NS RADAR VOL 002

NS RADAR Vol. 002: Five Artists Worth Your Time

Sometimes a feature is enough to make you look up an artist’s name. You hear them on someone else’s record, find their own releases, and spend the next few days working through music you might otherwise have missed. Other times, the interest develops over years. You follow the releases, return to earlier songs, and begin to hear what has changed. This volume brings those two kinds of listening together.

For NS RADAR Vol. 002, we’re focusing on N’shai Iman, Dolly Ave, JoshSimmons, Nali and THREE65. Nali’s features sent me into her catalog; THREE65 brings us back to an artist whose development we’ve documented through earlier interviews and releases. Across the five selections, we look at the records that brought each artist into focus, the experiences behind their work, and where to begin listening.

N'shai Iman

Born in Detroit and based in Columbus, Ohio, N’shai Iman began taking songwriting seriously in 2018 under the name I M a N I, having written since childhood. In her 2022 CanvasRebel interview, she described songs built from her own experiences, her surroundings and parts of other people’s lives. The connection she wanted with listeners depended on that specificity: writing something they could recognize themselves in without losing what made it personal to her. Her official Cbus Soul Fest profile places her work within contemporary R&B and neo-soul.

Her change of name accompanied Transition, which she described as her first project and an introduction to the range she wanted to explore. She approached it as an R&B singer making room for pop, funk and rap. But reaching an audience introduced another consideration. In the same CanvasRebel interview, Iman explained that writing with listeners’ expectations in mind sometimes made her songs feel less authentic. She had to catch herself and reconsider why she was writing them. Connecting with people mattered, but she did not want streams or commercial expectations to become the reason for making the music.

That concern extended to the recording process. Asked what she wished she had known earlier, Iman encouraged independent artists to learn to record themselves. She pointed to the cost of studio time and the pressure of working within a booked session. A home setup could give an artist more time to experiment and understand how they wanted a song to sound. Her advice was practical: learn the software, invest in basic equipment and create space to work without watching the clock.

Love Ain’t Thrill, released in November 2022, developed her interest in relationships across an eleven-track project. In her description on Bandcamp, Iman frames it as a progression from love to heartbreak, examining what happens beyond the excitement and attraction at the beginning. The tracklist includes collaborations with Omelo, Coyé, Poetess and Binta, placing other voices within that account of a relationship’s changing stages.

Her self-titled project, N’SHAI IMAN, is our starting point for this volume, following earlier releases concerned with musical range, honest writing and the freedom to develop songs on her own terms.

Why it is on our radar

Apple Music recommended N’shai Iman’s self-titled album while I was on vacation in Florida. I put it on during the drive from Kissimmee to Clearwater in a rented BMW 4 Series and listened from beginning to end. I was relaxed, taking in the scenery, and had time to spend with a full album. That setting probably played a part in how much I enjoyed it, but the production gave me something to pay attention to beyond the drive.

What stood out was how each song had its own character without losing the identity of the project. I could appreciate the songs individually and still hear why they belonged together. There was enough difference between them to keep the album moving, but I never felt like I was losing N’shai in those changes. **“WIDE AWAKE” and “RENDEZVOUZ” were my favorites**, and they’re where I’d suggest starting, though hearing the whole project was part of the appeal for me.

The features added to that variety without pulling the album in unrelated directions. Every guest brought something worthwhile to their song while keeping N’shai at the center. That balance is why I’d recommend the full listen: the songs have individual appeal, but the production and collaborations give them a shared identity.

Listen: N'SHAI IMAN on Spotify · Apple Music.

 

Dolly Ave

Dolly Ave came to music after building a creative life behind the camera. The Vietnamese-American singer-songwriter grew up in Missouri before studying art and photographing musicians in Chicago, later making her home in Los Angeles. In her 2024 conversation with Ryan Quan for JoySauce, she recalled being one of very few Asian Americans at school and finding room for creativity in the limitations of small-town life. Moving to California brought a different experience of community, but also more questions about how she wanted to be understood as an artist.

