Young Franco, Tkay Maidza and Nerve have teamed up for a collaborative new single titled ‘Real Nice (H.C.T.F.)’.
It’s a catchy cut with a purpose, serving as the new theme song for the A-League, the Australian and New Zealand professional soccer league.
Soccer references are scattered throughout, including samples of fans cheering in the background and lyrics like “when we get the pass let’s go, let’s go / when we get the shots you know, you know” and “getting every shot from every angle“.
Check it out below.
Speaking to Music Feeds about making a theme song while staying true to their styles, Maidza said: “all of that came naturally because we were just doing something we are genuinely excited about”.
“I think when we were going back and forth with everything, and if we just didn’t feel good about something, we wouldn’t do it. Because we wanted it to be authentic, and not look back in a year and be like, ‘wow, why did I do that?’ So I feel like we were just really trusting our instincts and being like, ‘how would I do this in a way that feels authentic, authentic to me?'”
“I would ask her [Maidza], ‘what do you think about something along the lines of this?’ And then she would put it into a way that didn’t feel silly,” added Franco. “We took that inspiration from the world of football, and then just let our instincts take over from there.”
Maidza released her latest EP ‘Last Year Was Weird, Vol. 3’ back in July, earning four stars in a review by NME.
“The final instalment in the rapper’s ‘Last Year Was Weird’ trilogy is flooding with winning moments,” said NME, dubbing the release “elite pop music”.
Last month, Young Franco linked up with Sydney outfit Winston Surfshirt for the track ‘Complicated’, marking his third collaboration of the year.
Brisbane rapper Nerve also released a collaborative cut in October, linking up nu-metal band Dregg for ‘Beta Gods’.