Rapper Nino Breeze is representing St. Petersburg

Hip hop mogul Rick Ross saw something in Nino Breeze, heard something in his music, and this summer he added the St. Petersburg rapper to the expanding roster of artists on his MMG Records.

Ross praised the Pinellas writer/performer’s dedication, adding that he could tell from the start that Nino Breeze was more than just another hustler.

“I guess he just started to believe in me,” Breeze says. “I made a couple songs that he really liked, and I made one that he felt like he could get behind. And we made that move.”

The move was “Type A N**ga,” recorded with Ross and Moneybagg Yo and released on MMG. Filmed in September in St. Pete’s Lake Vista Park, the song’s video has since exploded, racking up more than 1.5 million views on YouTube.

“Type A” has nearly 2 million streams on Spotify.

By the time he crossed paths with Ross, Breeze had established his own career as an independent artist, uploading his music to digital service providers and booking himself, from St. Pete, for shows in different cities. “I’m keeping it real as far as who I claim to be,” he says. “Also keeping it real as far as my work ethic.”

He thinks that’s what the million-dollar label boss responded to. “In the entertainment business there’s a lot of smoke and mirrors,” Breeze proclaims. “A lot of things ain’t what they appear to be.

“So I think it’s refreshing when you got someone who is what they claim to be, and at the same time you’ve already seen them apply themselves – it makes you feel a little more confident in the investment.”

Nino Breeze is the alter ego of Vaughn Matthews, 32, St. Petersburg High School Class of 2010. He started rapping at age 14. “I had a creative side to me, before I was making music I was making cartoons,” he says. “Anything to do with creativity, whether it be fashion, anything, I kind of got a knack for that.

“I’ve definitely developed into what I am now, but I was good out of the gate.”

He says he always knew what he wanted to do. “I feel like Nino Breeze was aspirational for me at one point. It’s like this – you might be a football player, you’re playing Little League football, maybe JV, varsity. You’re not a NFL professional football player, you know what I’m saying? That’s kind of how I look at the Nino Breeze thing. It was something that I was aspiring toward.”

Putting St. Petersburg on the map with rap fans is a serious goal; that’s why the “Type A” video was created here.

“Almost everybody I know from St. Pete came up with a sense of pride. I feel like there’s a lot of things that go on in my city, culturally, that I think people would appreciate – but we just haven’t had the platforms. We haven’t had access to real big media outlets, no real big access to the masses. So now that I have this opportunity, I just want to rep it the right way.

“You know, I’m a fan of other rappers from other places, so it’s like when I see Nas talking about the Queensbridge projects, and I see the movies that they shoot in the projects, with the big buildings, and by the way that they dress, the slang that they use, the accents that they have, I’m a fan of all of that.

“And I feel like we’re just as rich culturally. So I want people to get an idea of who we are and what we’re about. I want to bring that to the game.”

In 2016, Matthews was convicted on drug and gun charges, and spent more than five years in federal prison.

That’s the sort of thing that will change a person.

Inside, he explains, “You really get to focus on your art. To honing your craft.

“That was how I made a lot of my time pass; I feel like I came out a little sharper. I got to develop my style while I was in there. And it gives you a certain appreciation for your freedom when you’re back out and you have an opportunity to do some of the things you wish you could have did.

“When you get that opportunity again, you take advantage of it.”

Nino Breeze will host and perform a brief set tonight at Diamond Club, 8804 66^th Street N. in Pinellas Park (the evening is called “MMG Takeover Night”). Call 727-201-9511 for details and reservations.