Steve 'Flash' Juon“I’m leaking through the speakers.”
“Don’t make me kick you in yo’ head a little harder.” That won’t be necessary Mr. Nato — or should I call you NateNumbaEight? Nato’s “I Got the Audio Bleeding” is like one of those UFC fights where somebody gets clipped by a spinning head kick, is completely unconscious falling down, and the moment their head meets the ground they snap back to life. I was having one of those mornings where my meds were kicking in faster than the caffeine in my coffee. I was fading hard as my body struggled to catch up. The moment I heard lyrics like “sometimes it be perc for breakfast” on “Bed Rest” though I hit the canvas and woke up.
The problem with snapping back to life like that is that you’re already concussed. Your brain has sloshed from one side of your skull to the other in a violent manner. The fight should be stopped for your own safety at that point. Some referees step in and others see you wake up and wait until you get knocked unconscious a second time and suffer even MORE brain damage. This isn’t about the ethics of referee stoppages in combat sports though — it’s about how you feel listening to songs like “Filter (On & Off)” where Nato’s purposefully fucking with your brain. Following the truth in advertising of his album title, the song is also doing exactly what it says. He makes you feel like you’re having a seizure because his producer is constantly pushing buttons on whatever production software they’re using.
“You bad as shit, yeah you bad as shit”
After my brain recovered from the damage of “I Got the Audio Bleeding” I was able to pull together a few thoughts and put them in print. The first is that Nato/Nate is obsessed with being “greedy like Garfield,” and it’s clearly a catchphrase he hopes people associate with him and that he can trademark. Eventually Jim Davis/Paws Inc. would take issue with that if he got famous. The second is that I don’t think he needs to worry about that in the short term. Every now and then I listen to something so absurd it transcends from being bad to fascinating. Nato can’t stay on beat. Nato can’t stay on topic. Nato references Future but imitates his modulated vocals poorly. “That motherfucker right there is not real.” What am I supposed to say? He’s right. This sounds like AI rap.
Nato’s delivery is so far off beat that it ends up becoming unintentional performance art. You can tell the intention to rap is there because he strings rhymes together, but there’s no rhythm to it at all. It’s utterly fascinating to listen to. You know everything about “I Got the Audio Bleeding” is wrong but somehow you can’t stop yourself from hearing it out to the end. Thankfully it’s only nine tracks long and all of them are under three minutes so the trauma ends quickly. In this case the review score is entirely inconsequential. I’m tacking it on just to give people something to focus on and debate, but the truth is that if you wanted to know what it would sound like if you took a bunch of acid and started rapping about lasagna, this album is a must listen.