Today we’d like to introduce you to Nadir Jackson.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My story starts from I was a young child. I was always interested in the arts, technology, & architecture — From Nonstop high-level anime sketches to putting together Gundams. My passion for music was always there as well, I was rapping and writing raps since 11. It was blatantly obvious to me thats what I wanted to do.
Then High School happened – My life became consumed with basketball. 24/7. I was able to still sneak in outlets of creativity and music here and there but not fully. My high school basketball team was top 10 in the state every year so it was a pretty serious commitment. It was obvious that I wasn’t fully committed to the game and there was something else out there that was calling me even through the championships and mvps @ select camps. However throughout this time, I made some lifelong bonds with people who I now call family that I am fortunate enough to be building with to this day.
I went to prep school for basketball @ St Benedicts when a couple of future NBA players were there like Isaiah Brisco and Tyler Ennis. This is where It really became obvious to me that I wasn’t as interested in basketball as I was in music, or art, or something outside the lines of the 94 feet court. Halfway through the year, I walked away and it turned into a Gap Year for me. This is the start of me uncovering and connecting with my true self.
The summer before I went to college, I bought my first beat machine with the money I made from caddying – The MPC STUDIO – Kanye is one of my biggest inspirations so I started out chopping samples just like him. I had an older cousin, Mack Ru, who I look up to to this day who was heavy on that type of production style and was doing music with some of the artists from the SmackDvD circles. 2013 and 2014 summers, I would try to learn as much from him as possible so I would take the train to Brooklyn and sleep on his couch and make as many beats as possible.
I began to really love every second of creating music and developing sounds and it would seem right when I was getting better @ making music freshman year loomed in the balance. I wanted nothing to do with college and wanted to simply focus on music. School always bored me and was a distraction to actually developing the skills I needed to add the value to the world as I saw fit. I was met with an ultimatum from parental pressure: Go to college to live out someone else’s dream or Chase my own dreams of music but I’d have to find someplace else to live @ 19.
Unfortunately, I chose the former, I brought my music equipment with me to my dorm room. Almost got kicked out freshman year for “Noise Disturbances”, ehhh inaccurate complaints from an Extra Salty RA – wish her the best though – but it seemed I couldn’t really lock in on music with the constant papers, and tests, and assignments (NONE OF WHICH HAVE HELPED ME DO ANYTHING TO THIS DAY). I produced a lot of beats during this time, but I could have done more and made more tracks myself. Most of the outlets became partying and drinking. I wasn’t a real drinker or heavy bar/club goer but To have as much “fun” as I could, I would numb myself as much as possible and indulge with my friends. I was literally trading in my dreams for sh*tty college bars and house parties. Awful if you ask me.
Within College, I lead a group of creatives and put on the “Limbo Project” it was an art show for charity which featured eight artists of different mediums who are based in New Jersey. This project did really well and I can say it was the first time I took a risk on something I wanted to do and it made me realize I wasn’t even scratching the surface for what I was capable of doing.
The bright side of the college experience is I did meet some excellent people who I call my family to this day and also I was able to explore myself in a new setting removed from basketball. Which has served to be important.
After college, I got right to producing and making music. One of the songs I produced “1800” featured a custom denim jacket I made. My brother Taco had a friend who was in Paris @ the time who saw the jacket and invited me out to France to put on a show for Paris Fashion Week. It was another “great opportunity” but broke the current momentum of how I was getting after it with music. So I took the opportunity for Paris Fashion week but loaded up my hard drive with unlimited beats just in case I ran into any artist there. I was putting on my first fashion event the same time that Virgil was putting on his for Louis Vuitton. It feels I’m always connected to him because of that. I saw the way he did it his own way, on his own timeline, with his own people, and thats something that will always stick with me.
The Brand is called FXC Global and is centered around style for international travelers. The Show was a success but I wasn’t able to give my hard drives full of fire to anyone so in my mind, it was a bit of failure.
Once I returned from Paris, FXC began to grow in directions I never thought. It began getting a lot of buzz and press, investors came on, and things looked liked they were rolling.
Something that was supposed to be a one off was looking like it was growing into a full on career in fashion. This is not what I wanted at all. There was no fun, no joy, no excitement, every task dealing with fashion became a means to an end. I just wanted to make sure I was able to refund every cent I received from every investor because I am a man of my word and that exactly what I did after the 2019 NYFW show. My show was a success but I was still feeling empty inside. That same empty feeling I had after graduation. — Something that seems like a great milestone from the outside looking in, but I literally felt nothing at these “accomplishments” because my heart and mind was somewhere else
I was working at a 9-5 that I dreaded and was definitely horrendous for my mental health, and I had this ball and chain that was Fashion design I was attached to.
