Speak ya clout is a series of heart to heart conversations, exclusively found at BSTN Chronicles. From insiders of the fashion business to blazers of new trails and creative forces from other industries, topics vary for each conversation. This time, we sat down with rapper and producer Oddisee.
With ten solo albums under his belt, a career spanning 15+ years and production for the likes of Joey Bada$$, one would be hard-pressed to call Oddisee a new cat. Still, the Brooklyn-based-and-Washington-stemming rapper and producer sounds just as hungry – but with the mind of a veteran. This is best exemplified on “To What End”, his new album from 2023, which blends warm boom-bap with funk and soul, while Oddisee digs deep into personal ups and downs, honest revelations and more.
While currently touring Europe with his band Good Compny, BSTN talked to the multi-talented musician after an energetic tour stop in Paris: We had a conversation about the yin and yang of life, being an introvert on tour and used the opportunity to shed some light on why the rapper’s hometown of D.C. was heavy on New Balance sneakers way before the rest of the world was.
On May 12th, New Balance celebrates the Grey Day. Given the popularity of New Balance in Washington, D.C., and you coming from the city: What is your first memory of New Balance sneakers?
Oh wow. I think it would have to be… My uncle Ronald had a pair of 997s. He came to visit my mother and had a pair on. I loved them and tried to take them from him. But they were too big for me. I think that was my first memory.
Cool! Historically, sneakers were popular when they were crispy white or colorful. So either fresh or flashy. How have grey New Balance sneakers become so popular in D.C. in the first place?
There were several reasons why New Balance became popular in the D.C. area. Mainly because of the price point: New Balance was the first athletic shoe to be priced over a 100 USD. So a lot of the, you know, guys in the street who were getting money illegaly wanted to show that they had money. So they would often just buy the most expensive thing that was available in the store. So that was kind of why people started buying New Balance in the D.C. area. It was a way to show you got money.
But people quickly realized that it was also a really comfortable shoe. So if you were selling drugs on the corner, you could actually have these New Balance on and could comfortably stand outside for a long period of time. And you could run if you needed to run. So it was a double win where it’s like „Hey look, I got money. I’m comfortable. And I could run away from the cops.“ So that was what kind of made it popular.
As far as the colors getting popular, I guess… D.C. is a smaller city than New York. So we have a different mentality as far as standing out. We don’t necessarily like to attract a lot of attention to ourselves. We like things to speak for themselves. Traditionally in previous decades, not so much now with social media and the internet, but pre-that, we tended to wear colors that were a bit more mono-chromatic and less flamboyant. That was a very, very D.C. thing. The staple colors in the D.C. area were black, blue, grey. And if you were feeling a little fresh, you might throw on something red. But that was pretty much it. We were very much a ‘white t-shirt, blue jeans, grey pair of New Balance‘ type of city, to begin with. Because we prefer to be a bit more inconspicuous and not as flamboyant.
Talking about the city and identity: You’re from Washington D.C. and you live in Brooklyn, N.Y. now. You’re half-Sudanese, half African-American. And you have a family of your own. How hard is it to reflect every part of your identity in your music?
Not hard at all. I just have to be honest with myself. It comes out in everything that I do. Everything that made me, is what I put into what I make. It’s second nature. It’s not even that I have to think about.
Still your music is very self-reflective. Have you always been as self-reflective in your lyrics as you are now? Also on a personal level?
Yeah. You know, I’m born into two different ethnicities. So I never really had the privilege to not question my existence. I think a lot of us… At least me, I saw it as a privilege or luxury that people grow up with two parents of the same religion, same language, same ethnicity, so you just are what you are.
But I think from a very young age, I had to self-reflect and kind of figure out what I was. Because my parents were so different from each other. And I think that that translated into my music. So I think my lyrics have always been self-reflective. Just as much as my upbringing.
You have described yourself as an introvert before. I went to your recent show in Munich and I witnessed you saying “thank you” to every person leaving the venue. How did that feel? Especially after years of not being able to tour?
It’s great to tour again! As you said, I’m pretty much an introvert. But I’m a high-functioning introvert. It’s not that I’m unable to socialize. It’s that after socializing, it leaves me very exhausted. But it’s a part of my work, it’s a part of my career to socialize and to meet people and have engagement and interaction. So it’s a necessity. So I do it, and I don’t mind doing it. But after it’s all done, is what’s in question. And it usually leaves me very, very exhausted. Whereas some people, it would leave them envigorated getting that much response from people.
Even though some of your lyrics are really vulnerable, your new album “To What End” holds a very positive note musically: How hard is it to hold that balance?
I don’t think it’s difficult at all! That’s the world we live in. That’s the yin and yang. That’s the duality of life. It’s not all good, it’s not all bad. I think rap as a whole, as a genre, does a really good job on not running away from the realities of the world. Positive or negative. So I think I continue in that lineage of hip hop lyricists that just say it how it is. For better or for worse.
So what’s next to come for you and the Good Compny band?
Right now, we’re still touring Europe. We are just over halfway of the tour. So we’re out here for another three weeks. Afterwards, we return home and see our families. Work on records. We have some festivals in Europe in the summer. After that, we will do another 5-6 weeks of touring in the fall and autumn in Asia. And then we will go back home with our families, rest up and do it all over again!
You can find all tour dates of Oddisee & Good Compny on Instagram and on his website. His new album “To What End” is available on vinyl and on all streaming platforms (and is highly recommended):
