Before the shows, the meeting of new weird people and cooperates, in your mind your probably like, “who the fuck is he?” O Billz, an out of the ordinary teenager doing ignorant stuff with his teenage friends. O Billz isn’t an acronym for anything but just a given nickname to the Brooklyn native. The name is slowly giving the rap industry some buzz as a singular force in hip-hop. The beats it self is another perk to hearing a track from him. Mixing everyday life with a more expansive imagination to make his thoughts more vivid is what keeps the people going.
What is your name? My name is O Billz because thats what everyone calls me now.
Where are you guys from? Thats probably the hardest question that I always get. But Im from New York City, Brooklyn & Manhattan.
How long have you been making music? Well I know how everyone likes to say they’ve been making music since they were like 3 years old. But for me, I truly started making music when I was in the 5th grade.
How many songs /albums have you released to date? Currently I have about like 30-40 songs out in total. Which Includes my two projects “Unbalanced” & “D.R.U.G.S Ep.”
Can you tell us about your latest release and the background and inspirations behind it? I recently dropped a new track called “Full Of Drank.” This track will be featured as number 5 on my new upcoming mixtape called “Dark Visions” which will be releasing in December. It will also consist of 16 songs. It will be packed with various sounds, from bangers to deep and sentimental tracks so stay tuned. I guess the background behind the project was just slowly growing up as a young adult and seeing the world for what it really is. And just to see the things that go on in my everyday life, from people struggle for chump change to people doing all types of drugs at parties I went to. Nothing really inspired me besides my work ethic. Without it, I don’t think this project would’ve been possible. I remember waking up on saturday mornings in the summer time at my moms house and I go to the studio at around 11 a.m and leave out at around 6-7 p.m. I don’t know what was wrong with me at the time, I guess I was just so determined at the time to really cracked down on each track.
How have you ended up in the music industry? I have no clue. I was just being a cool kid, going to school, dropping tracks every few weeks; and I guess over time my buzz just slowly started to build up. But also I think is because I have good networking skills. Thats just a general thing that everyone should have; basically its not what you know but who you know.
What do you think of the music industry in 2014/15? It’s way different from when I was younger. Back then I used to listen to artist like Nas, Jay-Z, Grandmaster Flash etc, but now it’s like every song that I hear is some type of trap music or techno. It’s crazy how one minded artist are. I think I can make a change by 2015.
Who do you think is the most influential artist? The most influential artist to me would be Big L, may he rest in peace. I think hes a big influence on me because thats where I got my hip-hop/ grittiness from and because even though he used heavy profanity, Big L would always kick you some street knowledge. And that shit to me was tuff in my eyes.
Who have you collaborated with so far in your career? So far I have only collaborated with underground artist but one artist that I collabed with the most would be GRM. We been working together since I first started dropping songs back in 2013.
Dead or alive, who would be your dream collaboration? Andre 3000 hands down.
What was the first album you bought? Even though I’m not a big fan on buying cd’s, I think the first album I ever bought was Kanye’s album, “Twisted Fantasy.” That album was moneys well spent, I’m not gunna lie.
What’s your favourite song at the moment? My favorite song right now would be Tighten Up by Key!
Who is the most influential artist now, and 10 years ago? Jay-Z. I know it sounds typical but its true.
If you had to sell your music collection tomorrow, what album would you leave in your draw? WOLF by Tyler The Creator only because it was so much creatively that was built in that album I couldn’t give it away.
How do you think you differ from other artists? I’m way different from other artist because I don’t like to stay in one lane when it comes to music. So one song you might hear me on a crazy banger, and the next you might hear me on some R&B shit like fuck it. I like to experiment and thats the only thing that keeps me going in the music industry.
What is your favourite saying? Hannnnnnnnnnn or hola como estas. Btw I was never really good at Spanish.
What other hobbies or interests do you have? Shoot, besides being a musical artist I like to be a visual and hands on artist. Not only are visuals the key thing when it comes to your music, but also in life everyone should be a visual thinker. But yea I like to go to art galleries, skate and get into cool functions.
Do you have any tattoos or piercings? I sadly don’t but by this summer I’m planning to get one,
Tell us more about your new project? This upcoming project might take off for me because for every project that I drop I put in more and more work to show my progression. But I don’t think the public is ready to truly hear whats in stored when it drops.
What’s in the pipeline after this project? After this project I wanna set up a tour, have my own merch so people can buy my clothes, more visuals on the way and also Im going to drop a Ep called “Japanese Living.”, which is going to be amazing. So stay tuned on that as well.
Thank you for your time and may you carry on making dope, fresh music.
Thank you for the interview
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