Nature (rapper)

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Nature

Background information
Birth name	Jermaine Baxter
Born	September 15, 1979 (1979-09-15) (age 28)
Genre(s)	Hip hop
Associated acts	The Firm

Jermaine Baxter (born September 15, 1979), better known as Nature, is an American rapper, best known for his association with fellow Queensbridge-born rapper Nas. Nature went to school with Nas, who first took notice of his talent for rhyming.

[edit] Career

Nas introduced Nature to the public in 1997, as a member of his supergroup The Firm, whose members also included AZ and Foxy Brown. Nature was brought in to replace rapper Cormega, who had a contractual dispute with Nas' manager Steve Stoute. The Firm's first and only album, Nas, Foxy Brown, AZ, and Nature Present The Firm: The Album, was not as successful as planned, and the group disbanded shortly after its release. It did show Nature's incredible promise, and his style seemed to go well with Super-Producer Dr. Dre on the standout tracks "Firm Family" and "Five minutes to flush".

Nature had also worked with former Death Row producer Sam Sneed and his group Street Scholars. The album Street Scholars which Nature was apart of was to be released in 1995/1996. However the album still remains unreleased. He also appeared on two other unreleased tracks unrelated to the Street Scholars album, but still associated with Dr. Dre when Nature joined Dre on Aftermath, entitled "Fist Full Of Dollars" and "4 In The Mornin'". These tracks were recorded in 1997.

In 2000, three years after stepping away from the Firm crew, Nature released his first solo album, For All Seasons, through Columbia Records, which was a moderate success in the underground hip-hop market and critically acclaimed. The album was not promoted because of Nature's Label, Trackmasters, a subsidiary label of Columbia, leaving the label and giving them the rights to the Nature's album in order to be released from its contract. Things continued to go bad for Nature, a diss from Nas on the song "Destroy and Rebuild" eventually led to a lyrical battle between the two.

In 2002 Nature released "Wild Gremlinz" after a falling out with Nas and his record label - Trackmasters/Columbia. It was released on Independent Sequence records.

Currently, no plans for a new album have been released. However, Nature is often spotted on other Queensbridge Artist mixtapes and CDs. Recently he collaborated with Mike Jones and Ron Artest on Artest's debut single "Get Low". In the summer of 2006, Nature appears on the song, "Boss Of All Bosses", alongside fellow Queens MC P-Dap and Detroit Rapper Phat Kat. The single was taken from the U.K Independent label DMB Records 12" single release, 'Vendetta Presents......Bored Of Education Part 1'. He also did two songs in 2007, called "The Sermon" and "Back From the Dead".