Gabe Nandez speaks as many languages as textiles appear on Diplomacy’s cover art. Honorable Mention: Gabe Nandez – Diplomacy All is better for Natia on Natia the God (thankfully), but the demons still circle. Though Natia the God hits the hardest when Natia opens lifelong wounds: “Voices” is a moving and terror-ridden cry for help, an attempt to talk through his schizophrenia in lieu of receiving costly treatment from our sham of a healthcare system. To temper the severity of these songs, he pens comic lines and verses like those on “The Natia Show.” It’s as deranged as it is hilarious, a mushroom-influenced interlude where he grapples with his minor artistic stature between championing butt hair ( word to UGK) and making Tiger Woods allusions. Natia praises his plug and serves walking skeletons over a beat that sounds like it samples the speakers of a decades-old Italian restaurant. “Chapter Two” is deeply embedded in this milieu. It’s a Scorsese joint that traverses LA’s sprawl: Inglewood train tracks, Westchester tennis court benches, K-town apartments, Eagle Rock coffee shops. He weds the influences of 10K Hours with purple tape Raekwon. On his sophomore album, Natia the God, Natia documents his improved circumstances (e.g., finding housing, making money from rap) and reflects on days of dire straits while casting himself as a drug dealer on the rise. The album was remarkable for those reasons as much as it was for the circumstances of its composition. He synthesized Slim Shady LP Eminem’s wordplay, the rock bottom honesty, and Redman’s psychedelic zaniness as he recounted his fractured life. Offering harrowing glimpses of homeless life between clever boasts of mic supremacy and scathing takedowns of his peers, Natia documented the hunger, the search for shelter, hustles legit and dubious, mental illness and the drugs consumed to cope. Still, the 25-year-old Inglewood rapper’s POW debut, 10K Hours (2017), remains painfully relevant. For the first time since his late teens, Natia wasn’t among the headcount. In June, the Los Angeles Times reported that LA’s homeless population increased by 16% (within the city) over the last year. Honorable Mention: Natia – Natia the God LP If you’re so inclined, you can purchase their records on the POW Bandcamp here.Īnd yes, there is a playlist at the bottom. Because we believe that they are exceptionally brilliant and deserving of recognition, they are celebrated here as honorable mention. In the interest of whatever passes for objectivity, we declined to put any of the artists on POW Recordings on our year-end rankings. Your support is very much appreciated and needed. Please consider donating a few bucks to the Patreon. POW is one of the last fully independent music blogs still standing and is 100 percent user funded. Note to our readers: it takes a tremendous amount of time to curate, write, edit, and format this list.