Getting Schooled, by Yours Truly

By Matthias Lai

Yours Truly Nate at the Public Theater listening party, shot by Matthias Lai

When he’s on the stage, Yours Truly Nate! is a savage blend of LeBron James and De La Sol. Offstage, add a little Mr. Rogers to the mix. He’s a natural born performer with killer instinct and a heart of gold, and he’s building the Manhattan Surf Team: a community of artists, musicians and personalities bringing the heart of underground hip hop back to New York City.

I was introduced to Nate by Suchi Jalavancha, who is Nate’s friend, photographer and momager, booking him shows and bouncing advice, worries, and reflections between them. Their friendship is infectious, as is everything about Nate: you just want to be around him. He’s funny, charming, and seems to be at the center of everything. Even when there are three conversations firing across a room, questions and quips are shot to Nate more than anyone, his gravity so inviting they can’t help but get pulled in.

This gravity, this infectious personality, is undoubtedly what makes him a popular after school attendant at the middle school he works at in Queens, where he’s Mr. Nate, the instructor and youth advisor who also happens to be a rapper, and is all the cooler for it. He teaches his students music production, channeling his creative passion into engaging opportunities for them to discover theirs. The assistant principal, Alexandra Hairston, met him at their church in Long Island, where he was a youth group leader for five years, and referred him to the job. She has yet to regret it.

“He's just willing to share,” Ms. Hairston said about Nate. “Because he has this passion for music and this ability to make music, he's able to teach them, and they're receptive, they're not fighting against him. They want to hear more.”

They got that chance at his school’s Valentine’s Day talent show, where Nate performed his hit song “LEWIS HAMILTON” for the school. The lights were on, his kids were cheering and his coworkers were fawning. It was Nate’s hero moment, his chance to show everyone what he was really about. But it was not his time to be a hero. He hadn’t realized it earlier, but the show was sponsored by the NYPD, meaning there were police officers watching the show.

“I was like, oh my God, I gotta rap in front of the cops,” Nate remembers. “I was sick. I was so sick.”

He has a line in the song about committing a heinous crime: “hopping the turnstile like a fence.” He was able to improvise on the spot, self-censoring with more law abiding sentiment to avoid the ire of the NYPD, but his troubles weren’t over. Nate’s performance was good. He could win the talent show. That would be a disaster.

If Nate won an award he would have his picture taken with an NYPD officer presenting him the trophy – the kind of street cred eroding image that could destroy his reputation in the rap world if it circulated the internet. Thankfully for Nate, his talent was enough to win over the crowd, but not the judges.

“My coworkers were like, ‘oh, you should have won,’” he said. “But I've never been so happy to lose something in my life.”

Nate has been winning recently. “LEWIS HAMILTON,” has been played over 10,000 times since it was released, the most listeners he’s ever had on a song. He’s been working on an EP that is coming out soon, tapping into a creative community and collaborating with local producers and rappers in a flurry of production. He’s come a long way from rapping his first verses five years ago.

Nate and his “Momager” Suchi Jalavancha at the Public Theater listening party

Introducing Yours Truly

In 2020, when New York City stood still, Nate would drive from his Long Island home to Bayside, Queens, with his friend Caleb, who raps as yeahCALEB. Nate and Caleb would sit together at the edge of Queens, where the East River flowed into Long Island Sound, throwing down rhymes off the top of their heads to beats Caleb had made on his laptop or found online. Feet dangling over the river, or seeking shelter in Caleb’s car when it got too windy, Nate honed his lyrical skill with an audience of one.

When Nate finished high school he bought a Macbook with his graduation money to record his songs. He would send his tracks to his cousin, a world-class rapper whose honest feedback helped him find his voice.

“He’d be like ‘it’s cool, but it’s not there yet,’” Nate said. “And every day, every day, even if it didn’t sound good, I would still practice.”

