Nicky Bondz is here to spread positivity in both his music and practice. Having gone through the trials and tribulations of losing his father, at the same time enduring a detrimental injury while playing hockey, the New York native was forced to face his battles and overcome them.
Now, he aims to bring positivity and feel-good vibes through his music. Describing himself as “a person who’s definitely been through a lot as an individual,” he arrives resilient, driven, humble, loving, sympathetic, and empathetic. His sound is a mesh of the old school rap he grew up, mixed with pop and EDM elements.
Most recently, he unleashed a romantic anthem called “Satellites” reminding you that love does exist in the world.
AllHipHop: Talk about being from New York and moving to Atlanta.
Nicky Bondz: I’m from New York originally, moved down to Atlanta 2 and a half years ago. Actually it was because of a PHD program I got into for mental health. That was the original plan. While down there, I decided to start messing around with music. Went from more of a hobby then as you get better or gain more confidence in yourself, I started to take it more seriously. The quality got better, streams started happening. I started getting some numbers and thought “okay, there could be a potential here.” That’s when I started formulating a team to help assist me. Got better production, better engineers. Treat it like a little business.
AllHipHop: Where did you first upload your music?
Nicky Bondz: They’re on all platforms. Spotify, Apple, Amazon, Tidal, even Tik Tok has it. It’s out everywhere, available on all platforms except SoundCloud.
AllHipHop: Who are your biggest influences?
Nicky Bondz: Definitely Wayne, Weezy F. Baby. I grew up in New York though, so 50 Cent was really big growing up. When I was in high school, he was huge. I was a big rap guy. I’ll be real with you when I was younger, I listened to a lot of rap. But gangster rap so Styles P, Jadakiss, Lloyd Banks, The Game. Other guys T.I., Ludacris, Rick Ross was coming out but he’s still new back then. 2 Chainz was really new then. I also listened to Dipset with Juelz Santana, Cam’Ron, Jim Jones. Every now and then, I’d listen to EDM but at that point, EDM wasn’t what it is now. That was 2005, so EDM isn’t how it is now where there’s huge festivals.
AllHipHop: How would you describe your sound?
Nicky Bondz: Very, very eclectic. If people don’t know what that means, it means a combination of things. It’s crossover-ish to an extent. There’s EDM qualities in my music, there’s pop qualities in my music, there’s also hip-hop qualities in my music. That’s where the industry is going in a way. Everything is getting blended over time. You see more rappers going over EDM beats, you see them doing features on big guys like David Guetta. Calvin Harris and Future do a lot of songs together.
We’re starting to see this merge happen of these three genres of pop, electronic, hip-hop. It’s definitely a new sound. Very warm, very bright sounds. It’s feel-good music. It’s club music, it’s party music. It’s definitely not something you listen to after you break up with somebody. It’s more what you listen to when you’re ready to go out with your friends, or you’re on the beach and you’re having a good time. It’s pick-me-up, most of the songs are high tempo.
AllHipHop: What inspired your new single “Satellites”?
Nicky Bondz: When I heard the beat, I wasn’t thinking of a club banger. I was thinking more of a ride out song where you’re driving and chilling, but has to do with relationships. It’s taking people on a journey because the beat is spacey. It has a trippy vibe, the whole point’s to take people on an adventure. Because the song has a story. The music video itself, there’s a plot.
We tried to paint a picture of literally me and this girl. It could be anyone listening to the music, them and the person they’re in love with. Like the chorus says, “no one gets me as high as you do,” so Satellites and shooting stars right? There’s really cool lines in the song that talk about that journey you can have with the person you love. How when you’re in love, you feel like you’re in the stars. You feel like you’re in space. You know the old expression: cloud 9, you feel good. I wanted to give the love that cosmetic existential vibe to it.
AllHipHop: Biggest thing you learned studying psychology?
Nicky Bondz: Oh God, how crazy I am. [laughs] Besides learning all my funny traits and characteristics… that’s a tough one. The biggest thing I learned about myself as a person is my ability to follow through and do something. In the topic of psychology, the brain is just unreal. How complex we are, it’s crazy. I don’t want to nerd out on you too much, but there are some really cool things about neurotransmitters and chemicals. How we function, things that cause depression and things that don’t cause depression.
Things that cause anxiety, this all happens because we have chemicals in our brains that go up and down depending on what we eat, how we feel, how high our stress levels are. I could go on for days on what I like about psychology. Overall learning about how we really function is really, really cool. It helps you as a person once you’re that educated because you can be super self-aware and self-conscious, and be a better person.
AllHipHop: What can we expect from your new album VIZION 2020?
Nicky Bondz: For the next album, experience some type of music that you’ve never heard before. It’s called Vizion 2020 for a reason because in the aspect of an artist, I’m a visionary. Visionaries are people who change paradigm shifts, they’re ahead of their time. They make the next trend, so I’m trying to be that guy that makes the next sound.
