​Featured Artist 19 July 2012 - Nextwon.

Nicolas Tsanakas a.k.a Nextwon was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1976. Raised in his hometown, he grew up listening to his mothers records from the 70's. An eclectic mix of RnB, Funk, and Salsa until ground breaking acts such as Run DMC, N.W.A, Rakim, Kool Moe Dee and Public Enemy to name a few, introduced him to Hip Hop. He became hooked after listening to A Tribe Called Quest's 'Midnight Marauders', an album which he quotes as the greatest hip hop album ever made.

In 1996, aged 20, he started as a DJ in various clubs playing Hip Hop and House music, a genre which Chicago was renown for with a vibrant House music scene originating from the Warehouse in the early 80's. Three years later he formed the Hip Hop collective known as Mentillsate with his brother  known as Father Felen, Georg Garret, Rome Merc, Fluent the Lion, Presto, and Irok. Over the next ten years they continued to perfect their skills in both producing and MCing releasing 'Voysev Reason' - Thee Free Epee locally in Chicago in 2002.

In 2010 Nextwon started working on the Matrameru - Sandglass LP with long-time collaborateurs and Mentillstate members Georg Garret, Rome Merc, and Father Felen. In April 2012, after nearly two years of hard work the album was released.

On May 28th 2011, Nextwon uploaded his first track to Soundcloud and hasn't looked back since. Nearly 40,000 plays on his tracks and collaborations with some of Soundcloud's best including manonwire, Byrdversion1, 2ndNature, Conflict, Cor Stidak, Biologic, and Amphibian along with others, he continues to secure his legacy whilst building an army of fans and over 3500 followers.

2012 has been a busy year for Nextwon after joining up with a Chicago collective of artists called Maestro Chroma Family, contributing to the Curtis Album with Byrdversion1 and Cor Stidak,  and producing tracks for a  number of artists from all around the world. With many more projects in the works including E.P's with Change Rivera and Fluent the Lion, an instrumental album with Rome Merc along with a solo album titled 'Tree' due later this year, Nextwon shows no signs of slowing down and intends to continue to bring the next level of music to his fans around the world.

Please check the links above to download the album, visit him on Soundlcloud or check out his Facebook.