Premiere: Ness Nite Breaks Free From Expectations In The Surreal ‘Tightrope’ Video

Rapper-singer Ness Nite has quietly built a following in her native Minneapolis, Minnesota, as well as New York, where she is currently based, by creating poppy, genre-defying music that blends hip-hop, R&B, and dance music into a unique style that’s all her own. Now, she’s ready to introduce herself to the world with a music video shot and directed by Lisa Persson in the Skyway system in downtown Minneapolis.

“Tightrope” is the first single from Ness’s debut album, Dream Girl, dropping Friday, March 2 on POW Recordings. Produced by Mike Frey, it’s representative of Ness Nite’s overall approach to music, defying easy description. She raps, but seems to actively avoid stereotypical rapper tropes; she sings, but doesn’t rely on R&B techniques. She stands out because she refuses to fit in.

“[Tightrope] is about emotional progress,” she says. “I just wanted to play that out with a more vulnerable/passive version of myself tied up and a more confident/assertive side coming out in the other shots — with the one version becoming the other toward the end.”

That vulnerability is a primary feature of the music she’s released so far. She calls it “braless” — free-from and uninhibited, it’s the type of sound that comes from her experiences and her stories, a visceral, emotional reaction to situations and events, without the worry of how it’ll be perceived or judged.

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