This second track from Seattle MC Nick Weaver’s well-received free six-track EP “Yardwork” retains his trademark nonchalant style, while giving us a good flow with a cadence that is just as compelling as the title cut. Weaver is a somewhat struggling but potentially up-and-coming hip hop artist with more than 1600 Facebook followers to date.
“The Story” is a poetic, self-reflective and in-the-moment piece in something of a roots/folk style with clear, understandable lyrics that look back at his own experience as a young man coming into manhood, something that would resonate with many of his young male contemporaries. This is in keeping with the album’s overall coming-of-age theme, and although Nick Weaver seems uncharacteristically cagey about his personal life for a hip hop artist, it is easy to suppose that this reflective piece represents Weaver’s own introspection that “the struggle is real”.
Nick Weaver lays claim to the same iconic hip hop and rap artists such as Nas, Jay-Z, Eminem and Wu Tang Clan we have all heard on the radio. Coming up with these well-known and respected performers, Nick Weaver has put his own turn on the genre that is in synch with the contemporary trend of coloring the music with blues, roots and Gospel elements combined with a poetic first-person experience of our modern culture that can be heard in the music of Minneapolis hip hop artists such as Atmosphere, P.O.S. and Brother Ali as well as in that of Weaver’s Seattle contemporaries Macklemore & Lewis.
One surprising and delightful thing to notice in mid-track is a loop that gives props to Simon & Garfunkel’s “America”, further reinforcing the idea that this is a connective piece that is intended to bring the past into the present and reminding us of every young person’s journey to find themselves. Simon & Garfunkel might have been standard listening for Nick Weaver’s parents, music that would have often reflected on that generation’s struggles.
On a more technical note, we notice that the beat is pretty basic throughout the track, but the very nice Gospel-blues-influenced backing voices lend a truly soulful feel to the song. The overall sound is similar to Macklemore & Lewis, and it’s easy to imagine that this is where Weaver would like to take his hip hop career. We’d love to see Nick Weaver emulate the style of Macklemore & Lewis’s track “Same Love”, which also starts with fairly simplistic instrumentals but then builds up through the track to a full background.
Nobody understands better than Nick Weaver himself that the hip hop scene is virtually saturated with artists, with every urban center in the country sporting its own local scene. Even for an artist like Weaver, who does appear to have a somewhat strong following, it’s going to be extremely difficult to make it on the national level. But his lyrical ability does seem to be growing along with him as he moves into maturity and he does have a “story” to tell, so we hope that he continues to gain momentum in telling it.
All in all, “The Story” is a great track, and we’re definitely going to keep our ears tuned to Nick Weaver’s music, and we look forward to hearing another track from him to inspire another online music review.
Find Nick
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