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12/5/2005 How are you doing man? Not too good, I'm running late to this show right now… "Ballyhoo" is out now, how's that doing? It's doing great. It's getting a lot of good responses from the shows and the listeners. That took a lot of work and everybody on the album I've known for a long time, so it was dope to reach out and get to work with them. This album is real special to me. The Mikah 9 track is dope, what's it like working with him? Mikah 9 is crazy man! He's real talented. He just sits down and writes in 15 minutes. I was able to tour with him for a little while. He's the homie, so it's nothing out of the norm to work with him. He's real talented and he definitely lives up to his hype. "Ballyhoo" is the first time I heard you…do you feel like there's a lot of people still learning about Omni? Yeah. There's a lot of records that they probably haven't heard and this one is finally catching some light. I'm pretty sure people are wondering who I am. I hope they figure it out and do their research. That's cool with me. "Ballyhoo" has a real different sound to it. What did you want to create when you sat down to start it? "Ballyhoo" means the problems of a community coming together and expressing them in the form of a show, something like that. So what I wanted to do is just reach out and grab everybody from my local neighborhood, open up the doors, open up the windows, start the barbeque, and have a party. That's what we got, entertainment. I didn't look for any particular sound. It's just fun from beginning to end. I just let it go, and it formed into what it is. It created itself. What was your state-of-mind recording "Ballyhoo"? Just to let everyone do their thing and I'd do my thing. You might hear Wildchild only on a hook, you might just hear me only on a hook…I just wanted it to cerate itself. I think that it's a really dope record, and the fact that it did create itself is really dope. What were your influences for "Ballyhoo"? From my last two records, everything I was trying to do and all the sounds I was creating, I wanted to sharpen them. I think I did that real clearly. Every record, I like to play around. I don't like to be pigeon-holed into one corner. I might want to do a rock track, a West Coast track, a backpack track…I really sharpened that up on this album. It was fun too. Do you see yourself branching off into other genres of music? I can't call it. I'm just doing whatever I feel at the time. I definitely love rock music, I definitely love punk rock, I definitely love Hip Hop, and I definitely love trip hop. I'm not going to go off and do a rock album, but you might hear a rock intertwine. You've worked with Tricky, what did you learn working with him? We spent a couple of months in the studio together. The dude is definitely a pioneer and he's a genius. I learned a whole lot working with him. Unfortunately the project didn't make it to light. I was listening to his music before I was working with him, then I got to work with him and I was like "whoa." It was definitely a blessing. What stood out from that experience? It was really humbling. I had to rewrite, and rewrite, and rewrite, and I had to learn that I'm not the dopest MC that I think I am. I know that my writing is not perfect and that it can be better if I keep at it and keep working hard on it. It didn't change me in anyway, it just gave me more experience as an artist. How come the project never came out? It was just label business that we were going through. It didn't work out. In the near future something will probably happen with this. L.A. has so many sounds, where do you see yourself fitting in? Definitely all of the sounds mixed in. They say that someone in L.A. always has a surfboard in one hand and a gun in the other, and that's definitely true. In school, I was always the one that was cool with anyone. I was always in the mix of everything. I'm definitely a well-rounded person and I'm proud of that. That's what I am, and you can definitely hear that in my music. Do you ever worry about getting pigeon-holed into a certain category? Not at all. I'm so free. I don't worry about a damn thing. When I do my music, I'm free as possible and I just spit from the heart. There's just no way you can pigeon-hole me. I say what I want to say. What's your focus right now? I'm so ahead of myself. I'm three albums ahead of myself all the time. My main focus right now is just to keep pushing the envelope on my art. It just has to keep getting fresher and fresher every time. I'm touring for "Ballyhoo" and I'm working on my next album, "Ninja Art," produced by Grasshopper. That should be out early next year. You're also re-releasing your earlier material. A lot of artists only want you to hear their new material. Why re-release your old stuff? It's still fresh. It's still new. It's not lost in time. I'm still proud of "Funkdafied Freddy." That's mostly comedy. That record was real fun to make. "Burgundy Brown" was more serious. I feel that the old albums give you a chance to reach back, and I hope the fans do. What do you want to say to everyone out there reading this? Everybody stay up, stay positive, and definitely uplift our women. Uplift our women out there. Just hope for the future. There's good things to come. I never want to mislead anybody that follows me, we're all students in this movement and struggle and only we can help each other and only we can save each other. On that note, stay positive, plan for the future, and uplift each other.

By Brian Kayser

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