Nothing Major proves they can’t be held down

Fitz and Robem are back with a new Nothing Major album.

Through a Simon Pegg style string of setbacks and heartbreak Nothing Major persevered and released the brand new LP NAMEAN.

The Westside Cleveland rap duo started working on NAMEAN during the summer of 2019. The project received money through fans donating to a Gofundme page. As Rapper and Lyricist, Fitz explains, “That’s why we take this so seriously – people pay us to make our art.” 

Getting to the point of being able to release NAMEAN was a hard fought battle for the pair. Robem, producer, was laid off from his job due to the pandemic. He used this unexpected free time to travel to a remote cabin in Northern California. Cut off from most of the world, Robem made beats daily trying to expand his own rhythmic vocabulary. 

“I wanted these beats to be more movement based, to just keep going, less of a loop,” he says. “It was really nice to just be away from everything for awhile.”

Upon returning to Cleveland, Robem and Fitz were ready to start getting down to business on their new album. Unfortunately, Robem was feeling strangely ill, causing him to cancel sessions.

“I would stand up too fast and get super dizzy,” Robem says while shaking his head. “That feeling would just stick with me all day.” 

It turned out that Robem had contracted Lyme Disease while out in the West Coast wilderness. He fully recovered with the help of antibiotics and was ready to dive headfirst into working on the new album. 

Meanwhile, Fitz was having trouble of his own. With half the album written and recorded, Fitz’s Grandma fell ill and passed away. Fitz gets emotional retelling the story, explaining “It fucked me up, I was not ready for that.” Fitz is a very fun and outgoing personality, and this memory obviously still has a lot of grief attached to it. 

While Fitz was spending time with his family, Robem caught COVID. This led to two horrible weeks of sickness which once again stunted the progress of NAMEAN. 

With a year of total bullshit behind them, Nothing Major poured themselves into finishing the album, remembering all the fans who had donated to them. The final songs recorded for NAMEAN were heavily influenced by the tragedies of the past year. All this strife did not make Nothing Major forget their strengths. NAMEAN consists of hard hitting yet ethereal beats, heartfelt lyrics delivered in Fitz’s signature style, and, most importantly, all around catchy and fun songs you want to dance to live. Fitz misses the live shows. 

“We have the best shows, they are huge parties, everyone is into it,” he says. “We release new music every year, and that show is the highlight of the year. All the people that are always there bring a ton of new people and we all just party.” 

This year’s blowout was going to be at Now That’s Class. Fitz laughs, saying “that shit was gonna be wild, we were about to get banned from that bitch!” which Clevelanders should know is an almost impossible feat. 

In the never ending absence of live music, Nothing Major plans on releasing as many music videos as possible and increasing their online presence. “We’ve always known the live shows were going to be dope, but now we gotta focus that energy online,” Robem admits. 

NAMEAN is now streaming on all platforms and is a true statement of the diversity of Cleveland hip-hop from beginning to end. With a year full of struggles and setbacks Nothing Major still manages to focus on the most important question of our time – “Wut it do.”