“I have always been “I have always respected the underdog, and I didn’t think I would remain the underdog for long,” says Nima Hassan, the artist known as Nima Sis. Rolling Stone In the last episode of CollapseIn an emotional moment, she adds, “I'll just take a moment. I'm very sensitive. I'm a Pisces.”
In early October of last year, Nemesis traveled to Los Angeles and signed a recording contract. A few days later, on October 7, 2023, Hamas militants launched an attack on Israel, marking the beginning of a brutal war between Israel and Hamas. Soon after, Nemesis was dropped from her label.
“A year ago, I was in a situation where I had an album that every label was competing for,” she recalls. “If I wanted a session with anyone, I was more likely to get it. It was like the easiest thing, because my talent and my music spoke volumes more than my looks and stuff. I didn’t want to do it alone, but I realized that this was what was supposed to happen. I think with this album, it wasn’t mine anymore, but it was a position I was taking by releasing it and persevering.”
Nemahsis also credits fellow Canadian producer 40 with helping her get her act together during this time. “When my label reached out to me in October, he saw it and then reached out to me and said, ‘If you ever need anything from me, I’ll give you my studio, myself, my craft, my engineers, everything you need,’” she says. “Not only did I get someone to mix my album so I didn’t have to worry about it financially, but I got the best person in the industry to do it.”
Discussing her single “coloured Concrete,” Nemehsis shares her insight into the inspiration behind the song, which came after she rented an apartment via Airbnb “on a whim.” The singer recalls walking up the stairs, opening the door to the room, and being “blown away, because this felt like my middle school—like a bedroom that I didn’t have.”
She recalls how her family was “not very financially comfortable” growing up and how “we had mold under the carpets.” Despite not having enough money for new floors, her mother came up with an idea. “My mom knew she had to get rid of the mold, so to kind of distract us, she told us we could paint the concrete floors whatever color we wanted,” she says, recounting how even though her mom said her dad would have money and they should start planning their bedrooms then, the money never arrived. Fast forward to standing in an Airbnb, and Nemahsis pulled out her notes app and “started writing down what it felt like to experience this as an adult.”
The artist also shares how she “hates being a heavyweight” behind the scenes. “I think everything about my image and my voice is so serious and as much as I try to let go of that and forget about it, the world won't let me. I just want to be a girl who can write songs about love… but I can't. Not because I literally can't. It's because the world expects more of me, I guess,” she adds.
Her first album Verbatim The album is set to be released on September 13, 2024. “With all the turmoil and misfortune that has befallen me, I finally accept the misfortune of releasing it on the worst day of the year,” she wrote on social media. The album is completely independent and financed by the Palestinian artist herself.
“I had to free myself from this mindset, this scarcity-like mindset, and let it control my life, otherwise this album would never have come out. I used all my savings, everything I had earned over the past two years, and put it back into this project,” she adds.
“I think if I was younger I would have been proud of this album, I would have bet on myself,” she adds. “Even if this was my last album, or if I never did anything again, at least I did it 100 percent, and I don’t know that most artists can say they did that.”
