The Better Man From the Netherlands

I'm sure you know the story. One guy from the Netherlands meets another guy from North Carolina on an on line message board. They see they both have things in common (no homo) so they decide to collaborate on some songs by sending each other tracks on instant messenger. One song leads to two and before they know it they create the critically acclaimed album "Connected" under the name Foreign Exchange in August of 2004. For those of you who haven't been keeping up since then, here's a little recap: In 2004 Nicolay returned the favor to OKayplayer (the site that introduced him to Little Brother's Phonte Coleman) by lending his production to the Okayplayer release "True Notes Volume 1." He lends two remixes to the Little Brother Mixtape "Chittlin' Circuit." Under BBE records he released his instrumental album City Lights Volume 1.5. At about the same time he released the Dutch Masters Mixtape Vol. 1. which XXL magazine called " An exemplary program of neo-Soulquarian groovology." I'm not sure what that means but I don't think any album in history has been describe that way. He's works with Black soul singers (Havana, Sy Smith,) Blue-eyed soul singers (D'Nell), jazz legends (Roy Ayers) and of course hip-hop cats (Cesar Comanche, The Chapter, Gridlock Fam). So suffice it to say, Nicolay hasn't been sitting idol for the last 2 years. You'll get a chance to see what he's been up to lately when he releases
"Here" this summer.

How is "Here" different from your other projects?
For me, its another step on the ladder when it comes to musical growth. For one, it officially is my debut album since I consider City Lights to be more of a beat tape of some sorts. I think the overall vibe of the album is a little less mellow and sparkly and a little more back to basics as its under 45 minutes. It has a lot of "up" energy.

A Little more boom-bap this time around?
You could definitely say that, yeah. A lot more "in your face" type stuff.

Is there anyone you haven't worked with that you'd like to?
Shit yeah. Loads of people. Common for one, Coldplay, Clara hill. That's
just the "c" section.

It's gonna be hard to get past Kanye for Common.
Yeah i know. There's a lot of emcees that i'd like to work with.

Anyone else you'd like to name?
I like the Stonesthrow camp guys. Med, Oh No... Ezhi, Jigga. i can go on
and on.

Where were you when you found out about Dilla?
I was right here at home. My man Deluge from Okayplayer told me on IM. I
didn't believe it at first but then i saw it was all over Okayplayer and
people close to Dilla had all ready confirmed it.

I knew he was sick but I thought he was better.
I think the general public didn't see it coming even though a lot of cats
where shocked over that european tour footage where he was in a wheelchair
all thin. I think everybody thought it would be all right again at
whatever point.

Yeah, when I saw pictures after he got out the hospital I was like "whoa"
and then he was working on the album too.
Yeah, its crazy

Aside from Dilla (who is or should be everyone's influence) Who are your major influences?
Premier, Pete Rock, Ali Shaheed, Q-tip, Prince. Plus there's so many other
cats that I admire: Madlib DJ Spinna Beatminerz.

Needless to say Nic works hard but a lot of his success can be credited to his close connection to his business partner who does "everything but make beats." Much like his relationship with Phonte it was founded over the internet. Also like Phonte she lives in NC. When asked how they are able to make it work being in such different locations, she simply replies "well ... we are just highly communicative people and we just make it happen." With Nicolay planning on moving to the states in the near future this shouldn't be much of a problem anymore. What should be even less of a problem is the success of the aforementioned album "Here" being released this summer. Much like the influences he mentioned, Nicolay has a tendency to never disappoint. We'll all find out soon enough. If you want my personal opinion (and you obviously do since you're still reading) the Dutch Master's fire is far from out. Music fans, dust off your CD shelf and make room for your favorite producers favorite producer.

Lee H. Tillman is a Los Angeles based writer/MC. For more information log
onto Calogerodean.com