Photo courtesy: Fred Nice
For local R&B songwriter and producer Fred Nice, the decision to make music was a simple one. Music spoke to him in ways that no other medium could, and the messages he could send through melodies and lyrics captivated him.
“Growing up knowing that all these local artists — Juicy J, Playa Fly — were just an hour up the road,” Nice said with a grin, staring off reflectively. “And knowing that my friends, my cousins were fanatics, I wanted to have that kind of effect. I wanted that kind of voice.”
A native of Oxford, Nice began his career at 16, making beats and samples for local artists on his mother’s computer in his kitchen.
He struggled in high school to find his niche. For Nice, school was “very academics and sports driven,” and that made pursuing his dream of making music difficult.
“I wasn’t pushed toward arts, really,” Nice said. “School was all about getting in the books and finding a ball you liked — baseball, football, basketball.”
Nice said he learned all his skills from YouTube and watching others play piano or work with editing software.
“I see people playing,” Nice said. “I ask them to come over to the studio, do their thing for a while, and while they’re playing, I just learn something off of them.
“It’s nice to find people that don’t mind giving you a hand if you need it.”
Photo courtesy: Fred Nice
As he continued to grow as a musician, he found his expectations changing drastically. He realized what people see on television and in magazines is not what music is all about.
“There’s a machine behind it,” Nice said. “The popular stuff, the stuff everyone listens to — that’s all company-driven.”
Nice said he found his place among independent, local artists. He enjoyed the freedom to write the way he wanted to write, not how a label wanted him to.
“Those [artists] have a happier life, I think. They get to talk about what they want to talk about,” Nice said. “When you’re a mainstream artist, you have to worry about how people feel; you have to be politically correct most of the time. When you’re just doing it to do it, you can express yourself more.”
With this freedom of expression, Nice said he could write about things most hip-hop and rap artists choose not to. He said the “lovey-dovey stuff” and talking about getting his heart broken are the core of his message, topics he feels many male artists in the rap industry shy away from.
“Most male artists talk a lot about hurting other people, but not about them getting hurt,” Nice said. “I like talking about that kind of stuff from my perspective. Girls hurt dudes just like dudes hurt girls, you know?”
Maintaining that consistent message has been Nice’s biggest priority.
Courtesy: Fred Nice
“New artists come around every year, and you know which ones are going to stick around,” Nice said. “It’s the ones that have some sort of clear subject, a clear idea. The ones that are genuine, you can see that; you can tell.”
Nice has been working for the past year on his new record, “Way 2 Nice,” which is set to release April 4. His previous album, “No More Mr. Nice Guy,” is available to listen on Apple Music, Spotify and Tidal.
Despite the struggles of being an independent artist in an increasingly competitive music industry, Nice said he is excited to see what the future holds.
“I hope to be established as a writer someday,” Nice said. “Maybe have a studio or something. But really, I just want to come back home and have something that’s mine because of my music. That’s the dream.”