During 2019 summer, I was invited to participate in the StartUp Bus sponsored by. JP Morgan. A 3 Day hackathon competition where you have to come up with an app, form in teams and have some semblance of a working product to pitch to investors in the finals on the third day. At this time, I had no technical knowledge of coding but always a passion for tech and especially startups. This allowed me to finally dip my feet in the tech space and it has definitely impacted me to this day. And it’s why I’ve been able to look at artist as “startups” which have unlimited similarities – That insight will be the one of the reasons I will extremely successful.
The Covid 19 Pandemic has been one of the worst things I’ve witnessed in my lifetime that has transpired on my own soil, but in the same breath, it was the best thing that has ever happened to me.
During that time, I was able to most importantly delete parts of myself that don’t align with my goals and where I’m heading, allowed me to dig in with my music (FINALLY) from making my own singles and producing, to really sit with myself and learn myself even further, and able to dive into tech – specifically app development (Sports & Entertainment) and blockchain/crypto/NFTs.
Crypto/Blockchain/NFTs gets me so excited because once you really lift up the hood and understand them you really begin to understand the endless potential that they possess, society is changed forever, there is no axis in which you cannot build on the blockchain, and we’re not 2009 early but still early enough where its exciting watching and participating in new iterations, and new ideas in this space. This space has taken over my life in a good way, it’s the fastest moving space I’ve ever witnessed or been a part of and I love every second of it.
Artists especially, of any medium, should begin operating or familiarizing themselves with the true power of the blockchain infrastructure. Anything is possible on in the space right now and I can’t wait to show how I will facilitate the future using this technology.
I love taking risk, thats the only bridge to the future as humans we have. Those who take risks and those who inspire others to take risks and create change are the trailblazers. I’m a trailblazer.
The more I find my sound the more I find myself. They are one in the same. The courage to dig to uncover your authentic sound, those sonics which makes you unique, is the same as digging within yourself to uncover your true self, the one you can go to sleep knowing you didn’t comprise any part of yourself for anybody, and your just 100% you.
I didn’t realize how important environment was to success. I was being really stubborn thinking if I just stayed in my current situation out east, I would be able to unleash what I was seeking – success in music if I just worked harder. So, I made the decision to come out west and it has been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. You will only get back as much as you risk, and coming out here, I’m risking everything, but it doesn’t really feel like that because I love the hustle, and the grind and finding solutions and leaping over obstacles and really being forged in the fire for something I’m passionate about and that’s what I’m doing out here.
I know a couple of people out here already. One of them being my cousin Nick who I literally haven’t seen in over more than a decade. I’m super grateful for him. He makes the some of the craziest beats I’ve heard so effortlessly and has experience with the music business and has been like a Morpheus to my Neo in unlocking the best out of me. I’m recording faster and making better beats from just being around and working with him and it’s been less than two months.
Another big lesson I have learned is that you can’t do it by yourself and team is one of the most important things.
For investing and finances, I’ve been welcomed into an extraordinary team called HQ Capital. Its a group of a black men who range across different industries such as Law, Finances, Real Estate, Politics, Sports, Tech, and Entertainment, who operate to add immense amount of value to the world through investing and building within our own communities on every scale and across multiple sectors. It’s a blessing because everyone in the group is family, we’re constantly learning and constantly building.
Looking back, I realized that if I were to pursue music @ 19 – I wasn’t ready. I wasn’t unapologetically enough of myself and comfortable enough to stand on what I believed to sustain the success I was after.
Through the ups and downs, I realized that the people I have been fortunate enough to build relationships with are one of my biggest blessings.
I am ready to set LA on fire with Music and Blockchain.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
One of the biggest parts of myself that I had to delete to begin my journey was being unapologetically myself. Who cares what everyone is doing, or how they are getting it, or how they blew up or what made them successful, or publicly vocalizing beliefs on certain topics and standing on what I believe in. So many times what I knew to be true or future trends I saw from tech to culture to fashion, I would indulge in – maybe get made fun or looked at strangely and in the past I’d move off that belief only to see it get championed and celebrated years later. Since getting over that obstacle and being my true authentic self the world has started to open up and flow from me.
Another obstacle for myself was being stubborn in thinking I could out do my environment.
