NEW MUSIC: ILLUMINATE - "WHERE HE'S BROUGHT ME FROM"
IllumiNate (Nathan Bartlett) was born Sep 25th 1981 in San Pablo, CA. and was raised a majority of his life in Richmond, CA. and the surrounding areas in the San Francisco Bay Area. His father David also a Richmond native was a drummer for the famous Funk & Soul group “Tower of Power” and became introduced to heroin through the music industry and battled with addiction for 27 years. His mother Catherine who was raised in San Francisco and East Oakland in foster homes, juvenile halls and children’s shelters also battled drug and alcohol addictions for a number of years. It was in this environment that young Nathan Bartlett was introduced to life.
God began to call on young Nathan in summer day camp at First Baptist Church in Richmond and in Youth Group at Valley Bible Church in Hercules by the time he was twelve. Yet it was at this same age that he was lured in by the world and lies of the enemy and felt compelled to join a gang and begin the dark journey into a world full of lies, deception, sin & darkness. Once having a chance to be a successful athlete in High school and get a college scholarship he instead chose to drink, smoke, party, & rebel. These decisions led him to repeated incarceration in juvenile hall. It was during this troubled time that he began rapping and recorded his first secular release at seventeen years old.
Soon after trauma hit the life of Nathan at eighteen when his father was found in a motel room overdosed on heroin. Broken and lost he was invited by his aunt and cousin to Victory Outreach in Richmond CA. It was there that he surrendered his life to Christ and eight months later backslid worse than ever into a life of sin. He got involved deeper into the music industry, dealing drugs, gangbanging, drug use, violence and even pimping. Nathan became addicted to powder cocaine, alcohol, & ultimately sin until August 19, 2009. That day Nate was in Hayward CA. in his prostitute’s living room when he saw a skit on the internet titled ‘Everything’ by Life house. As he watched that skit his heart literally broke. The Holy Spirit invaded that apartment and Nathan began to weep in the presence of God, lifted up his hands to the Lord and Surrendered saying “Lord I can’t do this no more without you”. It had been nine and a half years since he had backslid and he knew this moment was a life or death decision. He had been seeing 666 on license plates over ten times a day while driving for 2 weeks now and knew the Lord was calling him, so without any hesitation Nathan Bartlett chose life and rededicated his life whole heartedly to Jesus Christ.
“WHERE HE’S BROUGHT ME FROM” Where He’s Brought Me From (Mastered
