A
breath of fresh air in the Kentucky Hip Hop community, Nova hopes to appeal to the regular person, as opposed to representing the typical gangster images prevalent in the game today. His mixtape The Lou-Breze, hosted by DJs EFeezy and Khaled, is gaining Nova one fan as a time as it continues circulating in the city. Introduce yourself and talk about what you represent. I’m Nova, a.k.a. Kasanova. That’s what my name stands for. I definitely don’t try to represent what I’m not. I’m 100% myself and I’ll always be myself. I love to do the music. Now people are catching on to what I do. That’s a blessing to me. The way I got the name was my auntie used to call me Lil Cassanova when I was younger. I don’t know why. I took the name and changed the spelling around. I did some research on the real Cassanova and he ain’t never tried to find his true love, but I know what my true love is; I love to do music. That’s how I incorporate all that together. What are some good phrases to describe you as an artist, producer, and as a person in general? I’m laidback, cool, different. I always try to take a chance. I’m always willing to try something new. Everyone usually says the same ol’ thing and you usually hear the usual things, like I’m the hottest and all that. I really don’t think I’m the hottest around. I just love to do it. I believe I can take it to a lot of people. My main thing is just being different, especially living in Kentucky. When people think of Kentucky the first thing you hear is “country bumpkin.” A lot of us ain’t really grow up like that. I know I didn’t. Since you don’t look at yourself as the hottest around, would you say there are some areas you’re trying to improve on? The main thing is that I want to make history and leave a mark and have a following. It could be 100,000; it could be 300,000; it could be a million. Another thing that I do represent is the regular person. A lot of people we hear coming out now, well, everybody’s a d-boy or everybody’s a gangster, and a lot of people didn’t grow up that way. Some people grew up wanting to go to school and it just didn’t work out. That’s what happened to me. I did want to go to school and progress. I actually wanted to be a lawyer and a computer programmer, but I just
had a love for doing music. I wanted to show people that you don’t have to be a gangster; you don’t have to talk about slangin’ drugs; you don’t have to be the biggest baller. You can just make great music, be yourself, and still be successful. When I’m tried by people, I will let niggas know I’m in my own world and if you cross over in this lane, I’ma have to scoot you back into your own lane. If you try me lyrically, I will bust your ass. But that’s not really my main focus. I want to make good music that’s gonna last and make music that people can relate to or make people think out of the box. Does your city support local artists or the music you’re making? It’s like a gift and a curse. A lot of people from Kentucky, especially in Louisville, are just now getting around to supporting it. In Louisville, if you’re not on the radio or if you’re not nationally known, sometimes they don’t care. Louisville is a tough crowd, but at the same time it does have a lot of talent. It’s just now getting to the point where people like Simms, Keys, and Hurricane are getting noticed for what they do. It’s taken a long while for people to realize what people can do. It’s a slow process but it’s coming together. Would you like to speak about Static Major and the influence he’s had on your state and Hip Hop as a whole? R.I.P. to Static Major. A lot of people that was close to him and people that grew up with him definitely showed him love. The city definitely showed him love and is paying homage. Not that many people know he’s from here and he’s worked with Pretty Ricky; he did the hook for Jay-Z. He’s definitely getting a whole lot more love since people have seen him in that “Lollipop” video. What do you have in the works for your music? Will you be doing anything for the Derby? I’m still pushing my mixtape The Lou-Breze Volume 1 hosted by E-Feezy and DJ Khaled. It’s a breath of fresh air. We’ll most likely be at The Leak’s party, performing and doing what I do. I’ll be performing at the KYMP Kamp Awards too. That’s on Sunday. // Website: myspace.com/mrnova749 Words by Ms. Rivercity // Photo by Leon Lewis
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