NUE Isn’t Trying To Fake His Way To The Top

If you haven’t already heard, indie record label 300 Entertainment is making sure that its best rising talent breaks out into the mainstream, by giving them each a literal platform on which to make a music video. With 300's BRKRS project, each selected artist is given full creative control of a 10x10 room, and tasked with turning it into a music video set—and we’re showing you what they came up with, one at a time.

This time around, NUE turned the set into his own private tattoo parlor. While performing, he got some killer ink on his neck—and, turns out, the decision was spur-of-the-moment. “It was just an idea we had while we were there,” he told Shanté Cosme. “It wasn’t even planned out. It wasn’t even in the video treatment.”

This spontaneous mindset extends to his approach to songwriting. His single “Chances,” which accompanies the video, was written in less than an hour, right after an engineer showed him the beat. “We popped it out in 45 minutes,” he said, “and woke up the next morning and listened to it, and thought it was pretty cool.” NUE said that the song itself is about “life and past situations.” “You’re faced with different decisions and chances every day, and you have to make the right choices,” he added. 

When it comes to his music, NUE is banking on his authenticity to get him where he wants to be: “I make real music that’s real to myself,” he says. “Everything I say is really me.” He’s not about taking direction from anyone else, or just following along with the latest trends. “I’d rather just be an artist that expresses how I feel right now in the moment even if it’s not something that’s the coolest thing to do, or isn’t the most popular thing,” he says. “I just do whatever I want.”

Check out the video for “Chances,” above.