May 12, 2020

Meet The. Naaman

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to The. Naaman.

Thanks for sharing your story with us The. Naaman. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Relationships are hard things to maintain. Especially if you’ve had a lot of trauma in your life, that you haven’t dealt with like I did. I’m Naaman, or if you’d rather the.naaman Fort Worth rapper, dj, entertainer and part-time self analyzer and therapist.

I started in music at the tender age of four in the church choir (que the religious abuse). It wasn’t all bad; church that is, it gave me a love of music, an ear, the chance to perform, and it laid the foundation for what was to come. For all of these things, I am very grateful. Fast forward a few years to junior high school, junior fucking high, just the worst collection of idiotic humanoids trying their best to be cool. Anyway, it was impossible to be cool carrying your viola (yeah, I was the orchestra dork that wasn’t even cool enough to play violin) through the halls of Stephen F. Austin J.H. Like church choir however, junior high had its bright spots. I learned to play an instrument, learned about music dynamics, how to read music, and how to run with a full backpack while carrying a viola. High school was more of the same. Dodge bullies, play viola, dodge bullies, play viola. Then it happened.

I discovered punk.

Punk music was less for me about musical perfection (choir and classical were always about perfection), and more about artistic expression. Anger, angst, joy, energy all in equal measure all clashing somewhat violently, viscerally swirling around my head. It was intoxicating. But for all the liberating ideas the music espoused I remained fervently devout in my faith. Que – (dun dun dunnnnnnn) my time in the weird punk rock cult!

Yes, you read that correctly. Punk. Rock. Cult. It started off innocently at first. A decent church with good music (isn’t that how it always starts?). It turned into your typical cult. Give us all your money, do what we say when we say it, forsake your family and friends, etc. It was a weird time. But, like everything else in my life this dark period also had a bright side. It was at this cult that I met the woman who would become my wife.

Here’s where it gets real juicy dear readers. I met my soon to be wife and soon thereafter we left the cult together. We still had friends and family involved in cult, which was weird and painful, but we had each other. We also had a fair bit of trauma from these experiences that went unchecked (at least I did). Que wedding bells! Nothing says time for a wedding like two maladjusted people going through trauma together. (It’s very Hollywood I know)

So we got married. Stayed married for a while. We went through some minor ups and downs, nothing major. But a lifetime of shoving unpleasant experiences under the rug got me, as Descendants would say “rotting out from the inside”. Suffice to say I did some stupid things while I was married that led directly to the divorce. Years later, I’m still picking up the pieces and dealing with the aftermath. Therapy has helped, and that’s where music comes back into the story.

Four years ago, I started making music again, but not punk or classical: hip hop. Something about hip hop allowed me to combine all the elements of the stuff I loved, dynamic strings, soulful horns, upbeat aggression into one artform. I also started going to therapy proper to deal with these issues in an attempt to be a better human. Therapy and music started to meld together and that’s where I got the inspiration to make an autobiographical album about my struggle to come to terms with the divorce and everything else that has happened.

My debut album is entitled “The Albatross” and it’s a concept record about love, and loss, and recovery. It chronicles my story from the moment my wife left me, through therapy until now the part of my life I call the decently good. I hope that this album will be a step by step guide on how to recover when life goes sideways. Recorded at Niles City Sound (Leon Bridges, Quaker City Night Hawks, etc.) and produced by myself and Joshua Ryan Jones (Gollay, Cody Lynn Boyd) this album is the story of my last ten years. Coming summer 2020.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Smooth roads are for other people. My road has been the sea. Beautiful, serene, picturesque when calm, scary, violent, trepidatious when agitated.

Can you give our readers some background on your music?
I’m a rapper/dj/entertainer from Fort Worth, TX. As a rapper, I tend to lean into my real-world experiences, loss, divorce, pain, longing to tell real stories in an effort to connect with our shared humanity. I’m a real person with a past, as are we all, I’m just trying to tell my story. (This sounds a bit narcissistic and stuffy, I also like to have a smoke and a drink and a party every now and again too)

Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Openness. I lived so much of my past closed off to experiences and people for fear of being hurt again. The real success of my life happened when I first let people into it. Vulnerability is a source of strength not weakness, and by being open and vulnerable I’ve been able to allow access to my life and gain access to other people’s lives, and that has made the biggest difference in my music, my friendships, and my connection with fans.

Contact Info:

Website: http://bit.ly/theNaamanEPK
Phone: 4698795189
Email: thenaaman@gmail.com
Instagram: @the.naaman @weird_is_all_i_got
Facebook: facebook.com/the.naaman

Image Credit:
Jake Hill, Walt Burns

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