By Kyle Chayka
Publication Date: 2025-11-12 17:35:00
Nick Arter, a 35-year-old from Washington, DC, never quite managed to become a professional musician the old-fashioned way. He grew up in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in a music-loving family. His father and stepfather were big fans of ’90s hip-hop – Jay-Z, Biggie, Nas – and his uncles worked as DJs, playing ’70s R&B. As teenagers, he and his cousins recorded their own hip hop tracks, first on cassette boomboxes, then on desktop computers, imitating Lil Romeo and Lil Bow Wow, the popular child rappers of the time. Music remained a hobby during Arter’s college years at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. After graduating, he briefly tried turning professional, selling mixtapes at local shows before taking a job running a government call center in Harrisburg. This role eventually led to a position at Deloitte in D.C., and Arter continued rapping at night and on weekends without releasing music. “I got a little too old to be a…