Born and raised in Baltimore, Marcus Brown bounced around (he even lived in Los Angeles because he was watching too many David Lynch movies – R.I.P.) until, during the pandemic, he returned to his hometown to write, record and produce his debut album, Erotic Probiotic 2, a work (published by London’s Scenic Route in 2023) that would bring him fame and profit (from specialized critics like Pitchfork and The Guardian heaping praise on him to the reputable XL Recordings signing him).
Nourished By Time, the stage name that remained after others like Riley With Fire and Mother Marcus fell away, doesn’t cling tooth and nail to the 80s and 90s, but its cosmic-musical center comes from there. A super fan of SWV (his all-time favorite song is “Weak”) who graduated in Songwriting from the prestigious Berklee College of Music (an experience he hated, however, and which gave him the foundations to understand that good taste is as important, if not more important, than study). Placing himself between post-R&B and left-wing pop music (in his own words in both cases), the American singer, songwriter and producer is a strangely captivating figure who works on nostalgic sounds from the same angle as Mk.gee, another prodigy who is governed by the melodicism he manages to get out of the guitar, only he gives it gravity and distinguishes himself through his voice. Within the field of references and creators with similar appeal, Arthur Russell, Prince, David Bowie and Dean Blunt are other names that often come up in conversations about NBT, aesthetes of great pop sophistication who have always managed to inject uniqueness and some kind of mystery into their creations.
After Catching Chickens, an EP released in 2024, confirmed and amplified his potential to invent great anthems (“Hell of a Ride” confirms this), Marcus is preparing to unveil his second full-length, which already has a title, The Passionate Ones, and which will draw inspiration (according to statements published in an interview with Crack Magazine) from rap classics such as Kanye West’s The College Dropout and Jay-Z’s The Blueprint but also from Meatloaf and Ennio Morricone, not forgetting the aforementioned SWV or Jodeci. We can’t predict what we’re going to hear from this mix, but the tracks are exciting.
After managing to rise from a basement with a mind between a broken heart and an enormous desire to destroy capitalism, this songwriter – who sees himself as a sculptor of the invisible – just wants to invent what he really wanted to exist, be it a better world or music to dream and dance to that he hasn’t heard yet. He has plenty of passion and talent, he just needs time to nurture it. Alexandre Ribeiro.
