New York City borough thorough – Bronx-born, Staten Island-raised rapper, dancer & vocalist Emiliana Castillo aka Nani Castle – is the daughter of a Chilean-exile father and rebellious Irish-American mother from Queens. Castle has been working hard since releasing her mixtape Amethyst Tape to mysterious acclaim.

For her debut album Sin York, Castle offers up introspective and experiential lyrics about surviving in New York City as young teacher and artist. She speaks to the Island life-mentality as fast-paced changes masked under the guise of “development” not only threaten the identity of native New Yorkers, but working-class people everywhere.

Sin York – short for Staten Island, New York – is a love/hate letter to her hometown under these conditions. In a style coined “working-class dance music,” Nani keeps it real and rugged like the streets she commutes through everyday to work with her timbs and ballet shoes in tow, spewing lyrical venom with intelligence and singing towards hope for a higher future.

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