Diandra Interviews Obie Iyoha: Seeing Your Songs
Obie Iyoha can draw as much as he can rap and sing. For him, life is so colorful it makes even sound feel like a visual experience. Thus, his songs appear to him like moving pictures; films of past memories being transferred into sonic rhythms. In our interview, we discuss how everything from his bright, yellow car to the support of his massive family appears to him like sound.
Diandra: So what was the inspiration behind the title “Bumblebee?”
Obie: I drive a yellow Toyota, and it is yellow as hell like, you know it is me when I pull up. Me and my friends put together a tour around the US, and it was like 9 shows. Most of the shows, we drove in the Bumblebee. It got us around so I was trying to pay homage. I feel like if I can pull a shorty in the Bumblebee then I really got the sauce. (he laughs)
Diandra: What are the visuals you saw in the EP?
Obie: I am really big on color. The first video I shot with my good friend, Will Fairbanks, was out in Columbus, Ohio. I really love green. I love the forest, and I love how the green contrasts with my melanin. I love that you can see the branches and trees passing by, and I storyboarded all the videos, and I have someone else that directs and brings the visuals to life. I started with drawing and painting and doing poems and that transitioned to me really wanting to project in my music and project myself through it.
Diandra: I heard your into Anime. Is there an Anime hero that you really relate to?
Obie: There is an anime called Trigun, and there is this character called “Vash the Stampede.” He was this amazing figure because he was powerful, but he was also a pacifist. There were a lot of people wanting to kill him, and he could have, easily, taken them out, but he never wanted to hurt them. He was the coolest dude, and I wanted to be like that: kind and powerful.
Diandra: Very Superman?
Obie: Superman is a nerd. He is cheesy. Vash is cool. Also, the show Akira is a really good show and relevant to what is happening right now. The lead character really tries to go HAM on the world with his new. telekinetic powers. What I love about Anime is that I started to see storylines connect to history and it gave me chills. Everything I do will be tied to the bigger picture of a character, and I’ve always wanted to make a cartoon.
Diandra: So what is the character origin of OG The Llama?
Obie: He was raised in the woods by himself, but really idea of OG The LLAMA came from twitter because I saw this picture of a llama on a cliff, with the wind blowing. and I was cackling. He looked so majestic and I changed my profile pic to him. This was 2013.
Diandra: It all starts on twitter.
Obie: Well, my art starts with doodles. I draw and scribble pictures everywhere until they becomes something more: music.
Diandra; What would be your super-power?
Obie: To speak to spirits.
Diandra: Okay, Klaus from Umbrella Academy!
Obie: (he laughs)
Diandra: I would feel that is the most annoying power, in perspective, because dead people are just human being that can’t sleep anymore. So they can just wake you up with their issues.
Obie: (he laughs) Yeah, now I can see how it can be a nuisance.
Diandra: Why that power?
Obie: I am a very spiritual person. I pray a lot, which really started in adulthood. I really believe in spirits. Energy never dies, it just transfers so, in a real sense, I feel like I can communicate with my ancestors and God. I sketch my ideas a lot, and I think, “Wouldn’t it be cool if my main character can communicate with spirits?”
Diandra: You have ghost stories?
Obie: When I was in Nigeria, I did rituals, and they told me I would have a dream and I did. It felt really real to me. This was 2011. I have been going back to Nigeria most of my life, and this was mind-blowing.
Diandra: I saw a ghost once and I ran into the bathroom. It didn’t follow me in there, which I think was a smart move.
Obie: (he laughs) You weren’t on peyote?
Diandra: Not in Cuba.
Obie: I believe you. I have dreams where I feel like I am half awake, and I feel the presence. The ghosts might have been trying to put you on and guide you to a bag.
Diandra: I’ll never know. She might still be out there trying to meet college students.
Diandra: One thing I find so in common between Puerto Rican and Nigerian culture and music is that we are known for our cheeriness, despite our woes and the heavy topic we sing about like, you singing to your cousin’s deportation. I see that in your music and wanted to know if you see that quality as apart of our resilience?
Obie: For sure! Even just writing the song, “Carrots,”I was trying to motivate. I try not to make sad songs. The goal with making the song though was to motivate myself because it was tough, even going to see him. He had a fiancé and a 1 year old daughter, and we were looking at him through a glass in a detention center. My cousin is super smart like, a genius. It bugged me out that life is about chances and he couldn’t get one.
Nigeria is the size of Texas, but Texas has 30 million people and Nigeria has 200 million, and they are all trying to make it and get out, but you can’t get out if you don’t keep a positive vibe. In the culture, in general, Nigerians are so happy, even in the struggle. I have been to wakes that became a dance party. We are always finding reasons to celebrate.
Diandra: So it was music therapy?
Obie: Absolutely! Music is magic like that. You can turn any situation around with music. I’m from Benin City, and you will see our art all across London. My dad was like, “There was a family that made that art and passed it down to generations.” So I’m really proud of that and the dance culture. We’re so happy doing it and I love it, and that is before I even get into our literature and our intelligence.
Diandra: We have to figure out how to transfer Bumblebee to Nigeria.
Obie: (he laughs) That would be hard. Film a music video there!
Diandra: What is your favorite memory at your community center, The Neutral Zone?
Obie: The first time I went into their studio. That was the best. It was a studio full of dudes, and they were like, “You want to test out the mic!” and they had a good mic. I said, “I have to be here everyday. I have to do this” It was the same feeling I got when I used to make comic books in middle school because I felt like the world was wide open. It was freedom. I could say anything on this mic. I turned to art, in the first place, to express myself and get my vibe out there. Once, I realized my music was up to par I said, “I need people to hear me.”
Diandra: How does your family drive you?
Obie: I think hearing my family’s story motivates me. I am the youngest of 5, and when I hear my parents talk about how they got here. I was born in North Carolina, and we were poor like “cockroaches and termites in the house poor.” They worked really hard, went to school, and got a job. They left my siblings in Nigeria and brought them here, and they are all successful. They show me how to be determined to get what you want because it is not about how many times you fall but how many times you get up.
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