Although not everyone has heard the name [Cam O’bi](https://www.instagram.com/camobi/), those following the evolution of modern hip-hop, are sure to have heard his sound. His beats are notoriously off-the-wall, proudly standing out in a scene where simplified, trap rhythms have been dominating. O’bi has produced critically-acclaimed albums for artists like Chance the Rapper, SZA, and Noname. Now, he’s decided to step out on his own, with the upcoming release of his debut solo album, titled “**_Grown Ass Kid_**.” His first two singles, “[Tenderheaded](https://open.spotify.com/track/4g2HL6aQkiO4PxM10UQr3G)” and “[Grammy’s Babies](https://open.spotify.com/track/20BFVyOyWP9TRttaVHZUxz),” have already stirred up excitement for what’s yet to come.
**_What was your childhood like growing up in Vegas?_**
Growing up there, man, it's not really known or understood by the world. Everyone I meet is kind of surprised that people actually live there, they assume it's just the strip, you know? It's weird growing up in a world famous city, but to also feel so invisible to the world. I had to, in my head, create my own story; what I was gonna do, and who I was gonna be.
**_Did music play a large part of your childhood?_**
Not at first. I was the only one in my immediate family that was really interested in music like that. I wanted to be an animator when I was a kid actually. I wanted to make cartoons and comic books-- I still am very much into that now.
The way I got into music was through making beats. It was my big brother who put me on, he brought home a pirated copy of this program called FruityLoops \[FL Studio\] in 2001. I was 11 years old and he was like, "Hey, you know you can make your own beats with it." Before that, me and him would be writing raps as a hobby, and we would just find beats on the internet. So that was my connection to the world outside my neighborhood, I guess. I would find beats online and write raps to them. But I'm in third or fourth grade at the time, so I'm writing raps about Superman, and Little Bo Peep who lost her sheep.
**_At that point, who were the most influential artists and musicians to you?_**
That's a great question because there's a lot. My big sister had a very eclectic taste in music but she put me on to a lot of R&B; she was always playing Aliyah and Whitney Houston, but she also loved rap. She bought every DMX album. Ja Rule was a big one. Jay-Z, she loves Jay-Z and all the Rockefeller artists actually.
The artist that really grabbed me, honestly, musically, was The Neptunes. Around the time I started making beats, I was completely ignorant to music, period. I wasn't one of those kids who was born into a musical family. But I remember reading the credits on my sister's albums in the CD booklet. Someone told me that when it says "produced by," that means that person made the beat. I started to see certain names come up a lot, Kanye West was one of them, on a lot of the Jay-Z stuff. And then The Neptunes was one that I started to see frequently. I put two and two together because before that, I thought every rapper on the radio made their own beats. It was The Neptunes; It was something about them. I gravitated towards them so hard, and it turned into an obsession. I did so much research on them they kind of became my mentors without even knowing. I learned so much from them that I don't even have to meet them.
**_Tell me about your move to Chicago and the progression of things there. How did that all happen?_**
Red Bull used to have a producer competition. I entered it in 2010 and I became a finalist, and won the semi-finals. The final that year was in Chicago, and I met this guy Nascent there. I left back to Vegas and two years later, out of nowhere, Nascent hit me up just to check in with me, and ended up linking me with Rockie Fresh’s DJ, L-Peezy. I started talking to him and sending him beats over email. I did that over the course of a few months I think, before he finally was like, "Hey, you should come out here for a week, you know, chill, try to get some sessions with Rockie." So that's what I did.
I remember at the time I was recently out of college and working at Kohl's. Before that happened, I was going through a really bad depression. I told you I started making music when I was 11 years old, and by that time I was about 21, 22, and I was working my ass off on music. Like every day. Everyone who knew me, thought, "Aw, Cam, he never comes out. He never goes to parties. He doesn't care about girls. All he cares about is music." Everyone knew that about me. I was a DJ too, so that was the only reason I would ever leave the house at night.
**_So you really had a one track mind, huh?_**
Yes; just music, and I did everything I could. I taught myself to play piano, and I learned how to DJ, which really helped my production. So I'm working this job that I don't like at Kohl's and I was so baffled. I was like, “why hasn't it worked out for me?” I told my mom, "If I can't do music, I don't want to live." She told me not to give up. Right after that conversation, L-Peezy hit me up and it led to all this. I actually bought a one way ticket to go to Chicago with only a week off of my job. I remember feeling like I was on an adventure, full of possibilities. I felt like a kid again.
