Spotlight on NAUTILUS

During the 90s, hip-hop from New Jersey emerged as a distinctive and influential voice within American rap culture. Although geographically close to New York City, New Jersey developed its own identity, characterized by raw realism and strong social awareness. Artists from cities such as Newark, East Orange and Trenton portrayed everyday urban life, addressing themes of violence, poverty, local pride and the struggle for recognition.

All the Nick Wiz 's compilations released over the past few years have given us a deeper insight into this New Jersey's independent hip-hop scene. They've highlighted artists and groups who never had the chance to officially release a 12-inch, even though some of them clearly deserved one, given the quality of their tracks. The group NAUTILUS is definitely one of them. 

NAUTILUS was a duo comprised of KAOS and M.A.D. (an acronym for Microphone Angel of Death), two MCs from Jersey City. A handful of their songs recorded in the mid 90s are scattered across various volumes of the Cellar Selections compilations. 

Most of the tracks were produced by Nick Wiz but some were produced by the artists themselves : "The Rain", produced by M.A.D. (who handled the samples) and programmed & mixed by Nick Wiz, and "Hennessy", produced by KAOS and M.A.D., and programmed & mixed by Nick Wiz.

M.A.D. gave me some of his time and answered a few questions to shed some light on their history. He explained how everything started for the duo, or how the connection first happened with Nick Wiz: 

M.A.D. : " I started rhymin’ in ‘87. My first love is actually DJing and that’s what I wanted to do at first but when Eric B and Rakim dropped I Know You Got Soul, I wrote my first rhyme. At first I was (don’t laugh) Kid M.A.D. (Melvin Andrews is Dope, lmao…) then I dropped “Kid” and switched it to Microphone Angel of Death. I meant to come up with another meaning but I never got around to it…

Me and Kaos are both from Jersey City, NJ and we lived a couple of blocks away from each other. We both were writing but we didn’t know each other. We met around early ‘89. There was this chicken spot between our blocks and one night I was in there rhyming and some of of K’s homies were there and they went and got him. We went back and forth for a minute and earned each other’s respect. After that, we’d see each other in passing and trade a few bars. After a few months, we decided to link up and form a duo in ‘90. After going through a few names, we ended up with Nautilus (New Angles of Utilizing Techniques In Literature, Universally Sound.)

After working on a few songs together, one of our OG’s took us to the studio for the first time, well, MY first time, Kaos had a little studio experience already. We kept writing and working on demos for the next couple of years but things slowed down a little after I graduated high school and went to Seton Hall University in ‘92. 

I had to do a Summer program before the Fall semester and that’s when met a cat from Hackensack, NJ named Fabe. He happened to rhyme too and we became cool and decided to be roommates in the Fall. 

Fabe was working on demos too and with me knowing a little bit about samples and break beats, I started helping him with his demos. A cat he knew recommended Nick Wiz to him and he started working with Nick. He told me about him and brought me to the studio with him one time to work on one of his joints. I was immediately impressed with Nick’s beats and and how fast he worked. After going with Fabe to Nick’s a few times, when I went home during one of my breaks, I told Kaos about Nick and suggested we start working with him. Me and Fabe brought Kaos to Nick’s and K was also impressed with the way Nick worked. We started working on demos with Nick, rocking over the best production we ever had  at that point. 

Kaos and I didn’t have any real management or team behind us to get us that push or exposure so we never got the look we needed. I finished Seton Hall in ‘98 and moved to North Carolina with my girlfriend who would later be my wife. Kaos continued to write and record in Jersey while I eventually slowed down with the music thing after having our son and daughter. I wrote sporadically but didn’t really record as much, due to (in addition to the family) becoming uninspired by the direction the Rap game took in the ‘00’s. These days, I mess with the beats when time allows and I feel like doing it. I appreciate Nick including our music in the Cellar Sounds series, giving me and K the exposure we didn’t have back then. It’s been good to see the positive feedback to our joints, letting me know that if we had the proper team behind us back then, who knows, we probably would have made some noise..."

Mad Props to Melvin Andrews a.k.a M.A.D., thanks a lot for your time. Peace