When the Floridian rapper Nate DAE released his debut album, California PSA, he labelled it as his journey from boy to man. From the 14-year-old outsider who was picked on for rapping to the confident 20-year-old performer who is rapidly on his way up to join the artists that inspired him like Henock Sileshi, Travis Scott, Tyler The Creator, Kendrick Lamar, Steve Lacy, Pharrell, Frank Ocean, Kevin Abstract, Kanye West and PlayBoi Carti. A year on, and for this now 21-year-old, the coming-of-age experience is still very much at the centre of his mindset. New single ‘FREAK’ is reminiscent of Young Fathers and Kevin Abstract, with the darker, multi-layered textures pegged down by a bruised bass line and hooked by bouncing percussion and a playful synth key melody. Throughout the track Nate DAE shows off his impressive lyricism and alternating tempos as the scenes change in front of you - from dating, to hanging with your homies, to getting caught cheating, to packing your bags (with reference to vintage Beyoncé). Then there’s a switch to the sounds of police sirens and responders who tell each other of a 'black male on the run'. The outro delves to sonically darker depths, and it’s quite a disturbing but tragically familiar perspective on the way that black men are treated in America and they way they are expected to act from both their community and those outside of it. As the last line illuminates, this character will 'never back down' and as a result the use of a single gunshot to extinguish this song, may also extinguish that life. What ‘FREAK’ limelights is the vicious circle of absent fathers and the impact that has on this generation, and the next generation, “in a world where women rule everything and men are wrong about everything”. These young men lack positive male role models and Nate DAE wants you to wake up the very real and sometimes fatal repercussions of that. - Hannah Thacker   Photo credit: Finn Orrell