Today we’d like to introduce you to Nathaniel Courtney.
Nathaniel, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I started writing my own raps around the age of 12. I was so passionate even from an early age that my mother immediately bought me my first recording set up, and I haven’t stopped since. Music has always been, to me, the heartbeat of the world. The emotions that it can make you feel has always resonated with me, and so that is immediately something that I wanted to be apart of. I kept making music through my teenage years, and when I turned 16 I started doing paid gigs for the first time. My very first performance was a train wreck, as usual, but it fueled me to want more. I was just a nerdy white kid from the suburbs and in that moment the hip hop community saw that and still embraced me and every cringey thing that came out of my mouth. I then knew that I had a place making music, no matter how ridiculous my music was at the time. I continued pushing, and even got some pretty big opportunities in that time opening for artists that I looked up to in the DFW scene. As I grew, and as time went on, I dove head first into some substances that then caused me to fall fully into the cycles of addiction. Music slowly fell to the wayside, and every day became about my next use. The passion I once had was gone, and I lost everything that mattered to me for about 6 years. In 2023, my brother, Jordan, (also known as Ominyra) took me to my first rave while I was living with him after getting out of a rehab facility. We saw Yookie open for Sullivan King that night, and I heard everything I loved about trap music now fully immersed with this genre that I had always thought wasn’t my forte. From that point, I dove head first, and felt like a kid again with my new discovery. I went back into addiction for about a year after that, but the one thing that kept inspiring me to clean up my act was the edm scene. I started making new friends and connections that truly made me feel like life was worth living. Once I decided to get clean, I also decided this is the kind of music I wanted to make. I want to give back. I want to share all the emotions I feel in life through this music the way these artists I listen to have done for me. Whether it be a flip of an old rap song for nostalgia, or lyrics about my addiction to help inspire others, or a song about heartbreak to let people know that everyone feels it, I just want to leave my mark. So again, full circle, my mother buys me my first controller, an FLX 4, and I get straight to work. I played my first show alongside my brother Ominyra at “Rave With Pride 2025” hosted by Eris Co. I got to meet likeminded individuals who were also connected to me through our shared LGBTQ+ experiences. A few weeks later, Eris Co asked me to join, and it’s been nothing but love and success with them ever since. I HAVE to give a shout out to Nex6 and CompanyKept for welcoming me with open arms and becoming some of the best friends in this industry anyone could ask for! My brother and I named our little b2b project “Omnismoke” a combination of our two names, and decided to make original collabs to play live when we do b2b. We got our hands on the project file for AK47 by Ozztin, and decided to flip it. That flip really started getting traction and getting our name out there. We then opened for Hesh with a crowd of 500 people and sold 50 tickets ourselves less than 3 months after my first show as a DJ, and not just a rapper. I felt something was lacking though, and decided I wanted to start rapping over my production as well. My production was still growing, and I heard of a kid named Lushreds needing a vocalist, specifically a rapper, for a song he had in the works. Mutual friends got us connected, and I wrote the track in probably 30 minutes. Recorded it the next day and sent it out to him to have mastered. It was complete with a second drop and everything within 48 hours of speaking to each other the first time. Fast forward almost a year later and that song now has over 75 thousand streams across all music platforms. I have gotten to open for some of my idols in this scene already, and for that I am so blessed. Without people like Lush and Company taking a chance on me, without the battles through my addiction, without the support of my family, I would not be doing this today. It has been a crazy first year, and I can’t wait to see what the rest of this life has in store for me if this is what I have accomplished in this small amount of time.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I have fought with addiction since I can remember. The one thing that has ever been able to separate me from my music and my passion has always been opiates and Benzo’s. From the age of 14 I started experimenting with very hard substances, and it took control of my life for a very long time. When you use substances to cope, it makes living without those substances very difficult, especially when you go through trials in life. There have been lots of trials lately with being a starving edm artist primarily focused on sharing my art with the world, and one thing I can say I am proud of is the fact that I haven’t gone back. The community and the blessings I have now through music make it to where no substance could ever get in the way of that again. I refuse to go back.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I make mostly 140 bass music, a sub genre under the umbrella of dubstep. I do tend to slow it down from time to time and go into a more deep dub or trap vibe when possible, and I think that’s what sets me apart from other artists. I try my best to fuse together multiple genre’s at a time. I want everyone to experience what I experience at raves when they are watching my sets. At the moment I am most known for my raps that I have done in collaboration with other dubstep producers including my tracks “Why You Lookin Mad” with Lushreds, “Worldwide Steppin” with Insison, and Price Tag$ with local producer Fang Shui. I rap all of these songs in my live dj sets, really trying to stand out from other dis around me. I try to mix while actively rapping verses and try my best to do intricate transitions within those vocal performances. I also am pretty known for the last 6 months for calling out negative behavior within our scene. A lot of promoters use local artists to make their lineups pop, without showing appreciation to said local artists. I have exposed this with a few promoters within our scene, and with that have lost quite a few opportunities, but the feedback I get from other local creators like myself is that they are glad someone is speaking up because for so long many have been afraid to out of fear of losing opportunities, and it turns out they weren’t wrong. I also want to make sure raving stays a safe space for women, POC, and the LGBTQ+ community as it always has been, and with that also comes the responsibility of calling out those in our scene who make it the opposite. Again, doing what others typically are scared to do in order to make sure everyone involved get’s the respect and safety they deserve.
What matters most to you?
What matters most to me is community. Community is what has always pulled me back from the brink of self destruction. No matter what I am going through I know I can call on those closest to me to help me be okay. I truly believe that it takes a village. Going through life alone, for me, just isn’t sustainable.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://Instagram.com/sativamane
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sativamaneofficial
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@sativamaneofficial
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/sativamaneofficial
