>>Who is Nathaniel Star?

I'm a father, first and foremost.

I'm a husband.

An artist.

I'm just, I'm just a human.

I'm just a guy, who loves to create.

♪ I know it's crazy ♪ ♪ But I love to see you walk away ♪ ♪ Not that you're leaving ♪ ♪ But the way your body looks heavenly ♪ Music, music is I mean, it's everything, right?

I mean, music is everywhere.

And what it means to me personally, I, you know, I don't think that I could live without music to be honest with you.

I think that if I didn't create, I'd probably die.

I have to make music.

I think it's as essential to me as breathing is.

My earliest music, of course, was singing with, with my family, with my mother, with my sister around the house.

My mother's the queen.

My mother, my mother is the reason that, um, she's the reason.

I could almost just stop it there.

My mom is the reason.

My mom is, is, is the, is undoubtedly my introduction to music.

She's my introduction to, to heartfelt everything.

Is everything good that I possess, that's my mom.

I'm a Charlottesville baby.

South 1st Street Housing project baby.

We moved from there to Monticello Avenue.

So, Belmont.

I lived all over.

I lived all over.

But one of the constants was the Music Resource Center.

♪ Hold on this might be your first ♪ ♪ Chorus so tough, it don't need a verse ♪ ♪ Beat so sick, it might need a nurse ♪ ♪ And I'm about to kill it ♪ ♪ Bring me the hearse ♪ ♪ I don't need to curse ♪ It's like a haven for any, for any of the youth that are trying to create music and have an avenue and an outlet for those talents or those gifts they may possess.

So, there's been a marriage throughout my, throughout my life with this place.

♪ Didn't I ♪ ♪ Didn't I ♪ ♪ Didn't I ♪ ♪ Show you ♪ I had no idea that I was even being considered on the radar from anybody at UVA.

When Amy reached out to me and told me that she was interested and licensed in my music, I wondered how she even heard of me in the first place.

>>I discovered Nathaniel when I first moved to Charlottesville.

And there was an article talking about this wonderful rap artist who happened to work at UVA.

And so I went to his site, I listened to his albums and quite simply, I just really loved his work.

It was so creative, it was so interesting and it spans across so many genres.

♪ I just wanna see you smile ♪ ♪ Make it go from ear to ear ♪ ♪ Baby, shine your light on the world ♪ ♪ You traveled just to meet me here ♪ >>So I make a little bit of everything.

I make singer/song writer music, I rap.

I make some rock music, jazz, blues, country.

Like, I make, I pretty much make everything that I like.

>>I wanted to collect it for the library.

You know, we do this all the time.

We come across interesting music, music that is within our collecting scope.

And in this case, it was very much within our scope because rap is something we do at UVA.

We have a rap artist who teaches in the music department and we've been trying to strengthen that area of our collections so that our teachers and researchers and students can access it.

So this project is very special, even on a national level.

It was the first time we have purchased anything like this, a digital download directly from a creator.

We had to create the license in order to be able to do this.

And we are one of the few universities, in the United States, who have been able to do anything like this.

I recently went to a music librarian's conference and the librarians were quite excited.

>>This is a high honor.

Like, we don't have many first left with, with anything.

So to be the first local artist to have their music licensed and archived at the university, as part of academia.

I remember she saying to me, she said, "As long as the university exists, your music will be a part of it."

And that's when I kind of understood exactly how big of a deal it was.

>>So when we created this agreement, we put very clearly in writing that we would maintain the files in perpetuity.

So in other words, when Nathaniel sold his work to us, we purchased the download and now we are going to keep that file forever.

Because in our mind, we want somebody in a hundred years, who wants to do research on music that was happening in Charlottesville in 2023, they will be able to access their files.

And secondly, and most importantly, I think, we wanted to provide protection to the artist so that when they sell their downloads to us, we download the file and we only allow access to our patrons who have sign on privileges.

So that they can stream the files.

They cannot download the files.

>>One of the favorite albums that I've released.

It's like which of my children is the favorite?

I don't know.

I like 'em for different reasons.

Eros is a wonderful album, I think.

♪ Then the way you turn and look at me ♪ ♪ When you look at me ♪ ♪ The way you look at me ♪ ♪ I unravel daily ♪ Well, obviously, it's talking about love.

And I think when I released it, it was, it was around the anniversary, I think of, of the summer of hate that we had here, in Charlottesville.

So, I kind of timed that purposefully.

I wanted to like infuse some love back into the situation.

Like Charlottesville was in the, in the newspapers, and in the news for all the wrong reasons.

And I felt like we just needed like, some love.

So, also album called El Negro.

When I originally put that out, I put it out on Black History Month.

It was 29 songs.

It was a leap year, that year.

So I wanted a song for every day of the month.

I tried to cover every aspect of Black Life on that album.

Yeah, the Family Matters album was, that's special for a whole different reason.

Like, that album has my children on it.

♪ I love you Daddy ♪ ♪ See I ♪ ♪ Just want ♪ ♪ I just want to give you the world ♪ ♪ Forever and ever ♪ That's my oldest and my middle child are there on that album and I'm just talking about them and my life and my wife and my brother and my sister, my mom.

Like that album is personal.

So these past three years, I've made, I've created 17 albums, the past three years.

Just in that window.

Different genres.

I'll be releasing a lot of 'em, a lot of 'em soon.

And someone asked me like, "Yo man, what is it?

Was it the pandemic?"

But I've always created music like that.

Like, I usually start with some production that, that the other half of my production team, Vintage has created.

We form a production group called, "Ubuntu Sounds".

>>Creative works, songs are usually a reflection of what is going on culturally and socially.

The fact that Nathaniel is a native Charlottesvillian, is also really important.

It's important to our collections.

And I believe that academic libraries are beholden to the communities that they're in.

And not just the university, but, you know, we live here, we work here, and we interact with these artists.

And so, we should be collecting their work.

♪ I'm from VA, a Southern gentleman ♪ ♪ Virginia's for lovers ♪ ♪ We still open doors ♪ ♪ Still walk close to the street ♪ ♪ Still take my hat off when we meet ♪ ♪ Still stand up ♪ >>I never would've thought that, you know, the little boy from South 1st Street was gonna have his music archived up there.

This-- at this, at this place.

And, here we sit.

You know, it's, I'm humble, that's for sure.

It's something that I can tell my children and that their children can show their children.

And, so it means a lot.

You know, my roots are here anyway.

But my roots will forever be planted in something that's not going anywhere.

My-- like my old neighborhood could have a wrecking ball swung through it, but nobody's getting rid of the University of Virginia, right?

So, it means that at, at least, that part of of my music, will live forever which is, I think, something that every artist wants.

♪ How long ♪ ♪ Tears run down my face ♪ ♪ Drop to my knees ♪ ♪ And I pray ♪ ♪ How long ♪ (upbeat jazz music) (upbeat jazz music)