Bringing city’s music to rest of planet
Nesia Beatz is one of Pittsburgh's hottest producers on the scene. He's worked with many local and national artists. Nesia is celebrating his birthday in grand style Dec. 14 at DeJaVu Night Club in the Strip District. The hottest artists are coming out to celebrate with him.
Nesia (nee James Lightfoot) is from the North Side. Primarily a music producer, he also writes and does vocals; his producing influence ranges from Dr. Dre, Timbaland and The Neptunes to Quincy Jones, Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles.
In 2000, he got together with his boys he grew up with in Wilkinsburg to form Really The Most (RTM). They created a buzz in the neighborhood by performing at talent shows and holding their own events.
Looking for an outlet to reach a larger audience, he interned in WAMO-FM's promotions department in 2003. While there he created radio commercial backgrounds arrangements still used today.
While interning that summer he met Bonecrusher and hooked up several tracks for Bonecrusher’s projects, and they continue to work together. Through all this he was able to make industry connections in Atlanta and locally.
Nesia has produced for several groups in Pittsburgh, like the R&B group Crave. He’s worked in conjunction with Crave and Mean Street Entertainment to help create the hit song "Real Chick." A winning Pittsburgh Steelers season brought success for his song "The Steeler Jam," which ought to be a future classic.
Some of the other artists and clients to benefit from the Nesia touch include Mano Y Mano, Cricket Communications, Black Entertainment Television, Vaig, Soy Sos @ Tuff Sound Recordings, Arson, LifeTyme Records, The Govament, I.D. Labs, Wiz Khalifa, Millennial Reign and DJ Plan B.
Nesia got into hip-hop through his father. "When I was young my dad used to play all types of music in the house; he played a lot of hip-hop and I caught on to it. Growing up my friends around me played records and mix tapes, and that got my attention as well," he recalled.
Ask him about his stage name and he'll relate how it evolved (yes, it was a process): "Nesia Beatz came from my original name Indo--the whole name was Indonesia. They called me Indo in high school, but when people found out I made music they would say "Nesia. I need your beats." People kept saying it so much that it sounded like a name for myself...I put "Nesia" and "Beatz" together and had the name...everybody liked it so I kept it."
Nesia refuses to be pigeonholed and has no patience for labels when it comes to his music. "I consider myself a producer of all types of music."
"People consider me a mainstream producer. Don’t get me wrong; I enjoy making hit music but I (also) enjoy stretching my sound out as far as possible. Whether mainstream conscious hip-hop, gangsta or gospel. I like to make music that might not even sound like (I produced it)," Nesia emphasized. "I like the reaction when people hear something from me different."
Nesia is fully committed to his vocation for the long haul.
"Oh yeah, I'm definitely in this," says Nesia. "I feel like Pittsburgh has new music to offer the planet and I think we are on are way right now.
"With certain artists, producers, entertainment figures and businessmen making the steps that are needed," says Beatz who continues to multitask. "It will only be a short time we will be out there; plus ya boy (is) grindin' hard, too!"