Ohmenihu: Oh The Many Who Will Love His Vibe
“There are people out there that directly connect to me and I have to find those people through music’”
When did this all begin for you?
I started at the end of my sophomore year in college. I was in a situation where I was in science labs and putting my life into it wasnt making me happy. The day I got back to Dallas from school, I was in the room with my homies. I was like yo let's start making music and they were all like what are you talking about?! Now, 4 years later, things are setting up where I want them to be.
Photographer: Mason Adams and Josh Brunelli
Who is your biggest inspiration?
I grew up with Kanye. People can say whatever they want, but at the end of the day, as a father of two kids and married to the biggest celebrity, he knows what he's doing. People are wearing bomber jackets because of Kanye. If you look at the artists who are poppin, like Lil Yachty, they're all influenced by him. In 2003, he was the biggest artist.
I couldn't relate to wearing a bullet proof vest, but I could relate to the guy who was dissed in school and could relate to the crowd and have things to say. He went from producing to being the background person to saying dude I can do this better than these guys.
He has taken the concept of rap into other artistic forms. Music is my strongest outlet, but that doesnt mean I can't tap into other things - like Tyler the Creator, Childish Gambino.
Photographer: Mason Adams and Josh Brunelli
What has been your proudest moment in the past four years of your music career?
I wouldn't say it was just one moment. Of course, there's been moments of confirmations from other people, but I would just say, the fact that my pursue of music has resulted in my best friends getting off the sidewalk - that's been some of the dopest shit in my eyes.
Watching what I've been doing affect the mindsets of my friends - that's what it is. At the end of the day, it doesn't mean shit if you're the only one at the finish line. That's actually like a curse.
On top of that, performing in front of my eldest brother. He's seen me perform a couple of times and he's like 'shit this is my brother'.
Right now, Billie Eilish is on tour - would you want to join her or even go on a tour of your own sometime soon?
I'm just focused on putting out more music. The people who are rooting for me, they wanna see more music and we're just trying to put that out correctly. The touring will happen! Once I put out the music, I'm sure people will be like 'come down to Dubai!'. The music has to come out first. The ball always travels faster than the player trying to dribble the whole team. So, no matter what I do, the music will go further and I just have to put that out. People in the middle of Idaho don't know me, they only know me because a college radio station played my song. Sound waves travel faster.
"The whole facade of driving a cool car - no. The first big purchase I made when I moved down to LA was a bicycle. I love biking cause it's my time where I get to listen to my homies, songs I'm working on, and other music. It's an intimate time. That's what I'm into.
I pulled up to a fashion show yesterday on my bike. I don't give a fuck.
The cool thing about it is, eventually, if I do what I do, there will be more people thinking 'I don't care what people say' or 'I'll take the bus or walk' and not because I'm poor, but because I prefer it."
If you were to perform or create music, which one do you think fits you best?
When it comes to performing, that gets me going. Coming from Austin, Texas, you perform first. You write something, you don't even know if it's good, and then you perform it. Over here, in the more industry cities, people don't even know how they'll perform their songs, they just make them and they have a billion streams on Spotify, but they still don't know how to perform. Performing is what I was raised doing and that's what I do everyday when I'm interacting with people - this is what I do. I get energised by seeing people especially when they're gunna know words.
If you were to perform or create music, which one do you think fits you best?
When it comes to performing, that gets me going. Coming from Austin, Texas, you perform first. You write something, you don't even know if it's good, and then you perform it. Over here, in the more industry cities, people don't even know how they'll perform their songs, they just make them and they have a billion streams on Spotify, but they still don't know how to perform. Performing is what I was raised doing and that's what I do everyday when I'm interacting with people - this is what I do. I get energised by seeing people especially when they're gunna know words.
Finally, what's your favourite type of cake?
A half and half of chocolate cake and vanilla cake! I'm actually a cookie person, so I like cookie cakes.
Stay up-to-date with Omenihu by following him on Instagram at @only_omenihu