Photography put her close to musicians before she imagined performing herself. In a June 2026 conversation with Wallice for OnesToWatch, Dolly described shooting concerts in Chicago while struggling with stage fright. The pandemic interrupted that work, and the loss of her mother gave songwriting a more immediate purpose: a way to process grief when photography was no longer available to her in the same way. Her move into music grew out of that disruption, rather than a plan to exchange one career for another.

Those earlier creative skills stayed with her. In the Wallice conversation, Dolly discussed editing and coloring her visual material, as well as a songwriting process that changes from session to session. Some songs begin with guitar, others with a producer or co-writers. She described collaboration as a way to improve a lyric or melody, not a single method she needs to follow every time.

By This Is Our Time in 2023, she was learning through the experience of making a full body of work. Speaking to India McCarty for OnesToWatch in June 2026, Dolly reflected on that record as a period of vocal experimentation and discovering what she did not want. She also described becoming more willing to turn down ideas that did not suit her. In her conversation with Wallice, she distinguished the grief and coming-of-age concerns of the earlier album from the frustration behind Bad Brain: frustration with herself, relationships and the industry.

Bad Brain, released September 25, 2026 with fourteen songs, is our entry point here. The interviews place it after several years of learning to perform, collaborate and make firmer decisions about her work. Her Vietnamese-American identity is part of that history, but she has also resisted having it become a limit on how the music is received. As she explained to JoySauce, community support and the freedom not to be confined to a category both matter to her.

Why it is on our radar

Dolly Ave came to us through the submissions inbox. Her music caught our ear, and we followed that first impression into Bad Brain. Spending time with the full album let us hear the different directions she takes with her writing, beyond what a single track could introduce. The talent was clear to us, and the project made us want a longer conversation about her work.

We have more coming with Dolly on Nefarious Supply. For now, we wanted to share the record that started that conversation. Finding music that takes us from an inbox submission to a full-album listen is part of why we keep going through submissions. Bad Brain is where we began, and it’s where we’d suggest you start, too.

Listen: Bad Brain, official album hub.

 

JoshSimmons

JoshSimmons developed his music alongside a wider interest in clothes, images and the creative community around him in Baton Rouge. A January 2019 profile in 225 introduced him as Keon Josh Simmons and traced his beginnings to a family where singing and playing instruments were familiar parts of childhood. He taught himself drums at four, started freestyling with friends in middle school and began recording more seriously in high school. His first project, a seven-song self-titled EP, arrived in 2016.

The influences he named in that interview crossed between rap and other forms of songwriting: Mac Miller and J. Cole, alongside A$AP Rocky, Kanye West, The Internet and Alicia Keys. By the time of the profile, he had released singles and videos including “24 Hours,” “Bad Guys,” “Medusa” and “No Signal.” He had also won fifty hours of studio time in a freestyle competition at ComplexCon in November 2018, which he intended to use toward a full-length project.

Music was one part of a broader practice. In the same 225 profile, Simmons discussed modeling, designing for his clothing line Uper-Kut and developing Col-Der-Sac as a creative network. He cited Odd Future as a model for bringing local artists to a wider audience. His ambitions included acting and working behind the camera, but the purpose he described for the music was more immediate: making something that could help people through difficult experiences. The profile followed a period of family bereavement, and Simmons spoke about carrying his mother and brother's memory into his work.

For this volume, we’re following the releases that have kept JoshSimmons in our rotation: DEMO, its deluxe edition, “G-SHOCK” and “LOVE N’ My Eyes”. The 2019 profile provides the early history; these are the records behind our recommendation now.

Why it is on our radar

I’ve been listening to JoshSimmons since around 2023, when DEMO first caught my attention. What has kept me following him is the care I hear in his work. He comes across as an artist who takes the finished record seriously, and that matters to me beyond whether I enjoy a particular song. It gives me a reason to pay attention when he releases something new.

