Michael Nhat
Los Angeles, California, United States
Music
Press
please click on review url to read interview - Giant Robot
Care-free and playful tone, his husky voice goes non-stop - Giant Robot
Finally went to the Echo Curio, which is right down the street from The Echo. Are they related? I don't think so. It definitely feels more like a clubhouse than a club. Last night was Underground Hip-Hop Night with my man Michael Nhat going on at 10:30. Yes, the crowd was as sweaty and into his half-hour set as he was. Nothing but hits (or should-be hits) with plenty off his excellent debut album.
The venue is as intimate as can be (no stage, standing-room only, BYOB, sound depends on the performers' gear) and it was cool that although the suggested donation at the door was 5 bucks, they let me in for the contents of my pockets (maybe $2.75). Man, I wish I caught DJ Jester last month or Rose Melberg last year at the spot because it's about five minutes from home.
- Giant Robot
I read somewhere that he wants to show people “what the music of a post-Vietnam War orphan would be like.” But Michael Nhat’s debut LP sounds more Angelino than Vietnamese, with humorous non-sequiturs, pent-up hostilities, portraits of hipster chicks, and admonitions about werewolves rapped and sung over tracks that sound like they were sampled right out of the air in Filipinotown or the less gentrified parts of Echo Park. Featuring catchy lo-fi looping keyboards, Nhat’s minimal beats propel his brutal, barking cadence towards something that is alternately poppy (”Everybody Knows Werewolves Kill”) and disconcerting (”Death by Bells”). Yet his charm has much to do with his unparalleled charisma in a live setting. A musical movement unto himself, he’s got this “I don’t give a fuck” attitude that is only foiled by the obvious care and commitment that he puts into his performances. It seems a bit empty, honestly, to hear his detached voice on a slab of vinyl, because part of the fun is watching him emote while getting bounced around by drunk girls in their early twenties who are worshiping at the alter of Nhat and having the time of their lives. Fuck it, though – this record is a good training manual for the show. The songs sound just like they do live, so memorize them and muscle your way into the front row sing-a-long next time this dude plays your living room. You’ll have a lot of fun if you do.
-Geoff Geis - LA Record
This edition of WYNW is somewhat related to one of our most recent and most significant Viva experiences - today's focus on L.A.'s Michael Nhat calls to mind the one-man weirdness of Stariel Pink.
Honestly, if there were any contemporary musical path to be followed among the myriad musical movements of this new decade, the emancipated, solo budget producer/songwriter subset has to be one of the most fascinating; with the advent of hi-speed internet and the right technology, it seems like just about anyone can make their own music and pawn it off on the 'net. Not as much of an underground musical resistance movement as it was back in the days of R. Stevie & Rich LaBonte, nor is it even as confounding/challenging to most people as it was when A. Pink emerged as their golden heir - now you can choose to be a heart-on-your-sleeve and thinking-out-loud punk poet like BARR or a soporific hitmaker like Neon Indian.
Michael Nhat is more like the former, relying on bare-bones, transient yet repetitive instrumentation for a teetering foundation beneath an equally shambolic and interesting rap in this song of his, "Pay Me And I'll Tell You". To his credit, it seems like he has been pursuing this idea for a long time now, meaning that he's more old guard than chillwave champion Washed Out, for instance, and he was possibly around for/inspired by Brendan Fowler's idiosyncratic, intellectual musings at The Smell "back in the day". It's worth checking out, especially with its video, which is being added to an imaginary video playlist entitled "Music Videos That Would Air On Beavis & Butthead If It Still Existed". - American Apparel
Well, probably not, but their brand new, completely free album sounds plucked from art-rap's golden age.
The just-launched 1000 Apes in a Room project finds longtime L.A. left-field rapper K-The-I??? (his 2008 LP Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow was produced by Low End Theory regular Thavius Beck) sharing both vocal and production duties with Silver Lake weirdist Michael Nhat.
While the former has a rough-hewn, deliberate vocal style that brings to mind CanOx star Vast Aire, Nhat's free-wheeling half-sung approach is firmly rooted in West Coast history -- early WHY? material and the bulk of the Shapeshifters catalog (see Circus or Awol One).
All of this may mean very little for those who didn't doggedly follow every move that Def Jux, Anticon, and Mush Records made in the early aughts, so allow us to translate:
This is some totally effed-up, avant-garde rap shit that vacillates between hard poetry and loopy sing-song abstractions.
And if you like Busdriver (as we hope you do), you'll dig this.
Stream and download 1000 Apes in a Room is... for free via Bandcamp.
- LA Weekly
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Musical experimentalist Michael Nhat on Woody Allen, racism, LSD (literally!) & his newest album
BY ISAAC TAKEUCHI SEPTEMBER 8, 2010
I’ve had the pleasure of knowing the inimitable Michael Nhat for a good four years now, and he’s certainly one of the most prolific and unique artists in Los Angeles. Once called “the Ariel Pink of Los Angeles hip hop,” Nhat’s sound has a breadth equal to its innovation. He has seven albums recorded, the first of which—a self-titled 12? on How to Be a Microwave—came out last year.
