Meet Nayla Hull of Nayla Savannah in Long Beach

Today we’d like to introduce you to Nayla Hull.

Nayla, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I got started in high school. I went to King/Drew and there was this talent show I think during Sophomore or Junior year. It was amazing, but there were no girls in the talent show like at all. I was already writing poems, but not raps. They were usually free verse and just nothing structurally similar to what I thought rap was. I complained throughout the show until my friends told me to rap and be that girl and be that change I wanted to see. I wrote a rap for our school’s choir/music class and got to perform in front of everyone. It felt great and it was rewarding. When I got to Long Beach City College, I declared my major for music engineering and found myself hanging out with other rappers and producers in class trying to hop on any and every track that was played. But I felt the push back they didn’t have no faith in me. I was the only girl trying to fit in. I felt like I had to elbow my way in and prove it. I became friends with Bigg Shmezz and he gave me my first beat and I wrote one verse for the entire song. He had to break it down that I can’t just treat it like a poem and that there’s a bit of a structure to the song I need to stick with or if I want to keep it like that then I have to finesse it better. Fountain of Youth started a long and great friendship that we have today.

Has it been a smooth road?
After releasing my first mixtape Free to Say. I immediately started writing my second mixtape, but in that time I was transferring from LBCC to Cal State LA. The curriculum was different and I suddenly had so much to do. I slowed down on writing I had half of it done before I transferred then I started writing a song every three months. I thought I lost my bars because I wasn’t practicing it as much. It was hard trying to write and concentrate on school. I graduated Cum Laude with my BA in Theatre Arts with an emphasis on performance from CSULA. I finished my sophomore mixtape a few months after and mixed and mastered the rest until March 30th, 2019.

We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
I am most proud of my awards from the Kennedy Center. I’m also a Sound Designer when I am not doing a host of other things. I won a Legacy Award and a Scholarship Award to SILV for my design and composition on The John Lion New Plays Festival. I think it has been the coolest thing I’ve done to date.

Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
I love that the people here are friendly and easy going. I hate that there is so much homelessness and that we treat these humans as if they are not there and that they’re invisible. I’m going to figure out what I can do to help.

Contact Info:

• Email: saysoraps@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itsnotnayla/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NaylaSavannah?ref=bookmarks
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/itsnotnayla

Image Credit:
Taylor Pierce, Datrice Hamilton, Leslie Brown

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