The Break Presents: Night Lovell

You may not know Night Lovell but in a few months, you definitely will. The 20-year-old spitta from Ottawa, Canada made a splash with "Dark Light," the first song he ever publically released. The track, which was released in 2014 and currently has over 12 million views on YouTube, resulted in the rapper becoming a local star and online sensation.

For Night Lovell, he finds that he's most creative at night and sober. His creative process is what helped him discover his name.

"Night comes from me always wanted to record during the night," he tells XXL while in New York City. "Not just record, anything creatively I want to do during the night time because that's when I'm usually by myself. Lovell came from my dad—that's his middle name and he used to make music. So I just put two and two together. He made hip-hop but it was Jamaican-influenced."

He struck gold again in 2016, with his breakout song "Contraband," which has over 6 million views on YouTube, and his project, Red Teenage Melody, a 14-track effort featuring the snap-heavy ode "Barbie Doll" and the darker Nessly-assisted "Guidance."

After recently releasing the video for "Jamie's Sin," Night Lovell wants to world to know that Canada is known for much more than Toronto and he's putting on for Ottawa. Get to know him more in The Break.

Name: Night Lovell

Age: 20

Hometown: Ottawa, Canada

I grew up listening to: "I grew up listening to mainly hip-hop, Jay-Z, Biggie, Wiz Khalifa my later years. I listen to some rock, AC/DC, stuff like that. Also, when my mom was cleaning she'll play some Soca music ’cause she's from St. Lucia. Soca music, Haitian music. My dad is Jamaican, so sometimes dancehall. Generally all that stuff.

"I started making music the summer of 2013, I made my first beat. I started making beats because I always wanted to. I googled it and figured out you can download programs and stuff, so I downloaded Fruity Loops. I made my first beat and uploaded it and I've been doing music ever since then.

"A year later, late 2014, I recorded [my first] vocals. I always dreamed about wanting to be onstage and stuff. Obviously, there are producers who have live shows and stuff but you don't have that crowd control. You can't do the same thing, you're not actually performing. So I just said, Why not, let me put down vocals.

"I always took music seriously because it's what I love but I guess when money and shows came into play, it was serious. To me, it was always serious from the get-go."

My style’s been compared to: "It's hip-hop but I guess it's like a dark, experimental hip-hop if you want to go to sub-genres. I've been compared to Travis Scott, A$AP Rocky sometimes, Xavier Wolf. Pretty much all of that layered vocals type of things."

Most people don’t know: "I used to do track. When I was younger, my dream was to be an Olympian. I went to Youth Olympics and World Youth, which is one step below the actual Olympics. Youth Olympics were in China. I started making beats while I was doing this. Music and track or sports, in general, are like totally two different things. It's really hard to balance, especially with traveling.

"Track takes you a lot of place and music takes you a lot of places. You can't really balance them both. But to me, I just felt like I just love music more so I went with that and left track grade 12. I ran the 100 and 200. In the 100, I ran a 10.6 and in the 200, I ran 21.4."

My standout moment to date: "There are two. One would have to be going to Europe to perform. When I first uploaded my first song, never did I dream of going to a place like that. I was just putting music out just to put it out for fun. That was a big moment for me. Another big moment is being able to help my mom with stuff. Whenever I can that's a big moment for me, just to give back."

My goal in hip-hop is: "To be the best I can be regardless what other people are doing. Also, aside from that, be a hometown hero. It makes kids happy to be like, 'Oh, he's from our city.'"

I’m going to be the next: "It would probably be the next [director] James Cameron because he's a legendary person to me. If someone says I'm going to be the next James Cameron in my field, that's fire."

Follow Night Lovell on Twitter and SoundCloud.

Standouts: Red Teenage Melody

Concept Vague

"Contraband"

"Dark Light"

"RIP Trust"

"Jamie's Sin"