Marcus Norris Wins Prestigious UCLA Cota-Robles Fellowship

I’m excited to officially share with my family and friends that I’ve been awarded a full-ride scholarship and a $100,000 fellowship to move to Los Angeles and write music, earning my PHD in music composition at UCLA. Subsequently, this year I will be starting a production company and record label, releasing the first song from my Orchestral/R&B/Neo-Soul fusion project featuring Justin Ruff and dozens of other incredible musicians, which you’ll hear about soon.

I’ve been reflecting a lot, and I wanted to share this picture of 13-year-old me, because this is when I first started making music. My uncles Nate & Dre gave me a cracked version of “Fruity Loops 3” that I put on an old computer I Frankensteined together. I would click in the melodies with an old mouse because we couldn’t afford a keyboard. Ever since then I’ve dreamt of making music in L.A. I’m 25 now and have been obsessively focused on the same thing for legitimately half of my life.

I just want to thank everyone who actually believed this kid when he said he would be great, even when he was just a nappy-headed boy on the south side. Or when I was in that trailer on the east side with no running water, laying on the floor making beats, telling myself I wasn’t going to be there forever. You did it, kid. 🙏🏽 It doesn’t always feel like it, but God has a plan, and the universe has a trajectory when you’re working towards your personal legend. I am the master of my own destiny. #MambaMentality #BlackBoyJoy

P.S. I have to be the first person in history to wear Kobe Crazy 8 shoes to his doctoral interview. lol