Nathan Aitken aka TempoMental is a Canadian Hip-hop and R&B artist who specializes in conscious raps, intricate flows and soulful sounds. Born October 10th, 1984, in London, Ontario, TempoMental’s influence in poetry and music started early in life. His mother, Shelley Aitken, had incredible creative writing skills and his father, Mike Micks, was a musician and ran his own Dj business for more than 30 years. Thus, TempoMental was introduced to a wide variety of music in every genre. In his early teenage years, TempoMental would gravitate towards music he could really relate to and feel. His musical tastes would vary from late 90’s alternative rock, to 70’s soul & funk, to early 90’s hip-hop. He would freestyle with friends in school, and in his spare time, but never really had any ambitions to pursue music. It wasn’t until early 2000’s that TempoMental’s friends would persuade him to use his skills and take it more seriously. In 2003, TempoMental would join forces with fellow artist Reginald Finley aka Reggie Retro. Reggie educated Tempo on beat making, properly recording vocals and instruments, and putting songs together. In 2004 TempoMental and Reggie released “World So Cold” under the newly branded “TNR”and started SoulSoundStudios. The album was independently pressed and distributed. Tempo and Reggie would work many different projects in the following years, however none of them were released. In 2007, TempoMental released “Window To My Soul”. In 2010, Tempo and Reggie would bring Scott Hornung aka Sindakit on to the roster and formed the SoulSoundCrew. In 2012, SoulSoundCrew released an online mixtape called “Sounds Like Hip-hop”. The project did fairly well in its debut, however SSC would have a falling out later that year. Tempo also released a small EP entitled “Deafening Pain”. January 2013, TempoMental released the “Wastelands & Waterfalls” mixtape. March 2014, TempoMental & Sindakit released “The Black Tape Project” and toured Ontario with it. October 2015, TempoMental released “Involution”. It was the first album professionally pressed. April 2016, TempoMental would release an online only EP titled “High Hopes & Empty Pockets”. The project was entirely self produced, mixed and mastered. October 2016, TempoMental released his second professionally pressed and nationally distributed album “Loaded With Pain”. April 2017, Tempomental released ”Ancient Rapology Mixtape” for free on Bandcamp. September 2017, TempoMental released “Jacked Off YouTube”, another edition to his mixtape collection for free on Bandcamp. October 2018, TempoMental released “Mellow Tones”, a jazz inspired ep completely self produced, and engineered. Though a second album is still in anticipation, TempoMental & Reggie Retro still work together under the “TNR” banner. TempoMental is also a member of the Planetary Society and the collective DreamstersUnion. Tempomental was nominated for a Jack Richardson Award in 2017 and 2018. He has also been featured in many hip-hop forums such as The Source, UndergroundHiphopBlog, RapBoys, WhatTheHype and HipHopCanada. TempoMental has performed at hundreds of events over the years, including headlining tours in Canada, and international shows in the USA and Japan. He has also opened for acts such as Ice Cube, Method Man & Redman, Onyx, Apathy and Celph Titled, ¡MayDay!, Freeway, Reef Tha Lost Cause, Maestro, Merkules, Snak, Moka Only, Alpha Omega and more…
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