Nashville-based musician Namir Blade makes self-reflective yet surrealist hip-hop that draws from his own experiences as well as science fiction and video games. He first received national attention for his mellow, introspective 2020 release Aphelion's Traveling Circus, then collaborated with producer L'Orange on the following year's bluesy, psychedelic Imaginary Everything. The complex, dystopian Metropolis arrived in 2022.

Namir Blade was born in Milwaukee and raised in Nashville. He started experimenting with music-making as a child, forming a rap crew by the time he was in middle school in addition to making video game-inspired beats, and later learning guitar and making lo-fi indie folk. Eventually he circled back to hip-hop, releasing the 2013 mixtape ScatterbRAIN under the moniker Rain before going by his own name. His subsequent output included house tracks, the imaginary video game soundtrack O.S.T Worlds and Dreams, Vol. 1 (2018), Flying Lotus-inspired instrumental hip-hop, and futuristic R&B. Aphelion's Traveling Circus, a self-produced full-length mixing introspection with dystopian fantasy, was released by Mello Music Group in 2020. Blade then collaborated with elusive beatmaker L'Orange, resulting in the raw, trippy Imaginary Everything. The album appeared in May 2021, with guest features by Quelle Chris, Fly Anakin, and Jordan Webb. Blade's self-produced, home-recorded Metropolis was released in 2022, blending introspective lyrics with cyberpunk-inspired imagery. ~ Paul Simpson, Rovi