Nia Archives

Dehaney Nia Lishahn Hunt (born September 1999), known professionally as Nia Archives, is an English record producer, DJ, singer and songwriter. Born in Bradford in West Yorkshire, she moved to Leeds aged seven, out of the family home aged sixteen, and then to Greater Manchester, during which time she was inspired by jungle documentaries and the women within them.

After moving to Hackney Wick for university, Hunt attracted attention for the self-released EPs Headz Gone West (2021), Forbidden Feelingz (2022) and Sunrise Bang Ur Head Against the Wall (2023), the latter of which topped the UK Dance Albums Chart. Hunt released her debut album Silence Is Loud in 2024 through Island, which peaked at No. 16 on the UK Albums Chart.

Hunt is generally regarded as being at the forefront of the post-2020 drum and bass revival.

Life and career

1999–2019: Early life Dehaney Nia Lishahn Hunt was born in Bradford, West Yorkshire in September 1999, and has two brothers. When she was seven, they moved to Leeds. Her ex-stepfather, a former producer and rapper, had a dancehall radio show on a Bradford radio station, Hunt is a third-generation Windrush immigrant; her grandmother Liz had moved to Bradford from Jamaica at age fourteen, and with one of her four sisters ran a pirate radio station. gifted to her by her grandfather. Family issues caused her to move out of her family home when she was sixteen, and she moved solo to another area of Leeds, before moving to Bury, Greater Manchester, and then to a hostel in Radcliffe, Greater Manchester, where she had a social worker and spent time claiming unemployment benefits before taking up posts at KFC and as a cookery teacher. to accompany the videos she was creating, she enrolled on a course at CM, which had a music production and business course in partnership with the University of Westminster, and moved to a warehouse in Hackney Wick next to a glass factory, which she initially paid for using a part-time job in Wetherspoons. at which she found herself working with V Recordings and mentored by DJ Flight herself. both were nods to her videography, and the latter was named after a move by her stepfather's favourite skater. and by May 2023, the song had been streamed over 7,000,000 times. The success of the song enabled Hunt to drop out of her course. In April 2021, she released the single "Headz Gone West", followed by an EP of the same name, both of which took their title from her poor mental health during lockdown; She then released "18 & Over", which sampled Cocoa Tea's "Young Lover", alongside a video that referenced Babylon and The Harder They Come and was directed by Taliable, the production alias of Talia Beale; in a March 2022 interview with Dazed, she noted that she picked the sample after hearing discovering her stepfather's SoundCloud account and finding it on there. which was released alongside a music video, and the following month she released the EP Forbidden Feelingz, which included "Forbidden Feelingz", "18 & Over", and "Luv Like".

2022–2023: MOBO Award and Sunrise Bang Ur Head Against The Wall In April 2022, she published a handwritten open letter to the MOBO Awards to introduce an Electronic/Dance category, on the grounds that the last such act to win an award was Goldie, who had won for Timeless in 1996; the Nova Twins had put in a similar request the year before for a Rock/Alternative category, but had been unsuccessful. However, on this occasion, Hunt's request was entertained; working alongside the newly-formed Black Electronic Music Association, or Club BEMA, such a category was created for that year's ceremony, which was won by Hunt. She then collaborated with Watch the Ride on "Mash Up the Dance", and Clipz, Beenie Man, Cristale and ShaSimone on "No Time". In November 2022, she released "So Tell Me...", a song about her decision to leave home, She released a remix EP, Sunrise Bang Ur Head Against tha Wall (Remixes), that May.

In June, she supported Beyoncé on her Renaissance World Tour at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium; she told The Face in February 2024 that she had only discovered she would be performing there on the day, and that she had received "a lot" of abuse for playing jungle. Alexis Petridis noted in April 2024 that cameraphone footage for the gig indicated an audience looking like jungle was "the last thing they want to hear", but opined that her slot was indicative of her success. and a week after that she released a remix of Jorja Smith's "Little Things". In August 2023, she released "Bad Gyalz", a song about the women who attended her raves, and which featured vocals from MC Moose and production from Clipz and was accompanied by a video directed by Beale; she, Central Cee, and Kano then featured on a JD Sports Christmas advert, and she then released a remix of Fred Again's "Leavemealone".

2024–2025: Silence is Loud In January 2024, she released "Crowded Roomz", a combination of jungle and indie rock co-written and co-produced by Ethan P. Flynn and about her experience of being surrounded by people while touring but still feeling unable to be herself; its music video featured Maverick Sabre, and released its title track, an ode to her love for her brother. The album comprised her attempt at fusing jungle with Britpop, on the grounds that she had not heard the genre in dance music before. Silence is Loud was released on 12 April 2024, and featured "Silence is Loud", "Crowded Roomz", "Unfinished Business", the album charted at No. 16 on the UK Albums Chart and was nominated for that year's Mercury Prize.

2025–present: Up Ya Archives and Emotional Junglist Hunt revealed the creation of her new record label, Up Ya Archives, on 24 April 2025, with a focus on "everything new gen junglism" and debuting with her single "Get Loose" that same day in collaboration with Bristol artist Cheetah. She also started hosting the weekly Up Ya Archives radio program on NTS the following day.

She released her single "Danger" on 27 March 2026. On 29 April, she announced her second album Emotional Junglist and released the single "Boys in Blue". The album's third single, "Vertical" released on 4 June 2026. Emotional Junglist released on 17 July 2026. In an interview with the BBC in January 2023, she stated that she was inspired by Maya Angelou's conversion of pain into poetry; she first became interested in her via Liz's community school, would refer frequently to her memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings as a child,

Reviewing Forbidden Feelingz, Pitchfork described her voice as "indebted to the jazzy licks of Erykah Badu and Nina Simone", and with "a soulful lilt and lyrics from the sunnier sides of reggae music". and in September 2023, Clash described her as one of the leaders of the post-2020 drum and bass revival alongside Venbee, Charlotte Plank, and Piri, Additionally, Alexis Petridis used a Silence is Loud review to observe that Hunt occupied a "roughly equivalent" position to Goldie, a 1990s jungle musician, describing both as a "striking, charismatic figurehead for a genre traditionally lacking in striking, charismatic figures", and that on Silence is Loud, Hunt was "unafraid to tether her breakbeats to a pounding four-to-the-floor kick drum, a move that would have been absolutely verboten in 90s jungle"; he also noted that Forbidden Feelingz and Sunrise Bang Ur Head Against tha Wall posited Hunt as a "weightier counterpoint" to the works of PinkPantheress.

Discography Studio albums +List of albums, with selected details Title Album details Peak chart positions UK UKDance Released: 12 May 2023 Format: Streaming, digital download, LP Label: Hijinxx — "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory.

Singles Title Year Peak chart positions Certifications Album/EP UKDance "Sober Feels" 2020 — — — Headz Gone West "Don't Kid Urself" Forbidden Feelingz "18 & Over" BBC Sound of... 2023 BBC Sound of 2023 Brit Awards 2023 Rising Star DJ Mag 2022 Best Breakthrough DJ Mercury Prize 2024 Best Album Silence Is Loud MOBO Awards 2022 Best Newcomer Nia Archives Best Dance/Electronic Act 2023 NME Awards 2022 Best Producer UK Music Video Awards 2024 Best Colour Grading in a Video – Newcomer "Unfinished Business"