NGHTMRE has teamed up with Jordin Sparks for a full drum & bass overhaul of “No Air,” her Grammy-nominated 2008 hit. The rework is out now via NGHTMRE and SLANDER’s Gud Vibrations label.
The collaboration traces back to a chance connection rather than a planned studio session. NGHTMRE had already been developing the rework for months when the original demo landed with Sparks, who recorded her vocals and sent it back within days. The producer later described hearing her voice on the track for the first time as an unforgettable moment. Notably, this version leaves out Chris Brown’s vocals from the 2008 original, with Sparks’ voice carrying the song solo over shimmering synths and a bright, bubbly drum & bass groove.
The pairing first went public three months ago, when Sparks made a surprise appearance during NGHTMRE’s ILLfest set and previewed the track live with him on stage. Clips from that moment spread fast, racking up more than 20 million views across social platforms. According to NGHTMRE, Sparks had fielded interest in reworking “No Air” from plenty of artists over the years, but this was the first version that actually felt right to her.
The original “No Air” remains a career-defining record for Sparks — more than 688 million streams, a No. 3 peak on the Billboard Hot 100, a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals, and MTV VMA nods for Best New Artist and Best Female Video. Jordin Sparks broke through as the youngest winner in American Idol history at 17, going on to collect an NAACP Image Award, a BET Award, an American Music Award, and a People’s Choice Award along the way.
NGHTMRE, meanwhile, has spent the past decade shaping dance music’s evolution across bass, hip-hop, and festival-scale sounds. This release follows his recent label single “Computah,” which pulled in nearly 280,000 streams in under a month. He’s got a packed run of dates ahead, including festival stops at Nocturnal Wonderland, Lost Lands, Breakaway, Bass Canyon, Wobbleland, Global Dance Festival, Unity Electro, High Stakes, and 808 Festival, plus headline shows at SILO, DPRTMENT, and Revel. He’s also joining SLANDER’s The Voyager Tour as a special guest at The Armory.
