Nick Astro

With Pitchfork Music Festival on the horizon I've been spending large chunks of time listening to a smattering of acts on the bill to get properly prepared; I've been breaking up those listening sessions with Teeflii and DJ Mustard's Fireworks, Ty Dolla Sign's Beach House 2, and whatever select tracks I fall for while scrolling through Twitter and my RSS feed. (I haven't gotten into Jay-Z's Magna Carta Holy Grail past some cursory listens that left me fairly underwhelmed—sorry, folks.)
One track that's stuck out recently is Nick Astro's "Animals." It's a loose freestyle rapped over Outkast's "Elevators (Me & You)," and Astro hooked me with a lyric about the violence that plagues parts of the south side: "what happens at night usually happens during the noontime." It's a deceptively simple line and Astro delivers it with a nonchalance that gives a hint of how commonplace violence is in parts of this city. There's rage burning beneath Astro's flow, but he spits that one line with such ease it'd be easy to miss the sharp comment—it's heavy too, especially following a particularly grim weekend.

Astro's will drop a mixtape called Super 16 on Tuesday, which happens to be July 16—until then check out the video for "Animals" below. - Leor Galil

Discover Chi-Town rapper/producer, Nick Astro. This young artist with a mature voice stands out with an innovative flow and imaginative concepts. Super 16 is described by an affiliate of Nick‘s as an “offering of short, fictitious, entertaining stories,” and it is treated as such, with each track being credited as having a “score” and the occasional “co-star.” The opening track, “Nothing Is Original” puts the artist’s Chance The Rapper-esque charismatic mumble on good display, and does a good job of introducing one of the tape’s principal themes: super-heroism. (It’s fitting that this track reminds us of Chance–production comes courtesy of one of Chance‘s go-to guys, Peter Cottentail). Elsewhere, “The Game” and “Give Me Your Lover” invite you into Nick‘s relationship tales and highlight the struggles of being broke. Overall, the mixtape might be a little too long, creating an unevenness in the quality of his tracks. For instance, “Scarlett Johansson” and “Lip Gloss” weren’t nearly as riveting as “Rainman Files Again.” The artist’s strengths lie in his story-telling skills, humility, and precision with ideas. One of the tape’s best illustrations of that last trait comes on the opening track: “If I trap now, would you hear me? Yes. / Probably invest in the monsters you invent to entertain your ignorance, you idiots…” Download Super 16 below, you’ll be glad you did. We are. - Julia Schur

Nick Astro’s Super 16 project is finally available for your listening pleasure. Sixteen brand new tracks from the rising emcee with contributions from Peter Cottontale, Chandler London, Legit, Auggie The 9th and more included.

Hit the jump to download. - Ty Howard