The Cult of NatureBoy

Who are you?

Angels of the most high,

divine angels of light.

Who am I?

The honorable master teacher, Natureboy,

commander in chief of the Earth plane,

my higher cell.

Who am I?

Queen Eliana, commander in chief

of the Earth plane, my higher cell.

If you want to know what I've been doing

for the last four years, I was in a cult, man.

- In 2017, there was a lot of Caucasian male

killing a lot of Black people.

A lot of Black people seemed to be dying

all the time at the hands of people

that were supposed to be protecting us.

- You know this is not how life's supposed to be.

Get to the sun.

Natureboy definitely made it seem like

what he had for the Black community was a utopia.

We are Melanation.

We are here to show you who you are.

The end-all, be-all solution

for every single Black person in the world.

- Known as Natureboy. - Natureboy.

- It was like waking up in paradise.

- There were a ton of people coming.

From all over the world,

the beautiful nature places that he would go to,

oh, my goodness, everybody wanted to experience that.

- Melanation is out here for you.

- Natureboy's use of social media

seemed to bridge the gap between an online influencer

and a street preacher.

Log on MelanationTV.

- Natureboy was going live on Instagram a lot.

It was clear to see that he wanted to build a following.

Is this thing working?

We took an oath to become

leaders of the Black community.

It's gonna heal my people from slavery.

He was obsessed with filming himself.

We got the police out there.

They can't fuck with us.

He had no understanding

that he's filming his own demise.

It's cult leader 101.

I'm God. You should listen to me.

- I'm here forever. I am the Black man.

I am God.

Fight!

- I'm gonna give y'all a panorama.

We in the middle of the river, man.

I'm gonna teach you how to become pure,

get away from negative-ass people.

The key is to isolate yourself.

Remember, this journey is your own.

The first post that I saw of Melanation

was a video of Natureboy himself,

sitting on a rock in the middle of a river in Costa Rica.

- Look at how beautiful your people is.

Some of the initial things

that I heard Natureboy say were things like--

just simple, like, let's get back into nature.

That was huge for him.

Squad in the building, yup.

He would have videos where he would be in nature.

We are the heroes of the Black community.

We are the pioneers in the beginning of this.

Natureboy definitely made it seem like

what he had for the Black community was a utopia.

He would make it look good online.

The beautiful nature places that he would go,

oh, my goodness, everybody wanted to experience that.

- Costa Rica is one of the most beautiful

and green places that you could live.

- I thought I was joining a group that was desiring

to leave the commotion of the city life,

of, you know, the hustle and bustle, the 9-to-5.

- Your bills are basically what you're working for.

You get caught up in this trap.

A group that wanted to be

more simple, more natural,

more sustainable, a group that was about health,

that was about solving issues nonviolently.

We don't need to be violent.

We don't need to be angry.

All we need to do is become one with nature.

I was born and raised in Butler, Georgia--

racist, segregated.

My prom was the first prom

where Black people and white people went together.

- They are making history with their school's

first integrated prom.

- If you want to be successful in this world,

then you have to do well academically.

So that's what my thing was,

straight A's all the way throughout school.

18, graduate, go to college.

Went to the military shortly after that, 2009.

Once I left the military, it's like, what do I do now?

There was a void present, 'cause the military provided me

a sense of belonging for eight years--

brotherhood, network, huge.

For the first time in a long time,

I felt like I didn't belong anywhere.

This is a movement.

Y'all better get here.

Hurry up, baby.

When I first heard about Melanation,

it was about 2017.

The President-Elect of the United States,

Donald John Trump.

The Trump thing going on a lot in America

around that time, there was a lot of cops

killing a lot of Black people.

Of course, it was easier to believe

that we were supposed to be separated from society,

because that was happening a lot in our community.

Get out of the car!

I will light you up! Get out!

- Wow. - Now!

Hey, bro, put your fucking hands on the car.

Drop the gun!

Drop the gun!

- All of these things collectively

provided an avenue for me to be like,

I'm done with America.

Reflection, listen to me.

Don't let nobody stop you from manifesting what you want.

2017 was the first time

that YouTube recommended me a Natureboy video.

Y'all ready to go deep again?

I'm the master teacher.

None of y'all can fuck with me, homie.

I speak actual facts.

The "Master Teacher Drops

Never Before Heard Information" video,

it had 500,000 views on it.

- Nothing dies in nature 'cause it's immortal.

It feeds off of itself.

It sustains itself.

I'm like, wow.

There's a lot of people that are watching this.

So it must mean that this must have some truth to it.

I'm thinking that because it has 500,000 views,

that that equates to 500,000 people.

And so that was a major part in my indoctrination process

of continuing to watch more and more videos.

We are Melanation.

We are here to show you who you are.

You can't tell me I ain't home.

- Everything online seemed cool.

This is Costa Rica right here.

We at the market, bailing our food out of jail.

Coconut gang.

Mango, mangoes.

It was about peace. It was about nature.

It was about the sun.

It was about living healthy and simple.

Like, that's what it was being presented as.

They're cool people.

My name is Velvet Marquez.

I am from New Orleans, Louisiana.

When I was younger, my parents never took me

outside of my community.

We weren't in more gentrified places of New Orleans,

where rich people lived.

In our community, people who are of the minority,

we experience extreme poverty.

We do not have access to adequate housing,

adequate food sources.

I just didn't want to be depressed anymore.

I didn't want to feel lonely anymore.

I felt invisible, like I was just

so different from everybody else

and didn't have a place in the world.

I was deep into college, and I found social media

to be a place for me to express myself.

Natureboy was in my feed,

and so I started to look at the tribe.

Melanation is the perfect group to join

because you're gonna be around that melanin.

Melanin is what creates the pigment

in your eyes, hair, and skin.

Melanation was geared more toward the idea

that if you had more melanin,

then you were closer to the earth.

- We are all reflections and refractions of the sun.

This was a group of African Americans,

darker-skinned people,

what we would call melanated people,

coming together for a cause.

So this was revolutionary to me.

I felt immediately like, wow,

this is a group of people where I can express myself

and I could potentially be heard.

This could be where my life changes for the better.