For Twin Cities Rapper Nur-D, Another Step Forward

All of a sudden, Matt Allen found himself caring for injured and teargassed protesters in Minneapolis last year. The enduring experience found its way into his sunny music.

Transcript

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Let's get back to the MORNING EDITION Song Project. It's our series where we ask musicians to write an original song about life in the pandemic. Our guest today...

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TAKE MY PICTURE")

NUR-D: (Rapping) Yeah. I don't got a catchphrase yet...

Hello. My name is Nur-D. That's N-U-R-dash-D. My secret identity is Matt Allen, and I am from Minnesota.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TAKE MY PICTURE")

NUR-D: (Singing) OK. I look good. Take my picture.

MARTIN: Yep. His rapper name is Nur-D, as in nerdy, and the name does kind of fit.

NUR-D: Why? I don't know. It's something embedded into my soul. I love all of the - you see all the stuff behind me, the comics, Dungeons and Dragons, professional wrestling.

MARTIN: He works it all into his music with a bigger message. Basically, you got to learn to love yourself.

Have you always been that comfortable in your skin?

NUR-D: I mean, it's a survival mechanism. When you're a Black kid in a majority-white space, you really only have about a couple of options. You either get real cool with yourself really quickly, or you push out. And I was lucky enough to be able to get real cool with myself.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TAKE MY PICTURE")

NUR-D: (Singing) I look good. Take my picture.

MARTIN: Nur-D's happy, positive music has made him one of the most popular new artists in the Twin Cities. But the reason we contacted him is because when George Floyd was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer exactly a year ago this month, Nur-D's life changed overnight.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BURN IT DOWN (FEAT. PSALM ONE)")

NUR-D: (Singing) You can burn the whole thing down. I don't care if you're uncomfortable.

MARTIN: The protests kick off. How are you absorbing all of it? You're there, right?

NUR-D: Yeah. I went to the spot where he was murdered the very next day, along with hundreds of other people. And as we were there, as people were speaking and talking and we started filling the streets, the Minneapolis Police Department at the 3rd Precinct came out - you know, men, women, children choking on massive amounts of tear gas, people that weren't even at the protest.

MARTIN: And there were lots of injured people and almost nobody there to help them. And that's where Nur-D found purpose, a mission to help people, like the comic book heroes he loves.

NUR-D: I was brought over to a cache of medical supplies that had been abandoned. And I was like, yo, I can't just leave with these people being hurt and no one's around to do anything about it. And I'm here. You see behind me all the comic books I have, and the reality of the situation is, in my head, as silly as this sounds, with great power comes great responsibility. So we stayed - me, a couple of my friends, some strangers. We got all the medical supplies. We started walking around, patching people up, handing out masks, doing first aid, and we did that for a whole night. And we came back in the morning, and we kept doing it.

MARTIN: In fact, he's still doing it because Nur-D founded a volunteer organization called Justice Frontline Aid. And they've been out on the streets since last May.

NUR-D: As soon as we showed up looking like we knew what we were doing - and we certainly did not because no one gave us, like, riot medical training before. But as soon as we showed up looking to know what we were doing, it was like a beacon for everybody who wanted to help but didn't know how.

MARTIN: Nur-D grew into his new role, and as that happened, his music evolved, too.

NUR-D: The more that I saw - I tell everybody, blood stains. It was sort of like me expanding what I talk about. Like, I'll still talk about these other things, these fun things, body positivity, loving yourself, but I also talk about issues surrounding Black and brown community. And it was scary to change.

MARTIN: What was scary about it?

NUR-D: OK. The reality of the situation is this. I had been given a very large platform because my music was safe. And when I mean safe, I mean safe for the majority of the white people that would want to listen to it. So here I come. Taking a hard lean into racial justice and race politics was scary because it was like, yo, Matt, like, you could lose everything.

MARTIN: But he just went for it and did two records in 2020 inspired by the racial justice movement. And then there's the song he wrote for us.