DEMO (Deluxe) strengthened that impression. The four additional songs earned their place for me, extending a project I already enjoyed rather than simply adding to its runtime. **“S.S.B (Sha Bang)” was the standout**, and the new material gave me a reason to return to the project as a whole.

More recently, “G-SHOCK” and “LOVE N’ My Eyes” have kept him in my rotation. They’re the songs I’d point you toward for a current introduction, with DEMO as the next stop. Hearing the project and its deluxe additions gives you more room to appreciate the care that first made me pay attention.

Listen: DEMO · DEMO (Deluxe) · G-SHOCK · LOVE N’ My Eyes.

Watch: “G-SHOCK,” official music video · Explore JoshSimmons’ official video catalog.

 

Nali

Nali’s introduction to recording began at Green Light, the studio where her father worked, but being raised around music did not make her immediately comfortable performing it. The East Flatbush, Brooklyn artist told Skylar Rochon in her March 2026 GROWN interview that she was nervous singing in front of other people. During 2020, her father encouraged her to spend time in the studio on her own and introduced her to writers as she developed confidence. His guidance covered the mechanics of songwriting, too. She recalled not knowing what a bridge was, initially approaching songs as verses and hooks before learning how another section could develop an idea.

Her family’s musical history gave her several directions to explore. Her grandfather played jazz saxophone, while her father made R&B. Nali described hearing his unreleased demos and recognizing a musical foundation she wanted to build on herself. That interest found a collaborator in producer Jah, whose jazz samples and jazz-based production appealed to her. In the GROWN conversation, she explained that this approach offered more possibilities for her writing.

Continuing to record, however, became difficult to justify financially. Nali told GROWN that $200 studio sessions had brought her close to stepping away, pursuing nursing school and midwifery while keeping music as a hobby. A final song snippet changed that calculation. After she posted it, RJ from I Breathe Music Daily shared the clip on Instagram, where she said it reached roughly 600,000 views. She had deactivated her own Instagram account and learned about the response through a producer friend. People were asking her to finish the song. At a point when paying to keep recording felt unsustainable, that response gave her a reason to continue.

I Love Nali, released August 22, 2025, is our starting point: eight songs across twenty-five minutes, including “journal entry.” It sits alongside the three-song No Spaces, which includes “Hold Me Close” and “R.i.p”, while her February 2026 collaboration with Coi Leray, “Maybe”, offers another route into her catalog.

By March 2026, opening for Jordan Ward’s The Apartment Tour was introducing a different set of demands. Nali spoke to GROWN about learning to hold an unfamiliar audience, recover from technical problems and recognize which songs connected in the room. She had also delayed plans for new material because she wanted more time to develop its sound. Her ambitions included making jazz-centered music with greater scale and accessibility without losing her identity. That distinction matters: reaching more people was a goal, but she was still deciding what the music needed before putting it in front of them.

Why it is on our radar

Nali’s features first caught my attention and sent me into her own catalog. Her debut project, I Love Nali, gave me a reason to stay. It has some of the best production I’ve heard on an R&B project from an underground artist in a while, with personal writing that made me want to hear all eight tracks. At twenty-five minutes, it’s a short listen, but I enjoyed it from beginning to end.

“good day”, “i.m.u” and “all day” are standouts, but **“journal entry” is my favorite**. Its uplifting message stayed with me. The closing track, “procrastinating”, is another favorite: nearly six minutes of bliss with the loose, exploratory feel of a freestyle session. To me, the appeal is hearing her give the ideas room to unfold, a different kind of space within an otherwise concise project.

No Spaces, her three-song release from January 22, 2025, is another standout body of work for me, particularly for the production and her vocal performances. All three songs are worth hearing, but **“R.i.p” is the one I’d point you toward first**.

Listen: I Love Nali on Apple Music · Spotify · No Spaces on Spotify.

