San Diego hip-hop and R&B artist Lil Nico is 17 and has released more than three dozen tracks, including three albums, since 2022, when he was 15.
The next song, “Do Better,” is dropping Tuesday, April 16.
“It’s a track to have fun with,” he said. “Most of my songs are like that. I like to have fun with them.”
Girl I could tell
I could tell you be wanting better
But just can’t seem to do better
Can’t seem to do better
He mostly writes his own beats, but this is one he got from a pack by K.E. On The Track, who has worked with artists such as Future, Lil Wayne, Gucci Mane and Etcetera.
Whether the beat is his or someone else’s, the main objective is to have fun with the music — to go with the beat.
“Honestly, man, that’s how I be with all my music. I just I feel a beat, however I’m feeling at the time,” he said. “I might be feeling a little toxic, or I might be feeling like making a little club banger. Whatever it is, I just feel it and then go into the booth and go off the top of my head mostly.”
“Do Better” falls under the other category in that he wrote out the lyrics. He claims that there wasn’t a lot of concept behind it, “just rhyme words, whatever sounds good.”
If there is a message, “I would say just prioritize yourself first. You know yourself best, so you know how to direct your situations.”
It’s not even about anyone, he said, except that, at the time he wrote it, according to his mom, he may have been going through something of a breakup. He isn’t sure, but she is.
The lyrics portray a girl who is struggling, thinking she needs a man, a better man than she’s got to feel better, or “do better,” but she can’t pull it off.
Lil Nico has been making music since he was 9, and about age 14 he started taking it seriously.
“I’ve been working,” he said. “I haven’t been as consistent as I probably should, which I am working on.”
Still, he has a lot of music out and a sound that is all his own, a sound he regards as unique, based in common sense but that is fun and exciting.
“I love music. It’s my sanity. When I listen to music, I like to vibe to it, I like to have a good time, feel it, enjoy what I’m listening to, and I want to bring that to the people, bring the good music back.”
“Just spread the love around the world,” he sums up. “Ain’t too much of that going on.”
He wants to be “one of the greats,” by which he means he wants to be remembered. He quotes Tupac.
“I want to do whatever I can do to be like Tupac said, ‘I might not be the one to change the world, but I’ll definitely be the one to spark the mind.’”
That brings up another message that might be in “Do Better” and in his music generally, if you are of a mind to find one: dream big.
“‘I’m real passionate about this. Always chase your dreams,” he said. “Dream big no matter what, no matter what anybody tells you, no matter what anyone thinks about you.”
To that end, “Do Better” has one more message.
“I want people to get out of it that I’m coming. I’m next. Like, you can’t do better than me.”
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