Nico Segal

Chicago trumpeter and producer Nico Segal thrives at the intersection of jazz, R&B and hip-hop. As a core member of The Social Experiment alongside Peter Cottontale, Nate Fox and Chance the Rapper, Segal contributed to Chance’s acclaimed mixtapes 10 Day and Acid Rap. Following their collaboration on Chance's Social Experiment Tour, the group released a series of singles in 2014, followed by their 2015 debut album, Surf. Issued under the name Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment, Surf featured the single “Sunday Candy”, which reached No. 21 on Billboard’s Hot R&B Songs chart. After Donald Trump's election in 2016, Segal retired the Donnie Trumpet moniker, opting to use his birth name. That same year, The Social Experiment played a key role in producing Chance the Rapper's groundbreaking Coloring Book, the first streaming-only album to chart on the Billboard 200 and win a Grammy for Best Rap Album. Beyond his work with The Social Experiment, Segal co-founded the jazz collective The JuJu Exchange with Julian Davis Reid and Nova Zaii, blending improvisational jazz with sleek beats on projects like 2017’s Exchange and 2023’s JazzRx.