Montreal songwriter Naadei sequestered herself in Miami for 10 months working on the songs that would become her debut EP, Im Fine, and today, we’re getting an exclusive look at the results of her Magic City grind. On her lead single, “Lisa,” Naadei enlists College Park’s own Trap-A-Velli 2 Chainz for a feature, with Montreal mystic High Klassified on the beat.
“Lisa” sees High Klassified whipping up an ethereal world for Naadei’s breezy chorus vocal, with a synthetic choir and redlined 808s at the centre of it all. "It’s always a challenge writing to a High Klassified beat—we've worked together before and we mesh well, but his productions are so complete,” she told Complex. “It's like hearing something that's already perfect and you have to add something to it. I'm just here trying not to mess anything up."
According to Naadei, this ambient post-trap banger is a bit of a sonic outlier on her new project. "I wasn't even going to include this song, actually. The EP is kind of cloudy and chill, so I couldn't see a trap song fitting in. Then Chainz was rapping about threesomes and gold Rollies. I was like, ‘k, thanks b, what am I supposed to sing about? I'm single and I'm on the bus.’”
Despite initial trepidation, Naadei holds her own in Tity Boi’s domain, rapping about white rich girls with grills, dropping a reference to Montreal hotspot Apt. 200, and coming clean on the struggle of balancing Soundcloud ambitions with scholarly obligations. On “Lisa,” Naadei gives us a reminder we all need once in a while: being real is the ultimate flex.
Listen to “Lisa” by Naadei below. You’ll hear more dreamlike vibes on her debut EP, Im Fine, which can’t come soon enough.
