also on the artist too. I think the artists could be a little more consistent with lines of communication and building relationships with people rather than I’m here for your show, and then I’m not supporting you. I don’t watch. I don’t tune in. I’m not interacting with you, and then I expect when I drop a project for you to let me come back up here.
Lady D: I do like that about you. You pay attention to the media outlets because that’s what you’re going to use to get your product out. You be paying attention to the distributors. People don’t do that.
Erin Boogie: I just want to say thank you for constantly hitting us up every time you drop a project, but also, you’re the only artist I think so far that has hit a press run. You did 2 Humble; you just left Gabe from FinallyTV to do this interview, and weren’t you on something else?
NHO Bravo: In The Studio [With the RecBoys] the other day.
Erin Boogie: The RecBoys, our brothers. Shout out to you for actually putting that together because no other artist has done that yet. You’ve got so many outlets around here that you could utilize.
Lady D: What do you see coming up next for yourself? Visuals? You just did a live show online that In The Studio With the RecBoys did. How was that for you?
NHO Bravo: Yeah, that was dope. You know what’s dope about that is I got to design my own set and place my own products. It was me being creative with a small space and not a lot of materials. With COVID, you can’t really rent out a stage. You can’t really do certain things, so by making the best out of my situation, it ended up being a dope performance from what I’ve seen and heard about it. Shout out to the RecBoys for putting it together because it was a dope event. They had people from Africa, people from here, people from down south. They had people from everywhere. That was dope too.
Lady D: Do you keep in touch with any of the artists from that show?
NHO Bravo: I’m in tune with Burl and Juice. I try to keep communication with people I know, but it’s hard for me to breakthrough. If you give me the wrong energy at first when I reach out, then I’m not going to reach out again.
Lady D: That’s their problem. So, let’s talk about the production. Who did you get on this new project?
NHO Bravo: It was mixed and mastered by Drawzilla. Me and him got an album coming, probably December. Buying beats online. It wasn’t nothing produced locally or anything like that. Hopefully, this next project is completely produced locally after this.
Lady D: Tell the people, one more time, about Who Is Bravo, what tracks you think they should listen to first.
NHO Bravo: I think “All Night” is a great record. Y’all are going to enjoy that. Ladies, I think y’all are going to like “Looking For Her.” “Real Thing” is a different record. I’m singing on it; it’s real R&B. For my regular fans, pick any record on there, and it’s still got my content.