— Rapper, actor, and skateboarder, Na-Kel Smith, releases his fourth official solo project SKULLFACE BONEHEAD.
Born and bred in Los Angeles, Na-Kel Smith is a multidisciplinary artist that has thrived in the fields of skateboarding, acting, and music. While he initially garnered attention as a professional skateboarder, Na-Kel, who was in close proximity to the rise of Odd Future during his teenage years, made his musical debut with a verse on “Trashwang” from Tyler, The Creator’s 2013 album Wolf.
He then established a raucous, high-octane style, but quickly showed striking versatility by delivering a standout verse on “DNA” from Earl Sweatshirt’s I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside and earning credits on Frank Ocean’s Blonde among other things. Today, after releasing his first solo project back in 2019, Na-Kel has grown into a force of his own, most recently releasing his new 8-track 14-minute EP, SKULLFACE BONEHEAD.
After teasing new music on Twitter just last week, Na-Kel turned right around and dropped his fourth official project, SKULLFACE BONEHEAD. While concise, the eccentric and highly energetic project shows off Smith’s incredible skill set with all the writing, production, and arrangement being done by himself.
The project arrives just after Na-kel’s contribution to Earl Sweatshirt’s critically acclaimed new album SICK!, released earlier this month, and shows that this jack-of-all-trades is on quite a run. SKULLFACE BONEHEAD consists of wide-ranging production that can go from dark and moody to hyper-futuristic to complete distortion in the blink of an eye, all while remaining musically appealing.
Still, with so much going on production-wise, Na-kel made sure his lyrics didn’t take a backseat. Deploying a highly-unique fleet of flows, and even altering his voice in various ways throughout the project, Na-Kel showed off his gift of gab — most notably on tracks like “HARVARD GRAD”, “HEAVENV3”, and “NOTAHO3”.
Listen to SKULLFACE BONEHEAD right here. Also be sure to follow Na-Kel Smith on Instagram and Twitter to stay up to date on his latest moves.