I was there for a week, and didn't get to meet Rockie that whole time actually. L-Peezy showed me around, he actually owned the studio at the time, so I would be in the studio just working on music, meeting people and enjoying myself. Then the week was about to be up and L-Peezy kinda hinted, "If you don't go back..." So I asked, "Well, if I stay, can I live in your studio?" He said yes, and it was a done deal. I called my job, and my boss was like, "Yeah, I figured."
**_Right, you had bigger dreams to chase!_**
Exactly! That was it. Right after that, L-Peezy kept telling me about this friend he really wanted me to meet, Vic Mensa. So he brought Vic over to the studio and we clicked right away. We made a bunch of songs when we first met: Hollywood Los Angeles, Orange Soda and Holy Holy.
Then, Vic introduced me to Chance \[The Rapper\] who I did not know at the time. He came over and he was just this really humble kid wearing a tie dye hoodie. He was telling me about this project he had called “[Acid Rap](https://open.spotify.com/album/2VBcztE58pBKjIDS5oEgFh).” He gave me the whole spiel on the themes behind it and he liked my production so he asked me to be a part of it.
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**_When and why did you decide to start working on your own projects on the side?_**
I'm glad you asked that cause that's a really big part of my whole musical journey, and my whole journey as a human being in general. I was working on a follow up album for Vic Mensa at the time. He was being courted by a few different labels and wanted to make an album before he signed, so at the time, I was making a bunch of demos using beats and sampling with my vocals. On one of them, he was like, "Aw man you should go in and record it." Cause I came up with the melody, but I was too shy. Every time I’d send him a recording he’d ask, "Who is that singing?" And I'd be like, "That's me." Then one day he was like, "Bro, like what the fuck are you doing? You need to keep these for yourself."
**_So it was kind of a natural next progression for you._**
Absolutely. Since I was a kid, I just wanted to be behind the scenes, you know? I didn't want anyone to crush my dreams. I thought about writing raps before I started making beats, but I felt like everybody wanted to be a rapper. So, I thought I'd try to help rappers instead. That's how it started. And those songs that I was showing Vic, ended up becoming the very first songs on the album, “**_Grown Ass Kid_**.” I came up with that name when I was on tour with Vic. The name “**_Grown Ass Kid_**,” just jumped into my dream and it came with what looked to me, like a movie poster. I woke up and I was like, “that's it!” And I wrote it down.
**_How did the concept for this solo project grow from there?_**
It's a concept album, and in my head it came to me as a movie poster, so the album is essentially the score. When I was writing, it became a bit of a script. Every song has a story behind it and it represents a scene. In my head, it's basically an animated musical. It's funny cause it's the perfect project for me. I'm merging my childhood passion of wanting to be an animator, and combining it with my music.
**_Right— A way for you to merge your childhood passion with your work?_**
Absolutely. So what I decided to do was make my album's art direction, look and feel as much like an animated film as possible. What I decided to do also, is art for every song, and eventually release an art book.
**_“Grammy’s Babies” is the second single release from “Grown Ass Kid,” after “TenderHeaded.” You said that all the songs on this upcoming album tell a story or reach some sort of theme. What were you trying to accomplish with “Grammy's Babies?”_**
Did you get the chance to hear it? I would love to hear how it affected you, what it made you think of, where it took you in your mind, what you saw?
**_It made me think about life, death and the stars that guide us along that journey. Stars, and galaxies are part of us long before we exist and will be long after. It reminded me of how we can feel so important yet insignificant at the same time._**
Yo, that's beautifully said, Morgan. It gives me goosebumps to hear you say that because that's essentially what my intention was. I remember going scuba diving, and when I came back, my creative juices were flowing like never before. I wrote that whole song in an hour or so. Originally, I made the beat for Chance on ‘[Coloring Book](https://open.spotify.com/album/71QyofYesSsRMwFOTafnhB),’ but he passed on it. Now I’m glad he did. I wrote this about my grandfather who passed away while I was in Chicago. Specifically, it's inspired by my grandma and grandpa and the stars are symbolic of them. I needed to create a metaphor to talk about that ‘cause it's a therapeutic process. I feel like something happens when you write lyrics that land right on the borderline between vagueness and directness. Something magical really happens. When a listener hears it, or reads it, they can then extract their own thing from it, but also get the gist of the feeling behind what you wrote.
