From Organ Donor to Producer & Emcee
In Christmas of 2013, Ches “Nifty” Christian lay recovering in the hospital after donating 67% of his liver to his little sister. She’d been given just days to live after her own liver suddenly mysteriously failed.
During those tough post-surgery weeks, Canada’s first rap teacher turned his mind towards making it back to his students.
Two weeks later, armed with a walking cane, Nif willed himself back onto Centennial College’s campus. Physically, he was still healing. Mentally, he was ready to get back to the music.
It’s always been about the music.
Ten years earlier, he went by N.I.F.T.Y., an evolving acronym which first stood for “Nubian Intelligence From The Yahweh”, and then “Nothing’s Impossible For The Youth”. The moniker grew along with him. It shifted as his musical focus expanded. It saw him through many seasons of accomplishments.
His work as N.I.F.T.Y. earned him multiple hip hop award nominations across a career that spanned a decade. His podcast, the wildly popular Nifty Christian Radio Show (which he produced as well as co-hosted) snagged a crystal mic award nomination for “Best Internet Radio Show of the Year.”
Nif continued to push his craft to greater heights, in 2012 becoming Canada’s very first rap teacher at Centennial College’s Music Industry Arts and Performance Program. (MIAP)
In early 2014, shortly after the last round of meds from the surgery that previous December, his daughter was born. Nif decided that it was time to be a daddy and place music on hold.
“I took a break from everything (except teaching) when my daughter was born. I needed to really pour into her since she’s on the spectrum”, he recalls after learning of his little girl’s Autism diagnosis.
Married for over ten years, Nif committed himself during the hiatus to family. Then, as now, his mind was set on improving the lives and mindsets of his family, the youth and his community at large.
