We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Oba Rowland a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Oba , appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

Well I currently have 19 project circulating through streaming. I am pretty fond of all of them to be honest but if I had to pick one that impressed me most, it would be a 5 way tie! lol Between my very first Album FEEL ME (2010), FOUND ONE (2015), NORTHLAND (2018), BLACK SANTA 2 (2018), and HOPE YOU’RE PROUD OF ME. I have to link all 5 of these together because throughout my career these where the projects whee i fell like Ive accomplish the “unsought of” for the moment. Nobody and i do mean NOBODY, in music during these time periods where creatively expressing themselves the way I was from where I’m from. These projects put me ahead of the curve. During “Feel Me” I was the only fatboy who took his shirt off at the time in the culture. Not even Ross had felt comfortable doing so, and he was the biggest artist out. My “Found One” album was the turn of sound completely from ANY artist from Detroit yet alone hip hop. This was the first project I put out when me and Dej Loaf started our rise to fame together. I remember everybody congratulating me on this project from Young Thug to Lil Boosie. The ENTIRE INDUSTRY sounds like “Found One” today. Its amazing! “Northland” was significant because this was the first Album i put together and release all by myself after going through a few hiccups in this industry. I earned the right with this album to prove that nobody made me and I can stand alone. Black Santa 2 was a project I said fuck all the expectations people have of me. IM DOING WHAT TF I WANT. No Rapper has matched the freeness of BS3 to this day from my city. Too many insecurities. Last but not least HYPOM was the first album I put out since signing to Big Sean as a writer. And I successfully attached a movie/musical to it available on Amazon Prime and Youtube. Im the only rapper from Detroit that has his own musical attached with his album. More importantly the message behind the movie is relevant to this day. Simply put, I woke up today, went out into the world, and made it back home in one piece. As an African American man or a man of any minority to simply make it home is an accomplishment. Hope Youre Proud of me.

Oba , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Well I developed an interest for hip hop early in elementary school watching my cousin at a talent show. Didn’t take it serious until I was an adult. Played football in College, got injured and dropped out. A teammate of mines made beats so i just starting rapping with him and the rest is history. Took a lot of avoiding opinions, parents, and peers that thought rap was a waste of time. Had no choice but to get focus. No more popular parties, no spring break vacations…etc etc. 100 percent full fledged rapper. Im proud that I never gave up. When Dej took off and took me on tour we did “the tonight show with Jimmy Fallon”, 106 n Park, Fox theater, Bonnaroo and more festivals! Fun Times.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

One of the biggest lessons I unfortunately learned late was “Do NOT put other peoples fears on you”. See fear can be disguised as love. People will tell you all the time whats best for you and what makes more sense on how to live your life. But usually its because they were never able to accomplish anything similar in there own life themselves. This fear becomes a hinder more so than good advice. Do what you believe in and make shit happen. Don’t settle. To settle is to DIE. I almost died settling but the way the cards fell i was able o bounce back on my feet musically and take another crack at it. And here I am again today standing on my own two.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Two weeks before Dej Loaf had released “TRY ME” her mega single to the world, I released a song called “LIFESTYLE”. It became a local SMASH within 2 weeks time. I was positioning myself to move forward in my career with this new found success and Dej came to me and said she wants to do just as I did with lifestyle, and release “TRY ME”. Well after her release it became an INSTANT NATIONWIDE HIT. Being under the same management at the time it was agreed upon me to wait and let Dej ride out the wave to her record. As time went on, I was advised to put my record to bed and make or find another record to create. I knew this was a bad idea but I wanted to play team ball. Dej an I left that management group within a years time. I was stuck in a rock in a hard place because I basically was starting over again and I went back to the record that gotten me to where I was at. The record I originally believed in, Lifestyle. I made a remix and the record became the #1 played record regionally in 2015. Lesson learned was go with your gut. Only YOU can know what you want and how hard you are willing to work in order to earn it. When it comes to your destiny you have to be in complete control. Fuck all the politics that come with it,

Contact Info:

• Website: WelcomeToThePsl.com (launching Jan 1ST)
• Instagram: @ObaRowland
• Facebook: Oba Rowland
• Twitter: @ObaRowland
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0GDC-M_tCRhYGl_yIGN2dg

Image Credits
– Belton Media