Nicholas Simmons, known professionally as YBN Nahmir, is an American rapper, songwriter and actor. He is best known for his singles "Rubbin Off the Paint" which charted at number 46 on the BillboardHot 100 chart, and "Bounce Out With That", which peaked at number one on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart.
Early life
Simmons was born on December 18, 1999 in Birmingham, Alabama. He was raised in a home with his mother, cousin, brother, sister, and grandfather. Simmons attended Clay-Chalkville High School, though was pulled out following the success of "Rubbin Off the Paint". Simmons' interest in music started when he was fourteen years old and was gifted an Xbox 360 for Christmas. Simmons began to play the video game Rock Band and eventually moved to playing Grand Theft Auto V and then started recording gameplay videos where he would generate a following on YouTube. During his time playing Grand Theft Auto V, Simmons would freestyle in Xbox Live parties and alongside numerous other friends, established the Young Boss Niggascollective.
Career
Simmons formed the hip hop collective YBN in Birmingham, Alabama in 2014 composed by him, YBN Almighty Jay, YBN Cordae, YBN Glizzy, YBN Manny, YBN Walker, and YBN Seylonne,. Simmons uploaded his first song onto YouTube when he was fifteen with fellow YBN member, YBN Almighty Jay. The song, titled "Hood Mentality" was uploaded on March 21, 2015 to barely any reception. Simmons uploaded several more songs to YouTube before releasing his first mixtape on January 2, 2017 titled Believe In The Glo on Soundcloud. Simmons uploaded his second mixtape to SoundCloud on January 21, 2017. Simmons released "Rubbin Off the Paint" on September 18, 2017 to WorldStarHipHop's YouTube channel. The song quickly went viral with Simmons explaining it as "blowing up overnight." After the success of the song, Simmons was pulled out of school due to his exceptional popularity and forced to start online classes. The song debuted at 79 on the Billboard Hot 100 and peaked at 46. In November 2017, Simmons was involved in controversy following his song being claimed by a record label after his manager sold the instrumental for the song to a third-party. In response, Simmons now has an in-house producer for his instrumentals who is a member of the YBN collective. Simmons released six more tracks in 2017. On January 23, 2018, Simmons released "Bounce Out With That" on Lyrical Lemonade's YouTube channel. The song wasn't available on streaming services for up to three days after the release of the music video. The song has accumulated over 128 million views on YouTube after its release. In April 2018, Simmons signed with Atlantic Records. He was later named as one of the members of XXL's "2018 Freshman Class" on June 12, 2018, competing in a cypher with Stefflon Don and Wifisfuneral. On July 13, 2018 Simmons announced via Twitter he will do a Tour in Europe in the fall 2018 with YBN Almighty Jay and YBN Cordae. They will visit France, Germany, Poland, Sweden and more. The collective YBN released YBN: The Mixtape in 2018 with Gucci Mane, MGK and Lil Skies, between others. On 22 March 2019 he released "Baby 8". On 10 June 2019 he released a 1-minute and 10 seconds video called "Opp Stoppa".
Musical style
Nahmir lists his main influences as rappers from the San Francisco Bay Area such as E-40. Talking on his influences in an interview with Billboard, Simmons stated that the lack of mainstream rappers from Birmingham made him listen to more artists from the West Coast such as Eazy-E and Tupac.
