You can live a thousand lives listening to NAK. From YouTube clips and surfing the concrete waves to the red carpet and big screen, Na-Kel Smith has already shared a variety of stories with his audience. On NAK, he leans into that sense of familiarity and immediately creates a home court advantage on the first moments of the opening track, “HIBACHI”.
“Hold on, watch your boy cook like hibachi, yeah
Kickin’ my shit like karate
Shakespeare, I made a play for the profit
Skateboard, I get that shit off and grind it
Ay, 12k on me like Gotti
Hold on, hold on, watch my pockets”
He catches this flow right as the beat drops in a way that feels like watching him land a 12 stair trick on the first track. This “post-soundcloud-era” feeling is nostalgic and still dope. It’s catchy and it has its own essence. NAK is like a retelling of Na-Kel Smith’s past lives, where in every single reality, he’s still getting money.
On “NO ACT”, Na-Kel’s in a different part of the world, in a different time, living a different life ducking the French police wearing Louis Vuitton. This track feels like the listener finds Na-Kel in a dimly lit room with stone walls, austerely recalling fragments of his most recent life.
“I don’t know how to act with this shit
I just went to Balenci’ threw racks in that bitch
Just went to Margiela threw racks in that bitch
Just went Bottegga threw racks in that bitch
I don’t know how it happened but we getting active”
Some moments are a blur, but Na-Kel's natural talent and creativity creates an olympic-level cadence when you least expect it. Like a gunslinger launching a whiskey glass towards the bar before shooting it with his revolver in mid-air.
“I’m a thug like my cousin, got different things coming you think you gon’ casket the kid
Sittin’ here wondering how in the fuck did we get so far to be back in this shit
Sit in the cell, shit man fuck it oh well, I notice what come with this shit
Cops took your nine? You outta mind thinkin’ I don’t got forty on hip
Double up shotty I’m feeling like Bruce Wayne like Batman my sponsors don’t know how I live
Don’t know know about you, but if my fam low on the loot, I’m finna go hit me a lick”
NAK is a self-produced, handcrafted multiverse built on three core elements: his latest portrait as a rapper, his well-established signature as a pro skater, and his relentless drive to get money as quickly as he can spend it. Na-Kel Smith moves through the shifting biomes of his mind, weaving between the different periods of his life across his self-fullfilling project, NAK.
