I tend to run into a lot of video game fans that have all different types of artistic outlets. Last year, I met Nasty O at Comic Con. You may remember him as the guy wearing the Power Glove from our picture gallery. We chatted it up a little bit, he gave me his mixtape, and we kept in touch. A year later at the Race Wars show, I ran into Nasty O again.

This time he had a new album to show, and I must say that I was impressed by what he had put together. We spoke about it a little bit, and I have that interview for you below. Enjoy.

Mr Benja: Sup, O. Let’s start with letting people know who you are and how you got into this rap game?

I’m Nasty-O aka 8-Bit Boy. I actually got my start doing rap music with artists like Jorge-G, Ace da Hussla, Mackvillin and Mr. Shadow. I started a rap group called STC: Sky Tower Click in 2005 with Mackvillin and released an album called “Song of the South”. After the group album I decided to experiment with my own sound and style.

Well you definitely have your own style. So you are obviously influenced by video games, but I’m not sure I’d consider you a ‘nerdcore’ artist. How would you describe what you do?

I make ‘ N.E.S-HOP ‘ … think of N.E.S.-HOP as a subgenre of Nerdcore. It’s very similar to Nerdcore but I feel what I do is a little more aggressive and West Coast influenced. I have Pro-wrestling and comic book influence in the music as well.

Don’t we all…haha.

It’s funny, when I was a kid I was oblivious to mainstream music on the radio and on TV. I was too busy playing Nintendo (N.E.S.). I used to actually hook up the A/V cables from my 8-Bit N.E.S. console to my parents cassette recorder and record the video game music. I LOVED those songs so much that I would play those tapes over and over to hear game soundtracks like Megaman 2, Ducktales, Maniac Mansion, Ninja Gaiden…I could go on forever haha ! I would have never imagined one day I would be recording music to those songs !

I did that with a few songs myself. So is ‘nerd’ a term you apply to yourself?

Besides the fact i released my album on 101011? Haha! But yea I am a nerd! I always stood out in that sense as far as my lyrical content when I featured on other rappers albums. For live performances I always hit the stage rocking a POWER GLOVE to hold the mic with. I was always the one making the video game/comic book/WWF references in the rap songs out here in San Diego…..and YES i said WWF !!!! I don’t think i’ll ever accept the WWE name change ! Haha !

I was kinda mad about the name change too. So I recently saw you in the “Who Dey Talkin Bout” video with Shock G from Digital Underground. How’d that come about?

That song has a story behind it actually. We were shooting a music video in Hollywood and we bumped into a guy named Bobby Q ! Bobby Q was homeless at the time and we ended up talking music with him. We have a YouTube video actually showing the collaboration, It’s called ” RAS TV Hollywood Nights”. As far as Shock G…..Kevin Ray is friends with him . Shock G stopped by and made an appearance to show support, Shock is a cool dude ! Learned a lot from him during the shoot.

That’s really cool, so are you still working with Kevin Ray?

Yea, Me and Kevin Ray are putting a group album out later this year. It’s going to be irresponsible insanity on a record ! it’s totally left field compared to anything else we’ve done. He actually helped with the 8-Bit Boy album.

Cool. Speaking of “8-Bit Boy”, it’s pretty hot! Tell us a little bit about it.

8-Bit Boy the album started as a regular rap album called “The Southbay Senator.” I recorded a couple of songs for that and then the project turned into “The Mainstream Mexican.” I kept recording rap songs. The turning point though was a discussion I had with Delano Sounds and Kevin Ray about always wanting to Rap over an 8-bit beat’.

One day I get a beat played for me produced by Delano Sounds and Kevin Ray called ‘ 8-Bit Boy’ ! I was like WOW!!!! The song ’8-Bit Boy’ was used on the album and it changed everything for me. The whole project became ‘ 8-Bit Boy ‘ and so did Nasty-O. Delano Sounds carried about 80% of the production on this album as well as beats by Mackvillin and Legend da Beatslaya. 8-Bit Boy is the introduction to N.E.S.-HOP.

I like it. So what’s coming up next for Nasty O?

My next album is a project titled “8-Bit Massacre!” It’s 100% N.E.S.-HOP. No regular rap beats allowed! Haha! I’m already in the studio with Delano Sounds and Mackvillin working on it. The cool thing about this one is I’m taking requests from my fans. You can go to my website www.mainstreammexican.com and suggest your favorite 8-Bit Nintendo game music for me to sample.

I’ve got to pull out some of the classics.

I want to GIVE my fans what they want….. I recently went to the Race Wars nerdcore concert in San Diego and saw MC LARS, MEGA RAN and MC CHRIS perform. I would love to collaborate with these guys on “8-Bit Massacre!” They put on a great show and I respect the talent. Shout out to MEGA RAN! We were discussing how I felt that Japanese composers of the original 8-Bit Nintendo music should be known and recognized by the music industry as multi PLATINUM selling composers for their contributions to the MUSIC world though VIDEO GAMES! Everybody in the world knows these tunes!

Final question. What game(s) changed your life and how?

I would say games like Maniac Mansion, Mega Man 2, Legend of Zelda, the Super Mario series, Kid Icarus, Metroid, Contra, Ninja Gaiden, Castlevania, the Disney/Capcom games were amazing ! They made me notice MUSIC. I fell in love with MUSIC through video games. I would say The Nintendo Entertainment System had a HEAVY influence in the way I grew up to the way I write and record music. N.E.S.-HOP is my way of saying ‘Thank You’ !

And thank you for your time, Nasty-O.

Check out the new album 8-Bit Boy
Find Nasty-O at MainstreamMexican.com

Mr Benja.