We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Odi-Unknown a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Odi-Unknown, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Do you feel you or your work has ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized? If so, tell us the story and how/why it happened and if there are any interesting learnings or insights you took from the experience?
As an emerging artist, a lot of people won’t give you a fair chance or support you. I’m an artist that makes cool music and for the most part I want my music to resonate with a big crowd. I make feel good music so sometimes the music may not be about my personal story but it may be other people’s story. For instance, Lean 4 $ale is a song that boasts an R&B Trap and Hip-Hop vibe, but I may not be talking about me that’s selling drugs. But everyone knows what I’m talking about and can relate to the music plus the beat is fire.
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?
Brian Aimiebelomo Odiana was born on March 4, 1993 in Hyattsville, Maryland to two Nigerian parents, better known by his stage name Odi-Unknown, is an American singer and songwriter from Boston, Massachusetts. He began his solo career with local releases in 2016, including original compositions such as ‘Excuse Me’ and ‘N.A.S.’.
He started making music in 2016 and began his solo career with local releases, including original compositions such as ‘Excuse Me’ and ‘N.A.S.’. In 2019, Odi-Unknown moved to Los Angeles, California just after releasing his single ‘Fiend’, which featured Houston based music manager, creative director and close friend Cease (Dem Sides). In 2021, Odi-Unknown would gain further publicity off his first music video ‘Lean 4 $ale’ featured on hiphop blogs such as Say Cheese TV.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
I’ve been making music for some time and I wanted to move to a place that supported the craft. I bought a one way ticket to Los Angeles and flew out here just to try to make my way. It was tough cause I didn’t know a lot of people and I had to figure out where to live and where I could fit in. I felt like I started from the bottom again, but in reality it felt like a clean slate. I was living in my car at one point in time, but networking and working hard to make your money is a way of life out here. After finally finding a studio to record at and a sound engineer that would work on the Odi-Unknown sound, LA felt like home. One person that I met along the way told me to always keep my east coast mentality. Hustle Hard!
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
When I first came to Los Angeles, I didn’t have any friends that lived here. I took a one way plane ticket to get here and booked a hotel room for one day. After that first day in the hotel, I found myself actually homeless and living in my car. There were so many times I wanted to give up and go home. But then I kept telling myself I can’t go back just yet, not til I accomplish the goal. The mission to succeed. I told myself let’s do this music shit, so here I stand ready for the next step. My mom was a single parent that raised three kids and im first generation Nigerian, her family is in another country while she is out here raising kids. Her story sticks with me cause my family is across the country. It can be hard but that’s the strive to succeed. Now I live in the hills! Never give up!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/Odiunknown?fbclid=PAAaY4XuREebHEJ5ySvSzYuMgkVJ0ZIjQGGXge6fKv8M1R8pBn1swSlFysEYA
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/odiunknown/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OdiUnknown2020/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/odiunknown
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCaPJZLunyiizqZMBt0nWZWQ?sub_confirmation=1
- Other: Follow me on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/artist/0S3Lf2qfOBl79ZAw9fKuXV
Image Credits
Binta Diallo Mary Imaj Keturah Harris