 

THREE65

THREE65’s history with Nefarious Supply begins before the name. We first encountered the Cleveland hip-hop and R&B artist as Heartthrobsworld, an identity he later felt required him to maintain an image that did not reflect his life. In our September 2019 Summer’s Over interview, he explained that changing his name accompanied a decision to become more personal in his music. He had previously avoided writing about certain experiences because he worried about hurting people’s feelings. Moving forward meant accepting that those experiences belonged in the songs, even when sharing them was uncomfortable.

Summer’s Over captured that shift through the relationships and emotions he was processing that summer. Most of the five-track EP came together during June and July, with production from close collaborators Worldwidetak and Blondie and engineering handled by THREE65 himself. He described “Nobody” as an attempt to work through conflicting feelings about someone he had once considered important, while “Go Away” offered a farewell to past situations. The songs served different stages of that process: questioning an attachment, sitting with its effects and trying to leave it behind. He wanted listeners dealing with similar experiences to hear something that helped them feel understood.

By our October 2020 conversation about Misery Loves Company, he could identify sessions that had changed his confidence. “Lost Girl” and “Could’ve Had It All” helped him become less guarded about both his experiences and his singing. During the pandemic, he had been making beats and writing daily. As the material accumulated, he began recognizing songs that belonged together as an album rather than releasing everything individually. The resulting twelve-track, feature-free project gave that more direct writing a larger setting. His stated goal was to find some peace with the situations behind it and offer listeners reassurance that they were not alone.

His growing involvement in the sound was equally specific. For “The Way,” his friend Marc suggested looping a sample; THREE65 built the beat around it and recorded the song a few days later. He worked with several producers across the album, then mixed and mastered the full project himself. Choosing the tracklist was the hardest part, while mixing was his favorite because it allowed him to bring the recordings closer to what he imagined. “Last Call,” the final song he completed, became the closer because it felt like the ending the story needed.

Our more recent XTC Vol. II reflection returned to that development. After reconnecting with THREE65 and hearing the body of work he was preparing, I was struck by how closely the writing, vocal performances, production and sequencing worked together. That experience informed his placement as the volume’s headliner.

For this volume, our entry point is the two-song release DOWN ON MY LUCK / BYE BYE BYE.

Why it is on our radar

DOWN ON MY LUCK / BYE BYE BYE marks the beginning of a new era of music for THREE65. We’re excited to hear how he continues to push himself creatively, especially after reconnecting through XTC Vol. II. That experience renewed our interest in what he could do across a full body of work, not just an individual release.

The earlier catalog gives us a foundation, not a checklist we expect him to repeat. We want to hear which ideas he develops further, what he moves away from and how his writing, voice and production evolve together. These two songs are where we’re beginning that next stretch of listening, with room for him to take it somewhere we don’t yet expect.

Listen: DOWN ON MY LUCK / BYE BYE BYE on Spotify · Explore Misery Loves Company.

 

Keep listening

Start with one record. If it stays with you, follow the artist beyond the entry point. A full-length project, an earlier song or a conversation about the process can change how you understand what you first heard. A feature might send you toward an album; a new single might give you a reason to revisit a catalog you already know.

The selections here reflect both kinds of listening: artists who recently caught our attention and others whose work has kept us interested across years. Pick the starting point that speaks to you, then give yourself room to explore. You may find your favorite somewhere we haven’t mentioned.

We cover what moves us. Send what moves you.

Making music we should hear? Submit your work to Nefarious Supply for consideration for interviews, playlists and editorial features. Tell us where to start and share the story behind the music: what you’re making, what shaped it and why it matters to you.

We’re an independent editorial platform. Our coverage is driven by what we connect with, not what someone pays. No submission fees. No pay-to-play. Ever. Submitting does not guarantee coverage, but it gives us a place to begin listening.

Editorial bibliography

N'shai Iman

Dolly Ave

JoshSimmons

Nali

THREE65