Mac: We wanna know, who is Nyce Lutchiano?
Nyce: The only way to get to know me is through my music. Listening to my newer stuff, you start to see the similarities with my life and my music, and start to realize these are things he has actually been through. Then you start to put the pieces of the puzzle together, from the struggles, to the pain. Losing it all, from the love, the hate… all mixed into lyrics through my music. Through my music is where I try to find my true self. I guess that will be a never ending journey trying to find myself. I just want people to know through all the things we endure in life, there is always hope and someone or something worth living for.
I hear your rap name and wonder, ‘Is he a friendly fella or a mobster?’ Can you explain the motivation behind your stage name?
Nyce came from my background with sports. As a child growing up, I was always a top athlete in every sport I played. People used to always say “that kid is NICE,” so with my first name being Phillip, they would call me P Nice. With everyone already calling me P Nice, when I got into music seriously, that had to be in my name. So I dropped the “P”, kept nice, but flipped it to Nyce. The name Lutchiano? I grew up on Italian mobster movies. One of my favorites was “Mobsters” which came out in 1991. I seen a lot of myself in Charlie “Lucky” Lucciano, from his younger years to his rise to power. When you say “Lutchiano,” a Don is what you think of on the mic.
You have a rather big hometown show coming up, rocking with Vince Staples, Skeme, Audio Push and Manny Monday. Are you excited?
I’m always excited to share the stage with artists with higher profiles then me. We come into these shows knowing that most of the people are here to see the main acts, but it inspires us artists to go out and try to bring a even better performance and hopefully gain a lot of new fans. I’m looking forward to talking with the artists and maybe connecting on some future work.
DJ Fatboy put me on to your music. How did you get to be friends with the local legend?
I met Fatboy after I came back from SXSW this year and a friend of mine, iLL Chris had a show with IAMSU that Fatboy happened to be a DJ at. I had the chance to chop it up with him, and we talked about him doing my mixtape before he went on tour with West Coast legend E-40. Once Fatboy heard my mixtape I was working on, the rest was history. He was a true believer in me and has been supporting me every since.
Rap is a tough game. What compelled you to pursue it?
Music is in my blood. My pops used to make beats for a lot of the local cats back in the 90s. He use to call himself Philly D. As a kid, I would sneak downstairs in the basement and listen to them make music for hours past my bedtime… I think all those years of sitting behind the scenes have finally came out from behind the curtains. I do music for the body highs, music is meditation to the soul. And the fact that i can influence someone to do something positive or negative through a song really inspires my mind to do great things. Its hard to imagine all the songs I haven’t created and all the people I have yet to inspire.
Endless Mission was a cut. Do you have an album coming soon?
My mixtape, “No turning back” is set to drop early August. An album is in the talks but it wouldn’t be for at least another year or so. The future projects I drop will sound like albums. but they wont be.
Are there artists in the region that you are interested in working with in the future?
From the Northwest there are a lot of talented artists I would love to work with. Me and Illmaculate have talked about doing something in the near future, and Myke Bogan and I would make something crazy. Vinnie Dewayne and I could drop some jaws with what we would create. That’s just to name a few, there’s so many I wanna work with. Just couldn’t name them all.