“A party is a party and I make sure everybody has a good time,” says Nate Walka who wrote Jamie Foxx’s ‘Blame It on the Alochohol’ and Trey Songz’s ‘Say Ahh,” at his ATL album listening party. A large group of fans gathered at the city’s Door44 to get a sneak peek at the club-anthem songwriter’s solo project over free, Diddy-hyped, Ciroc Vodka on Wednesday night.
Walka’s infectious personality which is a more than appropriate match for his self-described “electro-rock-hop” music album, told rolling out that we should expect “a lot of very, very versatile stuff. I go in all the time, and the things I can’t see other people really doing, I do it. Writing is a part of me, being an artist is a part of me, and partying is a part of me. You see all that in my music.”
To sum it up simply, everyone had a great time, but after hear his album, I’ve comep to the conclusion think that I like Walka himself more than I like his music. Not dissing his songs, because they were a lot of fun, but his personality was big enough to eclipse them. If all the songs we previewed make the album cut, expect a CD full of catchy hooks as you’ve heard in “Blame It” and “Say Ahh.” But Walka’s enthusiastic performance made me wish he could personally hype them each time I played his CD in the car on the way to the club.
I’m eager to see where Nate Walka takes his career from here. He’s a relatable artist with a slew of positive people around him, all wishing him love and positivity on his journey to step in front of the stage and deliver his own work. It was easy to see that. Even Nate’s doting mom hopped between dancing alongside her son and taking photos of his big night. Even Shawty Lo was in the building pushing his new mixtape and return to Atlanta rap, and the Beehive FM radio crew broadcasted the event live.
Some of Atlanta’s better known artists like RL (formerly of Next), DJ Drama, and Sean Garrett also came out to check on the up and coming party music maker. If the music business was less about the actual music and more about the artist’s personality then Nate Walka would have nothing to worry about. Until then, he has some trial and error grinding to do on his journey of releasing a grammy award winning project with his name as the artist. –archel bernard
