Nasaan on Proof's Legacy, Detroit Rap, and Kicking Down the Door | Living for the City Full Interview

Nasaan is a Detroit rapper, director, editor, and world-builder who signed to Atlantic Records off the first video he ever made, and whose ERA 404 project — part album, part short film, part visual universe — is one of the most ambitious pieces of work to come out of Detroit hip hop in years. He is also the son of Proof, D12's beloved rapper and Eminem's closest collaborator, who was shot and killed in 2006. This is his full conversation with host Hanif Abdurraqib.

In this interview, Nasaan talks about growing up between Detroit and Atlanta, how two cities shaped a sound that doesn't belong entirely to either, and why he spent years running from his father's legacy before he finally decided to embrace it. He breaks down ERA 404 — the Severance-inspired concept, the cardigan-wearing intern character, the 404 as both Atlanta's area code and an internet error — and talks about his next project, Method Acting, and what it means to get so deep inside a world you become the character. He talks about Big Sean as a mentor and older brother, what Royce da 5'9" has meant to him, and why he thinks it just takes one artist to kick the door down for a new era of Detroit rap.

This one is about carrying something forward without letting it define you.

CHAPTERS

00:24 - The Renaissance Man: Rapping, Directing, Editing, Producing

01:44 - Necessity as the Mother of Invention: Learning to Do It Himself

02:51 - Born in Detroit, Raised in Atlanta: Two Cultures, One Sound

05:35 - The Pressure of Legacy and Learning to Stop Running from It

09:42 - Royce da 5'9", Big Sean, and the Mentors Who Held Him Down

12:10 - Goated, Severance, and the World of ERA 404

15:52 - Big Sean and What Detroit Owes Him

18:40 - Where Detroit Rap Is Going and Who's Going to Kick the Door Down