“Good sex and a big joint. I felt amazing.”
This is how alternative hip-hop artist nullza remembers the day she finished walkthrough. After spending a full year working on it, the project became much more than just another album. It marked her return to hip-hop after a ten-year hiatus.
But this comeback was anything but accidental.
Nullza says that in the months leading up to the album’s release, she relied more on planning than on emotion.
“Because I’d been preparing for this for so long, I stayed calm and collected. I was simply focused on doing what I had to do and finishing the plan I’d made for myself.”
Still, returning to hip-hop carried a deeper emotional weight.
“I’ve been connected to hip-hop since childhood, so coming back gave me this feeling of, I did it.“
A world built over the course of a year
Creating walkthrough took exactly one year. But for nullza, that year was about much more than making music—it was also another chapter in her life as a migrant.
“For the past five years, everything I’ve created has happened while living through migration.”
According to her, being a migrant shapes not only everyday life but also artistic practice. Living away from home, constantly moving, and trying to find your place in a new environment inevitably changes the way you create.
“I’ve always been interested in the work of migrant artists. Making art as a migrant places you inside a very specific experience. And that experience comes with plenty of challenges.”
Every track is a new mission
The album’s title was chosen with intention.
In video games, a walkthrough is a guide that leads players from one mission to the next. Nullza built the entire album around that same idea.
“The album is conceptual. Its main storyline follows a video game character completing different missions. That’s why walkthrough felt like the perfect title—it ties the whole concept together.”
For that reason, she emphasizes that the album’s track order is essential. While she prefers not to reveal all the details behind the story, she encourages listeners to pay close attention to the skits, listen to the tracks in sequence, and notice the hidden details woven throughout.
“I think people should experience it for themselves.”
“There was no nullza before”
Nullza describes walkthrough as the strongest comeback of her career. Interestingly, when asked to compare who she was before with who she is now, she takes the conversation in an entirely different direction.
“There was no nullza before.”
Then she adds:
“Now I’m completely myself—and honestly, I think I’m awesome exactly as I am.”
That confidence was present throughout the recording process. She says that despite not having stepped into a recording studio for fifteen years, standing behind the microphone felt completely natural.
“When I walked out of the recording booth, I realized it had been fifteen years since I’d last recorded. Thankfully, I hadn’t forgotten a thing.”
Not the Berlin sound
Although she has spent the past several years living in Berlin, nullza doesn’t believe her music should be defined by the city.
“My sound has nothing to do with Berlin.”
She explains that her music is shaped far more by her personal experiences, the traditions of American hip-hop, and the love for the genre she’s carried since childhood.
At the same time, she acknowledges that the atmosphere of the city inevitably found its way into the album.
“Berlin winters are brutally heavy. You can hear that weight in the tracks I wrote during winter.”
In fact, the track “Public Transportation Stories” was written almost entirely during a roughly fifty-minute ride on Berlin’s U3 subway line.
An artist—before anything else
Nullza is one of the visible trans and queer artists emerging from the South Caucasus. Yet she chooses not to define herself primarily through those identities.
“I don’t introduce myself as a trans artist. I’m simply an artist.”
She explains that while her lived experiences naturally inform her music, she doesn’t want those experiences to become the defining label attached to her work.
“I’m talking about much broader issues. My identity is present in my music, but in ways that aren’t immediately obvious.”
Who is the album for?
For nullza, walkthrough wasn’t created with one specific audience in mind.
“For everyone who’s had to find their way through life and faced injustice.”
She believes that anyone who finds themselves reflected in the music is already part of that audience.
As for what she hopes listeners take away from the album, her wish is simple.
“I just want people to sit down and think about what they’re doing with their lives—and what they could have done.”
Perhaps that’s the true mission of walkthrough. Each track isn’t simply about completing another level; it’s about confronting your own path. For nullza, the album marks a return to hip-hop after a decade away. For listeners, it may become an invitation to look at their own lives from a different perspective.
