Nassir Simms (Nas) is a new staff writer joining the Express team. In his first semester writing for the Express, he hopes to write fun true stories of people’s lives. He also wants to cover musical artists and their upcoming or previous projects. Nas wants to become a better writer.

As a youth, Nas spent time reading books outside of school and assigned homework, constantly increasing his addiction to literature. As a teenager, he participated in a writer’s workshop during his junior year of high school while homeschooled and returned the following year as a mentor. All the mini-stories and poems that he wrote were published. 

Not only did Nas use his creative writing skills to create short stories, but he also used his writing skills to start an independent rap career. He created a rap persona to express how he feels about the world from his perspective under the alias Lul.Mergo (he preferred to be known under the pseudonym Mergo as the Lul was removed in 2023). But, his biggest dream beyond his writing and his music career is to become a published author, writing novels based on his experiences and making fictional stories on other topics. Majoring in journalism only helps him get closer to his goal.

Nas was not sure at first, but his interest in receiving his bachelor’s degree after going for an associate degree has increased. He is also considering double majoring in music production as well so he can produce for himself and other friends who are independent artists.