Nate’s cousin David Jolicoeur, known by fans as Trugoy the Dove and by Nate as Dave, was one third of the iconic rap group De La Soul. Dave spent decades in the spotlight, winning a Grammy award in 2006 for his work on the Gorillaz’s smash hit “Feel Good Inc.” Nate has only held his cousin’s Grammy in his hands one time, but it was enough. His brush with greatness sparked a burning desire to one day own a Grammy of his own.

Nate began creating music relentlessly, spending hours writing and recording, filling the days of lockdown and social distancing with an endless stream of verses, hooks and bars. Then in 2021, Caleb brought him to his first studio session. It was an overwhelming experience, being surrounded by high end recording equipment with more switches, sliders and buttons than he could count. But he was hooked, and he started going to as many sessions as he could, sometimes three or four times a week in the summer. The rush of inspiration continued as he enrolled in Queensborough Community College to study music. However, after two years of dedicating himself to his craft, things started crashing down around him.

On February 12, 2023, the music stopped. It’s the day that Nate’s cousin Dave passed away. The loss of a loved one is always hard, but the timing of Dave’s death especially stung. De La Soul had been orchestrating a rerelease of their discography in order to reach younger generations, and Dave passed two weeks before that happened. He was 54 years old. He was also Nate’s role model and one of his greatest musical inspirations. 

“I think I kind of handcuffed myself to thought of: ‘Now that my cousin passed away, I have to uphold his legacy,’” Nate told me. “Whereas, yeah, I have to in a way uphold his legacy, but at the same time, I have to be me.”

In 2023, Nate had a choice to make. At the crossroads of his budding adulthood, he had to choose between music and a conventional career. School was becoming too much for him, and he dropped out of Queensborough. All the while, he’s impressed Ms. Hairston, and she’s let him know that she feels he would be a good teacher. He almost walked away from his music dream entirely, but the possibility of greatness pulled him back in.

“When I have kids one day, I don’t want to tell them ‘your dad could have made it,’” he said. “I have to at least know that I tried.”

Nate performed in a jet black face mask á la Miami LeBron James

Public Theater

Music has been working out well so far. He’s doing what he loves, and having fun with it. He started an Instagram page, “Manhattan Surf Team,” as a personal interest archive in 2022. When someone joked about joining the surf team he said, “yeah, let’s do it,” and the Manhattan Surf Team became an artistic group of musicians, designers, collaborators of all sorts. It’s still going strong, with members frequently featuring on each other’s songs and a joint album in the works. Right now, the Manhattan Surf Team consists of Nate, Dee, Mynus_grey, Konami Thirteen, Donn Corleone, NoResspect, and Suchi.

This June Nate turned 23 and he hosted a birthday-slash-listening party for Public Theater, his new EP releasing soon. In a rented Bushwick studio space littered with C-Stands and mirrors leaned against the walls, two or three dozen friends, fans and co-creators came out to hang out, enjoy live music and celebrate the birthday boy. He performed in a Phantom-of-the-Opera style face mask, the required attire for all the evening’s guests, the masquerade theme an intentional choice by Nate, who wanted to evoke the spirit of the theater for the show. He was accompanied onstage by Konami Thirteen, Dee, and Mynus_Grey, with his dad spinning plates at the turntables.

Throughout the performances, there was an incredible atmosphere of care: Rappers onstage reminding everyone to drink water and take care of themselves, shouting out friends, bringing collaborators onstage to share the spotlight and highlighting the ways everyone in the room could, and can, work toward social justice, from protesting and community action to rest and self care. I was at the show nursing a bad ankle sprain, and I felt the love from all angles. The inimitable Suchi, who had a dozen different jobs that night from doorkeeper to photographer, made sure I was taken care of from the moment I arrived at the venue. Mynus_Grey, my roommate, gave me a shout out during his performance, and Konami13, affectionately regarded as Sebby, took a moment out of his set to make sure I had a seat so I wasn’t standing the whole night. Then came Yours Truly Nate!’s set, and I was on my feet in no time.

