We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Niality Kay a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Niality thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. The first dollar you earn is always exciting – it’s like the start of a new chapter and so we’d love to hear about the first time you sold or generated revenue from your creative work?

I have been dropping music for a while now, I released my own single (which was also produced by me) on all platforms my Freshman year of Highschool, and it took off from there. Through trial and tribulation I was able to find my sound, and build a small fan base in my hometown Dallas, Tx. When I transferred to University of Houston from Howard University I knew I wanted to continue to build my music career and put myself out there. I knew that I already had the music, the music visuals, the gimmick, and the overall look of a successful music artist but I still struggled with performing. Through out 2021, I took it upon myself to put myself out there and start performing at open mics just to get myself comfortable on stage. Through out my journey of getting comfortabe on stage, I was able to network with people and build a small fanbase in the city of Houston on top of the small support I had back home in Dallas. It would be a few times where I would allow myself to be vulnerable with my followers on Instagram (Follow me @dopegalnia) about my performance anxiety, but also acknowledging my growth. With doing this it allowed people to still see me as human and not some “superstar” robot, it also showed me that I wasnt the only one going through these obstacles as a independent music artist. We are now in the year 2022, where I recieved my first PAID GIG from a known Dj named Djinfinite here in Houston (we met at different open mics around the city and became familiar with eachother). During this time I knew I still struggled with performance anxiety, and I knew I didnt want to preform at all because of how hard I am on myself. But knowing that someone actually seen light in me and wanted to pay me to perform is what motivated me to keep going. As nervous as I was up until my performance, I’m glad I was able to go through with it and say I did it! Of course I still was hard on myself about my performance, but last year I never would have thought that someone would be actually paying me to perform my own music. In this experience I met some great people, familiarized myself with the crowd, and took some things from my performance as a learning experience in order to ensure that I do better with my confidence next time.

Niality, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am an Independent Music Artist who is currently a full-time student at the University of Houston. I am going to school for Media Productions, with a minor in Studio Art. I’m going to use my degree to make big money as a creative director in the industry, and with that money, I will also be building my own brand and music career. As a music artist, I creative directed all of my work from the cover art down to the visual concepts in order to build my personal portfolio. I am also currently an Intern Manager for a shop called Exchange to Change here in Houston, where I am also exercising my creative abilities to help build my portfolio as well. With doing music and being a freelance creative director, I also paint and plan on selling my art in-store at Exchange to Change this coming up month. I recently launched my website Nialitykay.net which is basically a digital portfolio that links all of my completed projects. I did this to be sure people had a designated place where they could find me and all of my work, from my youtube videos down to my creative services. I’ve spent the whole month of March 2022 building my brand, and I am extremely proud of how I have conducted business with everything I’ve accomplished so far.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I honestly had to unlearn expecting applause for my accomplishments or project launches. On social media, you tend to compare your support to other people. But what I began to realize is that people don’t show you love until they see that you are already popping. The more I grew as an artist, the more support I started to gain. Especially with moving around and not staying in my hometown, people that you knew in grade school don’t respect your hustle because they still see you as that child who was equal to them. But the older we get the more we see who really was of light and was able to make something of it, and who was just another member of society. When you outgrow people and your future looks brighter than those you’ve known at a young age, they don’t want to support you because they don’t want to see you do better than them. After seeing that most of my support was coming from people I didn’t even know, I stopped worrying about expecting support and allowed it to just come as it does over time.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect to me of being an artist is that I can go back and look at my growth. I love how every single year I am able to see how much I’ve elevated as a brand. This motivates me to keep going because things are only gonna get better if I stay consistent.

Contact Info:

• Website: nialitykay.net
• Instagram: @dopegalnia @nialitykayprod @nia.nkay @kreatively.nkay
• Youtube: Niality Kay

Image Credits
Tega Okperuvwe