Tonight, Nhat’s newest, Swimming to Cambodia, will be released on upstart Annie Hall records. (Pizza!, Halloween Swim Team, and Tik///tik are also on the bill. Full details at the end of this post.)
If that weren’t enough, Nhat plans on releasing his third, Just Plain Dying, by the end of the year on I Had an Accident records.
With most bands releasing an album once every two years, at his current rate, Nhat will have five times the discography of most.
“Catch me if you can…Hah,” says Nhat. That is quite a dare indeed. - Sean Carnage
LA’s self-proclaimed “Original Hipster Rapper” is coming to KSPC for a live performance! Michael Nhat will bring his lo-fi alt rap to The Garden Hour on September 5th. Nhat’s been releasing strange and charming hip hop albums for over a decade now and he knows what he’s doing. The performance starts around 8:30 p.m.
The Garden Hour airs every Wednesday from 8 to 10 p.m. right here on KSPC Claremont 88.7fm and www.kspc.org. - KSPC FM 88.7
Discography
Still working on that hot first release.
Photos
Bio
Anti-thetical to the way audiences are accustomed to receiving songwriting and hip-hop music. Asian-Amercian Hipster Art Rapper, Michael Nhat, has been creating a stir in the Los Angeles area with live performances, local and nationwide press, several music videos, experimental short films, and four self-produced full-length albums. Raised in Iowa, Nhat started freestlyling and rapping at age 14 immersing himself in the black community until age 20. Gang violence, drugs, the prosecution of three childhood friends, and the birth of his daughter turned him away from this life-style. In 2001 Michael moved to Burbank, California and embarked on a new start. This is when I started using the moniker Michael Nhat (nawt), defining myself and distancing myself from my past. However, the problem with doing this is everyone meeting me in the present thinks Im just some nerdy hipster who recently jumped on the rap bandwagon. Which isnt the case at all. The one thing that gives me credibility, my past, I do not want to advertise because I am ashamed of it says Nhat. In 2004 Val Jerk Records released Very Special People a compilation featuring Busdriver, 2mex, Awol-one, and Michaels first single. After blundering attempts to get respect and break into LAs hip-hop scene he dissevered further aim. I actually did not really listen to rap music that didnt precede 1996/97. With age I progressed beyond its traditional battling, its fashion, and its ubiquitous macho man attitude. Yet since I was a rap musician I believed this was the scene I should be embracing, hence my endeavor to try, but the hip-hop locale did not want anything to do with me and my black rimmed glasses. In 2008 Michael started volunteering at downtown LAs all- age venue The Smell. I became involved in a community I relished with music I actually listened to, people I felt comfortable with and I didnt have to fear someone bullying me because of my skinny pants or calling me a faggot. It was a lot more open-minded and refreshing. After a short few months at The Smell news about the Asian-American rapper spread and Nhat started getting booked weekly. Every foremost LA venue in the underground DIY backdrop from the prestigious Vermont House to Pehrspace booked him. Before the year was over a humble independent label How to be a Microwave negotiated his first official record on twelve inch wax. In October 2009 those arrangements actualized commencing nationwide media attention and a bounded cult following. Catchy lo-fi looping keyboards, Nhats minimal beats propel his brutal, barking cadence towards something that is alternately poppy - LA Record. In September 2010 Nhat self-released his sophomore effort Swimming to Cambodia. A severe variance from his self-titled first record it did not draw much publicity. With moments sounding like Portishead, crossed with El-P shaken in a glass full of Dada Performer Magazine. Three months later December 2010 he released his third album Just Plain Dying on East Coast label I Had an Accident Records. An upbeat, non-sampling keyboard-made cassette tape with no collaborations. I love my 2nd album, but I think it failed sales and media-wise. To recover from its damage I made the 3rd a return to form of the first record and give something people could dance to again. This third delivery Just Plain Dying with zero promotional back-up went completely unnoticed. However, in early 2011 Deli Magazine printed an issue ranking Michael Nhat at number 30 in LAs Emerging Artists.
March 2011 Michael leaves Los Angeles for Philadelphia, PA. He returns in less than a year in November. He immediately begins performing at shows on a monthly basis.
December 2011 Nhat self-released a free online EP Collected Songs Volume 2 on his Bandcamp. There was no press release. Local LA radio station KXLU keeps it in rotation.
March 2012 Dishes his experimental art film based on a Woody Allen quote, was screened in Los Angeles to a packed house at an art space Home Room.
May 2012 his 4th exoneration Living Room was released on German-based hip-hop label Paramanu Recordings. Produced by Michael Nhat, Jbts (Luna is Honey), and Andrew Felix (IHAA/Annie Hall Records).
Also in May 2012 a destitute Michael Nhat and his confidante LinaCarol begin documenting their homelessness and unemployment with an HD Camcorder donated to him by Andrew Felix. They release a weekly episode edited and posted on Youtube dubbed All Birds Born Blind Commit Suicide.
He is currently seeking representation to secure his new material to recording labels.
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