We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Nile Flame a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Nile, thanks for joining us today. What’s the kindest thing anyone has ever done for you?
It’s 2016 And I’m a year into my contemplation of giving up on being an artist after me and my brother group split up. I had decided that the last thing I could do before giving up completely was change my environment. So I had decided to move to Florida. One day after work I meet a guy on the Marta train rail system. He had a camera around his neck which sparked creative conversation. In conversation we both discovered we went to high school in Rockdale county. Second smallest county in the state of Georgia. I eventually tell him about my last camera and how it got stolen from me. He knew my pain because he too had lost his camera at a house party and gracefully it was still where he left it. Having found the camera he lost he proceeded to ask if I knew 6lack the artist and reveal that he was his personal photographer at the time. The camera around his neck was one that 6lacks’ team gave to him so he could continue to do his work, but now that he found his he didn’t need it anymore and gave it to me right there on the train. I have had that camera til this day and it’s helped be in more ways than one. This is top 3 of most kindest things anyone has ever done for me and I cherish the camera and that day dearly. It solidified my decision to move to Florida and keep being a creative and I haven’t looked back since.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My father a South Carolina man was a pharmacist and artist in Philly. He got his associates in Art and dropped out because he has a lung disease. My father met my mother when she was 19 in Georgia at a church conference in 1990. She is a singer and ultimately dropped out of high school due to sickle cell and being pregnant with me. While pregnant with me she got her GED, had me in Philly and then pursued her religious music career. We lived in Philly for a year then moved to Georgia where my brother and sister were born, then moved to South Carolina where my parents eventually separated and my mother went back to Georgia with my sister. In 2003 I took up violin and would’ve kept up with it if I stayed with my pops. In 2004 my pops finished his teachings to me of how to be a “man” using Jew customs, so I thought everything would be okay when I went to live with my mother full time whom was on partial disability, so me and my siblings could be together. I got my first job at 14 as a bust-boy at a restaurant called Crescent Moon in Tucker, GA. At the same time I begin holding a camera and playing piano in different churches as well and did this until 2008. At 17 I wrote my first business plan for a t-shirt company my family started. Around the same time my brother and I formed a musical group called Majestic Bohemians. We lived in various houses and in between the different houses we stayed at motels. Very nomadic like. My mother’s disability was never enough money to keep a place and lack of financial discipline in the house made it so things didn’t get paid and other times we got scammed or taking advantage of. My mother is a risk taker and always was interested in business. This lead to many unpleasant circumstances due to her choices. All the while I studied business and I studied music. I attended Georgia Perimeter College for music as well as Full sail for audio production and though I didn’t finish I expanded my network and learned what I needed to learn for what I paid. I also attended cosmetology school at Georgia Career Institute in Conyers, GA. All this education and independent education from YouTube, Google, and from reading books taught me well enough that I knew I could take Majestic Bohemians to new levels one day. Works I’m also proud of is Phoenix League by Kwami Sage. I mixed and mastered the entire project for him. He’s worked with Artist like Trippy Redd and been signed to Sony. I felt things were going well, but In 2015 my brother surprised me by telling me he wanted us to go our separate ways. So we did gracefully and from there I turned all my skills I developed for Majestic Bohemians to save us cost and help us remain independent into my business Bohemia Studios and begin offering my skills to others. My first client was a mixing client in 2016. You can still here the song “Cap A*** Ni**a” I mixed in the samples on my website at bohemiastudios.xyz. I have better quality sound recordings and works, but keep that one there as a reminder of how far I’ve come and show the timeline of the business. I didn’t know if I wanted to be an artist anymore, but I knew I wanted to be in the music business. So in 2017 I made a decision to move to Florida with my business and dreams and start over from scratch. I had several mixing clients here from all over the world and used the camera I got from the stranger on Marta rail system to make money. I also released my first solo project NWYE(Not What You Expected). It got great feedback from my peers and network I created and now has 43,543 streams on Spotify as of this interview. I recorded it in Daytona Beach of various studios and it’s beats are by Makaih Beats. I took his beat tape and made an album out of it. Using low quality speakers and always changing environments I mixed and mastered it myself. Did the artwork myself. And market and promoted it myself. These are now also services I offer at the higher quality and best environments in Altamonte Springs, FL in partnership with Innerspace Orlando and through my business Bohemia Studios. 2018 until now I’ve built a community. We’re Majestic Gang. Supreme beings living in our original purpose. Our first experiment “The Collaboration Project” is active and our first event ever Studio “POP UP” is happening soon as well in 2023. Learn more about Majestic Gang at majesticgang.com. I’m Nile Flame an artist and business developer, but more than that I am an example of what it looks like to be yourself to every fiber of ur existence without influences changing ur core and still living a life you can be happy and satisfied with at a level of success you respect. 2022 I interned for Innerspace Orlando and now their one of my biggest supporters. They’re a full production audio and video studio and venue. It is here you’ll see a lot of me, my events and where Majestic Gang will be raised up. To learn more about me Nile Flame visit nileflame.net and I look forward to exchanging energy with you ur majesty. Peace and abundance to you forever.
Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?
2 books and 1 video changed a lot for me. Book 1 is the Science of Self Realization. About the religion of krishna written in the format of different interviews that the founder of Krishna has with many leaders all over the world.
Book 2. Free Inside and Out. I read this while I’m Rockdale County Jail. It’s written by 2 Caucasian Christian women speaking on their experiences that freed their mind which then gave them freedom of choices to design their life.
And #1 video that’s drastically helped me. I listened to this for a year straight and nothing else in 2015 while living in my car alone of those months. It is The Strangest Secret by Earl Knightingale.
Alright – so here’s a fun one. What do you think about NFTs?
NFTs are doing to the creative space what streaming did to radio or CDs did to tapes. It’s disrupting the industry. So get involved or don’t, but either way it’ll become a new norm and expectancy in every industry.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://majesticgang.com
- Instagram: http://instagram.com/hiphopyoda
Image Credits
MOD PJ DK Innerspace Orlando Nile Flame John Don