Music

Nate P creates his own perfect moment to launch new rake n’ scrape anthem

By CARA HUNT | Tribune Features Writer | cbrennen@tribunemedia.net

IT IS never too late to pursue your dreams – it’s a lesson Nathaniel Pierre grasped as was he driving down a deserted street in Nassau during one of last year’s lockdowns. It was in that moment that he decided to stop dithering and finally make his dream of launching a music career a reality.

“I had always dreamed of being a musician. To be honest, I never thought I had a singing voice to be belting out notes. So, in my mind I was going to be a rapper. But music has always played a major role in my life,” he told Tribune Weekend.

However, like many people, the 46-year-old found his life forever changed by COVID-19 last year.

“I am an essential worker and so for the first time in my life I found myself driving on the streets and there were no other cars around me.

“And I just had a change in my perception, it was like the world shifted and I realised that all this time I had been waiting for what I thought would be the perfect time to start my music career, but the perfect time had never come, so I realised that it was up to me to make the time perfect.”

Once he made the decision, the idea for his first single sounded loud and clear in his mind.

“It was not a rap song, but I saw me singing it and hitting the notes,” he said.

Nate P, as he now goes by, wrote the lyrics to his new song, “Jump in Jesus’ Name” and partnered with Dillon “DMac” McKenzie and Ray R Ewing for Commonwealth Recording Studios to get the single out on a limited budget. “The provisions for this project didn’t come in an avalanche, but they did come, and I am just so happy to be able to share this with the entire world. I am hoping to get a million downloads at least,” said the new artist. He describes “Jump in Jesus’ Name” as a praise song that is part testimony and part invitation for listeners to come to know Jesus for themselves. “It is an anthem to my spirit… that after all I know and all I have experienced, Jesus has still turned out to be my everything,” he said. The song features both rake n’ scrape and Junkanoo elements, as well as Afro-beats and sounds from Haiti. “The song is naturally a part of me. Rap is really outside of my culture and so I would have been borrowing that for my music. But rake n’ scrape is in my heart,” he said.

Nate recently just finished recording the video to accompany the song, which is now in rotation on local radio stations.

He is excited that he has finally launched his dream career and says he has hundreds of songs in his head, he can’t wait to share.

“This is just the beginning.”

“Jump in Jesus Name” is available for download on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon and all music platforms.

‘All this time I had been waiting for what I thought would be the perfect time to start my music career, but the perfect time had never come, so I realised that it was up to me to make the time perfect.’