At times Nate’s performance was electric, at times heartfelt. He got the audience in their feelings, singing “LOVE ME BABY” and commanding them like a chorus of adoring fans in their refrain of “ONE MORE TIME.” It’s not hard to understand why he’s successful working with middle schoolers, his energy and swagger the perfect combination to capture the attention and respect of a roomful of preteens or 20-somethings alike. He zoomed around the room, at one point sprinting from one end of the studio to the other, his breath working to catch up with his giddy stage presence. “I’m 23, I’ve gotta realize how old I am now,” he said after the show, still recovering from his costly onstage displays of virility. He was wearing a jet black facemask, á la Miami Heat LeBron, and at moments Nate almost resembled the South Beach assassin, sweat dripping down his face and a ruthless glint in his eye.

Yours Truly Nate! in the studio, shot by Suchi Jalavancha

Backing Track

It’s hard not to be excited about Yours Truly Nate! if you care about the future of New York’s underground hip hop scene. Long Island born and raised, Nate bleeds Knicks blue and orange and he has reverence for his musical roots.

Nate carries the spirit of his cousin Dave with him, even while belligerently forging his own path and finding his own sound. His most popular song, LEWIS HAMILTON, is nonchalant in sonic form, as Nate delivers a laid back flow over a chill, whirling beat that carries through the song. He says he feels like “a winner with something to prove,” but you could never tell by the subdued tone he delivers his bars with. His voice is so self assured and controlled that you get the feeling that he knows exactly who he is and what he’s representing with his music. If you want to listen, welcome to the show. And if you don’t, well, he’ll be here until you come around.

Nate follows LEWIS HAMILTON with NIGEL SYLVESTER, his latest release which features his best friend yeahCALEB and his frequent producer and collaborator AVIAD. He keeps the chill vibes but this time over a bumping boom bap beat with soul chops and a clean 808. He’s more vindictive here, declaring that “you can watch us from the bottom, see the cream rise to the top.” If LEWIS HAMILTON was a smooth victory lap around an F1 track then NIGEL SYLVESTER is a flashy BMX run, with jumps, switchbacks and bar spins. Just as smooth, but with some flair. He's showing off now, and giving Caleb his moment to shine as well in the feature.

Nate isn’t a fan of Central Park - he prefers the “beating heart” of Madison Square Garden

The Heart of New York

That’s one of Nate’s biggest strengths: bringing out the best in his friends and collaborators around him. If you work with Yours Truly Nate!, you're truly getting Nate. He can make fast friends with just about anyone, and he values the real connections. He met Suchi when she answered a casting call he put out on Instagram for help with a music video. After 12 hours lugging around Long Island together, they were bonded for life.

 The rap coalition Nate has developed echoes the community centered values that underpin just about everything he does. He loves the energy of his city – he much prefers the “beating heart” of Madison Square Garden to Central Park – and beyond winning a Grammy he hopes that his music can bring great hip hop culture back to New York, its birthplace and cultural mecca.

“New York is the home of hip hop, the home of rap music,” he said. “But New York as a whole scrambles between having people from here making great music, and having no one at all. I’m trying to bridge that gap, to play a part in this city.”

He also wants to develop the wealth and influence to build community centers throughout Queens, where kids can grow personally and professionally, learning music, building relationships and developing the skills that will help any young person be successful. He’s not enthusiastic about the idea of being a teacher, but it’s evident that Nate loves using his skills to help future generations grow.

Needless to say, I like Nate. He was open to me prying into his life, his motivations, to write this piece. He told me about his earliest inspirations, the highs and even the lows of his musical and personal life with unreserved candor. Like all the people in his orbit, from the Manhattan Surf Squad to his closest friends and family, I also got pulled into his gravity, and I’m looking forward to the next show, where I know he’ll be performing with the energy and community that makes New York City so great. In fact, I believe he’ll be successful wherever he ends up, because he’s got a magic touch with people. At any rate, Nate knows exactly what he wants to do.

“I think my thing is, I think it's always been music,” he told me. “It'll always be music.”