ill Nicky

Born in Boston and raised in the Bay Area, ill Nicky left home at a young age to pursue his musical endeavors. Upon settling in San Diego, Nicky formed a team after meeting sound engineer, Sean Powers and music manager, Don Francois. Together, they co-founded a music collective and lifestyle brand called "The I Love Life Movement" most commonly referred to as "The ill Movement."

Persistent dedication has helped Nicky create a great deal of momentum as he has taken his talents all across the nation, performing along-side some of the biggest artists in the industry, and achieving all of this independently.

At the end of 2018, Nicky expanded his indie label to Los Angeles, CA. With new partnerships, he began writing numerous songs for major artists as well as landing sync placements on major networks. In February 2019, alongside Billion Bassy and Count Bassy, Nicky and The ill Movement officially opened the doors to their recording studio, Studio 403. It has served not only as a creative space for ill Nicky and his team, but a platform for various other songwriters and recording artists including Blackbear, Skizzy Mars, Marc E Bassy, KtlynRaps, Kato The Producer, Huey Mack, Jay Ant and many more.

In April 2019, Nicky joined United Masters and released his album, Internet Friends. Several songs from the project saw major placements including Gary V, Spencer Vibes and other youtube personalities. Notably, F**KFaith, CrazyLittleDreams and FourThirty, have each streamed millions of times on Spotify, Apple and Youtube. FourThirty especially, received mass exposure after being added to NBA 2K20. Some major players have publicly said it is among their favorite addition to the soundtrack.

In October 2019, Nicky released “Fairfax and Melrose” and today, has over 3.5 million streams, still averaging almost 10k streams a day. Thanks in part to the popular playlist channel, Promoting Sounds, it has especially seen success in the Twitch community, as thousands of players continue to add the song to their live streams. Nicky also had the opportunity to share the song as well as a spontaneous freestyle with some of LA's biggest hip hop personalities, Bootleg Kev and DJ Hed, on the syndicated radio station, REAL 92.3.

2020 saw numerous wins for ill Nicky and his team. After dropping 7 singles in the year, Nicky's 8th release, California, was the undeniable hit. In just 2 months, the song had seen over 1 million Spotify streams, thanks largely to its viral success in India, due to a fan-made Anime video on Instagram, which reached 20 million views. It reached #1 on India Viral Spotify and Top 200 on most Shazzammed song in 5 different countries. It continues to make an impressive climb after being added to Issa Rae's newest show, Sweet Life: Los Angeles and has recently surpassed 4 million streams on Spotify.

Aside from having success in the US and India, Nicky has struck a cord with his native country, Italy. Although he was born in America, all 4 of his grandparents hailed from Naples, Italy and his consistent mention of Italian pride in his music has begun to build a strong following in various Italian regions, especially Naples. His Instagram has been followed by several known Italian brands including Peroni and Diadora.

Also in 2020, Nicky was awarded a platinum plaque as a songwriter for his work on Meek Mill’s album, Dreams Worth More Than Money. Nicky assisted with the production on the second track called Classic.

In 2021, Nicky’s song Photograph featuring Cheeba Hawk and Jared Anthony, was added to NBA2K21. Screen Rant ranked the song #5 on their list of Top 10 best songs on the video game. Photograph was also added to Now Loading, a Spotify editorial playlist showcasing the most iconic video game songs of 2021. Today, it has been streamed over 3 million times on Spotify and has been Shazzammed over 100k times.

In March 2021, Nicky and the team signed a streaming deal with Twitch. They developed the “I Love Life Stream,” and went #1 on Twitch Music in the month of May, with over 15k viewers. The show consisted of live music creation, on the spot freestyles, interviews and music education. They are expected to renew the deal again in 2022.

During the course of the year, Nicky created new music live on Twitch. At the end of the year, the team released a 5 track EP called Virgil, which consisted of much of the music that was created live. Alongside platinum selling producer, Billion Coast - Nicky gave his most polished and cohesive project to date. A mix between 80's style synth pop and melodic rap, Nicky showed a refreshingly unique side that we had yet to see from him. This project included the single, Come Alive, which has seen recent attention after being licensed by the NFL. The song has been played on almost every Monday Night Football came in the 2022 season.

Also in 2022, Nicky and The ill Movement inked a deal with First Note Play, one of the most popular up and coming music licensing companies in the US. Alongside the company, the team has secured placements in the Paramount Plus hit show, The Game.

When Nicky first joined United Masters back in 2019, he had only 200 monthly listeners on Spotify. By 2022, he finished in the Top 21 highest streaming artists at United Masters with almost 200k monthly listeners and over 30 million streams. He has proven to be one of UM's biggest success stories.

Today, Nicky continues to make a strong independent climb after the release of two new songs, Shadows and Winter. 2023 will start with a headlining show at the iconic Peppermint in West Hollywood alongside Live Nation. A tour is to follow.

With ill Nicky's impressively veteran performance skills, poignant songwriting, and infectious personality matched with his versatility and ability to genre bend, its no wonder he is earning the eyes and ears of the industry as well as the hearts of a very loyal fan-base.