Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Ozzy The grouch. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Ozzy, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you tell us about a time that your work has been misunderstood? Why do you think it happened and did any interesting insights emerge from the experience?

My brand has always pushed to be on the fringe of what’s acceptable to the average listener. I’ve gained a lot of fans in the process but it’s also driven a lot of people to view me as an uncaring sort of person. That couldn’t be farther from the truth as I genuinely live my life hoping to help as many as I can. I welcome the haters to think what they’d like but I’ll always fight for what’s right whether in my personal life or in the world. My next group project with my clique It’s All Love Collective hopefully will help to paint me in a different light. We hope to release it before the end of the year so stay tuned!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Much love, I go by ozzy the grouch. I’m mostly a rapper but I’ve also done a lot for my friends in terms of creative production. I began making music as a kid when I was about 13 or 14. I got to dropping music on MySpace with little success but something I was proud of. I didn’t return to making music until I was about 24.

After a couple frat parties I was able to sneak into and freestyling with random people, I could see that I definitely had the creative ability to get a reaction out of others. This began a drive in me that led me to the first steps of what would eventually become my first underground tape that I labeled “The World Is Yours”. I was never able to drop it commercially because I used classic beats from producers such as J Dilla and MF DOOM. I almost got 2 MF DOOM beats after getting into contact with his manager but sadly I couldn’t afford the price at the time..

My next project titled “GrouchLAND” was my first real attempt at making a more new age sort of rap sound. Heavy trap beats, simple hooks, and obnoxious lyrics. It was a great introduction and I began performing locally in the LA area. I also started my group, It’s All Love Collective around that time and we began collaborating and experimenting with genres we may not have ever made as separate artists. Our first album will hopefully make it to release by the end of the year. We’re currently working on getting things finished behind the scenes.

I am most proud of my willingness to continue working on music despite what others think of me and regardless of what the numbers look like. I do it for me and that’s all the growth I’ll ever need. It’s All Love 🫶

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

You can do SO many things for FREE!!!

I started off spending thousands of dollars for proper studio time with experienced engineers and I found myself running into so many hurdles that would eventually cause me to waste more money. I continued searching for answers until I met a close friend of mine that knew how to sound engineer and offered to record me for free. This was an immense game changer and I forget thank him and I of course made sure he didn’t leave any studio session with empty pockets. I met a producer through another sort of relationship and found that we were able to do business in a way that would benefit my musical output without hurting his pockets too. You must be creative out here not only in your music but in how you do business. Favors can be given but friendships can take you a longer way if you find the correct balance in making sure that those that help you are being helped as well.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

The most simple thing is to make good content. And the video quality of your content needs to be high as well. I took a lot of my time to learn how some of these viral videos are made and I took advantage of that. I then created my own ideas for great videos and I executed them no matter how long it took. At the end of the day, coming out with strong content and doing it in a consistent basis for certain periods of time (such as around your music releases) can benefit how many eyes you have on yourself. The most important thing to keep in mind is you have to believe in your own content and you can’t stop just because one post doesn’t get as many likes as you’d hoped for. I gained a lot of my following by doing street interviews and doing skits with friends while also incorporating my music in the post. Give people good content and remind them of why you made it, or why else would you make content?

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Instagram.com/buddhabootybills
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@ozzythegrouch