We recently connected with Roy Covington and have shared our conversation below.

Roy, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s jump back to the first dollar you earned as a creative? What can you share with us about how it happened?

I have created music since late 2008, but got distracted along the way. I finally decided to stop allowing the distractions to take hold and told myself, “This is it! My ‘Plan A’ has always been music & entertainment and I needed to stop treating it like a backup plan.” I released a single named “Heard You Was A Freak” in December 2019 because a friend heard it and told me it should be out. From there, I fully dove into my music trying to discover what I wanted to create. Now I didn’t know how payment really worked at that time, but now I do. When I got that first fifty cents from streaming, you couldn’t tell me ANYTHING! My entire mindset changed. I became a professional artist! Ecstatic isn’t even an accurate word to describe how I was feeling.

Roy, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I began singing at age 6 and played piano for a little while starting around 12. I used to listen to Dru Hill, Blackstreet, Destiny’s Child, Usher, and so many other artists in the backseat of my parents car. Fantasizing on this dream of being an artist, I went to Chowan University for Music in 2008. Some financial error ensued which lead me to join the Marine Corps in 2010. I was given a nickname, CovNasty, which became my handle for all my social media and soon became my artist name. While in the Marines, I attempted at releasing music. I’ll be the first to tell you that I was not trying hard enough. The resources were there but my work ethic was not. Soon after, I began to transition from the military to civilian life and decided to change my artist name from “CovNasty” to my legal name. It’s easier. “Hi, my name is Roy and I make music,” is so much easier to say that “CovNasty” and then having to explain why that name. The Marine Corps is part of who I am but not my sole being and I did not want my music to reflect that. I realized that even thought I can rap, it does not mean that I should. It doesn’t bring the same type of joy that singing does for me. So after releasing roughly 37 singles in a year and a half, I took a majority of the songs down to really hone in on my R&B/Soul style songs. My music is inspired by quite literally my life. A lot of my music is slow and sensual or very heartbreak driven. Lately, I’ve been creating a lot of [unreleased] music that focuses are the leading up to the intimate scenes.

How did you build your audience on social media?

My social media presence was brought forth by TikTok, honestly. During the pandemic, I started making music heavily and my break from that was making TikToks. I created a few viral sounds, the most prevalent being “Share my Sh*t” audio that was used across many social media platforms. <https://www.tiktok.com/@roycovington_/video/6932520943629667589?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7445816512449496607> From there, I began to make a video segment called “Reason Why You Shouldn’t Date Me.” These were comedic, short-form videos from where I would share a reason you SHOULD date me and displayed any variation of listerine bottles. Some of the followers from TikTok came over to Instagram, but a vast majority of them stayed there. For those that are trying to build a presence online need to remember that comparison is the thief of joy. Be yourself. If everyone was meant to have your vision, you’d be the only one with eyes.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

I think that just being able to create art is the most rewarding part. I’m doing this for 8 year old me. I knew then that I wanted to make music for a living.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://unitedmasters.com/a/roycovington
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/roycovington_
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RoyCovingtonIII/
• Twitter: https://x.com/roycovington_
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@RoyCovington
• Other: BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/roycovington.bsky.social

Image Credits
Dario https://www.instagram.com/d.vision_/