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Ayden MacIsaac

Professor Alexander

English 1010

11 October 2022

Literacy In Songwriting

Rhode Island rapper Ninie330 is not just an artist, but an independent label owner and

pioneer who happens to also host local events in Rhode Island. Having written poetry since they

were 5, Ninie was entrapped in music at an early age, but did not take it seriously until age 17.

From that point on Ninie has been working harder on building artistry and expansion of talent.

N.I.N.I.E. stands for “Now Individuals Need Intelligence Over Excellence” and the 330 relates to

the time Ninie was born and the time the artist's mother passed away.

Ninie330 is based out of Providence, Rhode Island. Although being an underground

artist, that does not prohibit the performance opportunities Ninie encounters. For example, she

has performed in southern states such as Florida and enjoys being in the crowd of people rather

than on stage being looked upon. She also realized that being an artist is an extremely difficult

job for a female when it comes to the music industry. (She now is transitioning to a he, so from

this point on I will now refer to the rapper as a he) Therefore, creating an independent label:

JADE Wasteland Records to not have to listen to others and become an independent boss.

During our interview together, I got the opportunity to see how literacy affects the

songwriter directly. Going into the interview, I had this thesis I would build my thoughts upon.

Like a scientist does to conduct an experiment, I was forming my own thesis in which I

pondered, “How does literacy build up in the end?” Seeing as I am going into this career myself.

Starting off the interview I was nervous because I have never conducted an interview and did not
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wish to hound them with a myriad of questions. As time progressed, however, I became more

interested in what my mentor was saying. For example, when asked “how do literary devices,

such as metaphors and similes, affect a songwriter’s process,” Ninie330 simply replied: “You

can use metaphors as objects of description... which is the base of any artist when they begin a

writing process.” Having learned figurative language in grade school, this goes to show that the

knowledge I contained can still be used, if not even improve, my songs overall and can benefit

my career.

Ninie330 puts it like this: “For example, if I was making a song pertaining (pause) the

woods, I would use a metaphor as trees as the lungs I breathe and then I would describe the

leaves on the floor, I mean on the ground, as the, like, the particles in my lungs that stop me from

breathing that fresh air.”

The next task I set off to find out was how regional location affects a songwriter. I see it

as each region has their own dialects which are just spoken literature. To my surprise, after being

asked: “How does the location a songwriter grow up in correlate with their work?” Ninie330

proclaimed “your location of where you grow up molds you as a person.” Now I had already

believed this would be the case, but Ninie330 dove deeper and concluded “if you’re in low-

income environment that has not a safe scenery, you will describe your scenery as a negative

impact.” I know a lot of artists that channel their overcoming and environment into their words

and slang, so this regional aspect astonished me. We all go to school and learn the same things

but speak very differently and location can be a factor in how we perceive literacy.

Growing up in Rhode Island myself, I wanted to know how Ninie got the words flowing.

Asking how they get the words to flow, I got the reply “I’ll start writing random events and then

I’ll go back and edit those random events to create that story” I related to this because I do not
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necessarily have a set process when it comes to writing songs, so it prompted me to understand

we are more alike than not. It also caught my attention that trivial things can add to a grandiose

thing.

As a songwriter who wants to become an independent artist, I had the opportunity to ask

how hearing other artists can affect a songwriter's work. This happened to be important to me

because as an artist, I take inspiration from other artists and continue to push myself to new

heights when it comes to writing different styles of music. The Rhode Island rapper put it like

this “Artists and songwriters can always inspire you to write something that you never thought

about before.”

Continuing the previous discussion, Ninie elucidates on her claim by saying: Like I can

see someone having a cookout and I'll just be driving in my car, and I’ll think wow! What a great

thing to write about: a family event! And then it will bring me back to when I used to be a kid

and I used to hang out with my family, and it will resonate something in my mind that will start a

process of a- of a good song.”

Knowing that songwriting can be different from regular writing since it has that

instrumentation behind it, I decided now would be better time than any to ask what sets

songwriting apart from regular writing. Ninie330 said “Songwriting creates this fantasy

world that is so much of a musical versus...umm... versus just a plain poetic story.”

Ninie330 then said, “If you strip any beat or instrumental from the song itself, it’s just a

poem that someone wrote” Then the artist went on to explain how the delivery and beats

in words distinguish music from poetry or writing. To conclude the interview, I chose to

ask if planning or drafting would be beneficial to a songwriter like it can to some writers

and got the response: ““I believe that songwriters should always start off with um.. sub
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notes to whatever idea they have, like they should come up with a concept and then do

sub notes prior to their induction and conclusion of their story”

However, Ninie did say it depends on the writer and what works best for them and

claims that writing can differ over time as she said she used to start her writings going off

a hyperbole a while ago and now writes his thoughts out randomly now.