My goal honestly, is to play with the listener’s mind. I find that really fun to do, but I take it very seriously. When you look inward into my music, you're vulnerable. Whatever it is, you're going to feel it, and you're gonna feel all of it. I tried to be very intentional with that. With every one of my songs, I want to do this. When you listen to it, I want you to go inward, into your own life, into your own path, into your own history. I want you to think on your own; it doesn’t necessarily have to be what the song is about. I want it to make you think about things like what you said, life and death. I want people to sit and think about that for a second and look at the stars. It's something we never do. I don't want to make music that doesn't challenge you to think on your own. I feel like that's part of what is necessary in this world. I’d like to make popular music that’s designed to make everybody go inward. I'll have the whole world fucking rethinking their whole lives and working on themselves or whatever, you know, calling their grandma’s.
**_And that’s the type of change Pop music desperately needs..._**
It's funny, because the story behind “**_Grown Ass Kid_**.” It’s about a kid who goes on an adventure to save music, because music is dying. I remember I felt a shift and I felt so sad about the future of music. I remember feeling that way after “[good kid m.A.A.d city](https://open.spotify.com/album/3DGQ1iZ9XKUQxAUWjfC34w)” came out, honestly. I was a big fan of Kendrick.
**_It must've been such a trip to work with Kendrick after idolizing him at that time._**
Absolutely. It was a super trip. Oh my God. Kendrick to me is still a huge inspiration for me. His music changed my life. I really felt like I really related to him so much, and I remember when I met him that shit was crazy ‘cause I wasn't expecting to. I was just going to the studio to work with SZA. He was there and I didn't even know it was him because his back was turned, and then he turned around to greet me and tell me how much he loved that beat I did. I jumped and I froze and I couldn't speak. I was stuttering.
What you were saying, that this energy in music, it's so necessary right now because it's so lacking in today's pop music. People would always throw me to the side, in the niche category, in the indie category, the underground category, and say, "Oh, you do that creative music, you do the experimental shit. So you're over there." And I'm like, no. This isn't for the niche audience, this is for a global audience. I worked really hard my whole life to learn how to make pop music and learn how to make things catchy and enjoyable. People think, “you're either doing stuff for the underground nerds or you're making watered down stuff for the narrow-minded masses.” But why can’t I do both? You know? Kanye did it. Outkast did it. And Kendrick too with “[To Pimp a Butterfly](https://open.spotify.com/album/7ycBtnsMtyVbbwTfJwRjSP).”
**_Looking back at your work on_** [**_Revenge of the Dreamers III_**](https://open.spotify.com/album/5PerfGh9Smd6XjwkxpmL4V)**_,_** [**_Twenty88_**](https://open.spotify.com/album/4gqnsOwnA490OYq58VfJV3)**_, Acid Rap,_** [**_Ctrl_**](https://open.spotify.com/album/76290XdXVF9rPzGdNRWdCh)**_,_** [**_High For Hours_**](https://open.spotify.com/album/4ybYv7EEFN9vs1KFJqi1O9)**_, Coloring Book, and so on, what are you most proud to have been apart of and why?_**
Damn, I'm really proud of all of it honestly. When I was a little kid, I didn't know anything about music, but I realized I would be a producer after I read the autobiography of Quincy Jones. So I'm proud of myself. I'm really proud of everyone that I've worked with, especially the ones that were not really popping when I started working with them.
But I would say Noname, ‘cause she is so talented. Initially, she was nervous to put it out \[[Telefone](https://open.spotify.com/album/18Scpsg5OV1iYNtSaCsjwz)\], but the response was overwhelming. It was crazy. It was fucking crazy. Making albums, that's my strong suit.
**_Well, you’re a natural storyteller._**
Yes, absolutely! I love, love telling stories. To me, a song is just a piece of a larger story. I'll make a beat and then I'll realize, oh, this beat has a baby sister, and I'll go make that. This beat has a best friend, so then I make that. It's like this whole family of beats that go together.
**_What else are you working on that we should look out for?_**
I’m finishing up an album for Rejjie Snow. I haven't done anything like this since “Telefone,” and I know people are gonna love it musically. It's a completely different sound from “Telefone,” but it's the same usual suspects, I guess.
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Introduction by: Sophie Lee
Interview by: Morgan Vickery
Photography by: Christian Smiley
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