Nathan Kawanishi Continues to Evolve with Rap 2-Pack “This might be it!”
September 23, 2024 BY Bailey Vigliaturo
Always one for a new challenge, lofi producer, multi-instrumentalist, and composer Nathan Kawanishi is back with a split single, entitled This Might Be It! Composed of two tracks—“Entropy” (ft. Malaman) and “abstract nerd rap”—Kawanishi pulls a 180, showcasing his rapping skills a mere 6 weeks after his first folk singer/songwriter EP nk-01.
“A couple of verbose raps,” shares Kawanishi on the 2-pack. “While there’s an undercurrent of dystopian energy throughout, I wrote it with the subconscious understanding that humans have always been drawn to apocalyptic theories and projections. Perhaps this is like the boy who cried wolf, and this generation’s grave existential threats are more real than previous ones. It certainly feels that way at times.”
“I don’t know,” he concludes. “I just make music.”
Starting with “Entropy,” Kawanishi teams up with his friend and, in his words, “superior rapper,” Malaman. “The beat took 3 iterations to get to this point,” he shares. “I ended up capturing a lot of conflicting and disparate sounds throughout, much like an audial collage.”
The second and final track “abstract nerd rap” is a master class in complex rhyming patterns, as Kawanishi reflects on the mental toll of keeping up with ever-changing tech and algorithms: “Sick of sycophantic correspondence on the interface / Cryptic, frantic interference in my mental state.”
This Might Be It! is available at digital retailers here: https://nathankawanishi.ffm.to/thismightbeit