one of the best songs of the year by the app\u2019s editors.<\/a> \u201cIt\u2019s way busier of a song than I would ever really write now \u2026 it\u2019s not very indicative of the music that I was trying to make,\u201d He says. \u201cThere\u2019s so many chords in \u2018Hell of a Ride\u2019 that it pisses me off.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\tBrown\u2019s ability to transform a sophisticated song into an indie hit is a testament to his musical acumen. Despite growing up the son of a bass-playing dad and a mom with \u201creally good taste in music,\u201d his first encounter with the song-making bug was spurred after Michael Jackson\u2019s death in 2009. While watching the wall-to-wall music videos that played on TV, Brown remembers being enamored by a clip of Jackson performing \u201cBlack or White.\u201d\u00a0 But he wasn\u2019t moved solely by the King of Pop. \u201cI just saw Slash playing guitar, and I was like, \u2018Whoa, that looks awesome,\u2019\u201d Brown says of the former Guns N\u2019 Roses guitarist. \u201cI just kept going on YouTube. Then I found out who Jimi Hendrix was, and that was it.\u201d After his musical awakening, Brown immediately went down to his family\u2019s basement and began playing his dad\u2019s acoustic guitar in secret until a popped string blew his cover. \u201c[My dad] found the string pop, and he was like, \u2018Do you want to play guitar?\u2019 He took me to get a guitar, [and I] got some lessons. And then ever since, I haven\u2019t gone a day without playing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n \t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n
\n\tBefore Nourished By Time, the Berklee College of Music graduate published under two other music aliases. While in college, he often skipped class to work on his \u201cexperimental\u201d project under the name Riley with Fire. During a stint in Los Angeles, funded by checks he earned working a post-grad job at Barnes & Noble back home in Baltimore, he released music under the name Mother Marcus. \u201cI just never wanted to use my name. I always thought my name was boring as hell,\u201d Brown says. \u201cAlso, I just love coming up with names. I have a whole notes page full of names for like movies, albums, or if I want to get rid of Nourished By Time one day.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\tNourished by Time in New York, July 2025.<\/span><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAdali Schell for Rolling Stone<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\tBrown considers Riley with Fire his school for learning how to write and produce. Mother Marcus was his internal protest\u2014 he only released two songs under the moniker. \u201cI was very confused. I\u2019d lost a lot of confidence. I lost a lot of hope. I didn\u2019t really understand the streaming world, and so I just wasn\u2019t putting music out,\u201d Brown says. Though many of his projects live on streaming today, he says he\u2019s never come to peace with the business model but realized he needed a vessel for his work. \u201cI wasn\u2019t putting myself out there, and that was what was bothering me. I was stagnant. And to me, I owed myself more.\u201d His third and current pen name is evidence of him fulfilling that debt to himself. \u201cNourished By Time ate Mother Marcus and Riley with Fire and is just simpler and more efficient,\u201d he says. \u201cI know myself way more than I did in those other projects.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n \t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n
\n\tBrown says he\u2019s happy with Nourished By Time, currently. With the anticipation of his second album under the name, he has no intention of bringing the Nourished chapter to a close unless it competes with his ideologies.\u00a0 \u201cThe minute I feel like I can\u2019t say free Palestine or free Congo, I can\u2019t criticize the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, or even this streaming stuff,\u201d Brown says. \u201cOnly then will Nourished By Time be a memory. Name one socialist pop star \u2014\u00a0it doesn\u2019t exist. I can be a socialist rock star or something like that. But I can\u2019t be a socialist pop star.\u201d Brown forsees Nourished By Time going beyond just music, envisioning the project as a multimedia gateway leading into photography, video, and performance art. \u201cI\u2019m not in this business to be a multi-millionaire. I just want enough money that I can be comfortable, raise a family, buy a house, and start a business,\u201d he says with some of his main goals including creating a grocery store for Black communities or an app to encourage people to strike against capitalism. \u201ckind of like a GoFundMe for striking. Just because I feel like that\u2019s the biggest [deterrent from people going] on strike because they can\u2019t afford to.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tPassionate Ones <\/em>reflects Brown\u2019s outlook on our collective reality. Completely self-produced and self-written, songs like the single \u201c9 2 5\u201d include Brown\u2019s velvety voice as he paints a picture of the hamster wheel of living to work and working to live. \u201cBaby Baby\u201d compares the probability of bombings in Palestine to the probability of bombing malls in Baltimore in an \u201cit can happen to anyone anywhere\u201d sense. And \u201cIt\u2019s Time\u201d comes with a judgment day theme\u2014instead of choosing sin over redemption, Brown sings of the choice between the status quo and freedom from the systems or \u201cmasters\u201d of the world. The songs sound both futuristic and vintage, dark and light, yet simple, similar to the theme songs commissioned for children\u2019s programming on PBS.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n