As NilexNile took the stage in our performance space on a sunny Tuesday afternoon, we were exactly 48 hours away from the gates opening on day one of Summerfest 2025. Not coincidentally, the Milwaukee rapper’s Studio Milwaukee Session came just in time to serve as a warmup for his opening-day slot at the festival — although the show he put on for us was no rehearsal.
Two years prior, NilexNile jumped on stage for one of our State of Sound concert showcases with nothing but a backing track. This session was a whole different level, with a full band in support to provide instrumentation that met the quality of the man behind the mic.
We were also lucky to have Nile come through just a few days after the release of pastel views, which got big love in the set as he bobbed and weaved his way through three album tracks. On each one, he shifted gears smoothly between a relatively relaxed flow and a rapid-fire delivery — evidence of the tireless approach he talked about during the mid-set interview with HYFIN’s Anthony Foster.
“Success to me is staying busy,” he explained. “I feel like you wanna be so busy … that it’s a good busy and not a bad busy. For me, success looks like being able to do shows, it looks like being able to do amazing things like this, a live radio performance-slash-interview, being able to do music videos — anything in my creative form.”
You can listen to a musician in prime form using the player at the top of the page and see him on Summerfest’s UScellular Connection Stage at 4:15 p.m. this Thursday, June 19.
Studio MKE: NilexNile set list
- “Daily Vitamins”
- “Backseat”
- “Eddie Kane”