Long story short, I wasn’t in the ideal living conditions from a mental standpoint but I thought a ‘real man’ would just make this environment work no matter the circumstance. So to prove my “toughness” and “Manhood” I just tried to work so hard my environment didn’t matter. And that just ended up making me manic. I stopped seeing my friends for a while because I just had to “rise above” this environment when in actuality, I had to change my environment. In my mind, it felt like changing my environments to succeed was taking the “cowards” way out because it wasn’t “tough”. When in reality a real “man” would put his family and himself in the best environment to succeed no matter the circumstances. A good analogy that made me realize this was the NBA. No matter how great Lebron was his environment in Cleveland from 03-10 wasn’t conducive to him unlocking his full potential. Same thing with KD going to Golden State from the Thunder. Either the environment you’re in has to change or you have to change your environment. Thats what catapulted me to take the leap to LA. Also, realizing no matter how ‘hard’ you think you work, you’ll never be able to simulate your body’s response to being in a fight or flight situation. I enjoy being forged out of the fire.
Mental Health was an obstacle – but I’ve learned to use it as an asset by creating content around Mental Wellness hopefully inspiring others to ask for help or to see that there’s nothing wrong with needing to work on your mental health the same way people spend hours at the gym.
My last obstacle which Feels like a final boss battle is the ability to stay present in the moment. Of All my talents and skills, this seems to be the most difficult task for me. I’m always anxious about how I’m going to build and give value to the future or playing out mental movies of my past with how I should have acted or responded – all of this continues to steal some of the joy from each moment because I’m always thinking about the next or the previous. Replaying scenarios in my head and not being present always thinking about the next stems from me not doing what I wanted to do with my time in the past so now I have to make every second count and be perfect – which I learned is a fallacy. However, this way of thinking is responsible for a lot of anxiety but a lot of my “accomplishments” and work ethic because I know time is valuable. It’s a double edge sword I’m learning to balance.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I consider myself a Cultural Architect. Constantly trying to build new and innovative ways for people to experience life through Music, Experiences, Tech, or all three.
I’m a musician – I consider myself “genre neutral”. Sometimes, I’ll make a Dark Trap Record, a Pop record, some Alternative Rock Funk Mashup, really anything I’m feeling. There’s no rules to this and people should keep creating like that. People really vibe to my sonics which I’m so appreciative of. Makes me keep exploring my sound and inner self.
I’m also a producer, I’d compare my style of beats to Kanye, Timberland, and SouthSide – Those are my biggest producer influences. All my beats have a certain “bounce” no matter the tempo.
I love exploring different sounds and pushing the “boundaries” sonically via vocals or production.
I’m a DARK FANTASY Baby and you can definitely hear it in my sound.
I’m also a self-taught software developer. I learned coding specifically to build a software idea I had in regards to sports and entertainment. I began coding last year at the start of the pandemic and it was one of the best choices I’ve made.
I have fully dived into the blockchain/crypto/NFTs and it has been an amazing experience. NFT consulting and NFT portfolio management have been extremely exciting. It’s one of the most fast-moving and interesting spaces I’ve ever been a part of. I help onboard people to the blockchain and just break down certain concepts to them in my #OfficeHours. I am constantly being tapped for NFT projects but I limit the amount of them I’ll be a part of because its an intimate and community-based space so I want every team and project to have my best and undivided attention to build something game changing, powerful, and led by the community.
I encourage any artist of any medium or any founder of any business in any industry to incorporate blockchain technology into their business to maximize their current efforts and set themselves up to continue to give immense value to their community in the future.
I have a mental health project that started earlier this year called Project Abyss. It focuses on uncovering facts about mental health across the globe and peels back the layers of how men are experiencing and reacting to their current mental struggles or triumphs.
Regardless of the industry, I seek to make changes and add value.
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
BLOCKCHAIN BLOCKCHAIN BLOCKCHAIN
It is already shifting there currently, but we are still very early in this space. Artists will be able to crowdfund their albums or releases without the need for a label or reward their fans through different tokenomics being used or developed in the space.
Metaverse concerts are literally the beginning. Like we are barely scratching the surface of the true power of the blockchain and it’s going to take risk takers in the space to show everyone else what is possible.
Blockchain and NFTs in general are going to have a huge effect on every industry specifically with ownership of digital and physical assets. For example, Deeds to Houses will be bought and sold as NFTs which enable the home buyer/selling process to be Peer-To-Peer which will eliminate the middle man and increase efficiency of the process.
Another Huge concept which will take the forefront are DAOs which currently are being used as CrowdFunding on Steroids or an Internet VC firm.
Community Led investing will continue to explode as the internet has made people realize that there is someone else out there as passionate about a cause or topic as they are, and now through DAOs there is a trustless way to build with strangers. True Power.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: https://www.tiktok.com/@nadirjacksonx
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/n_a_y___/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/JacksonNadir
- Other: songwhip.com/nadirjackson/supernova
Image Credits:
Finesse Shots Andrew LA
