(melodic chiming music) - [Narrator] The Albany Symphony celebrates Black American art.

Albany hip hop artist Ohzhe discusses his career and performs some of his original music.

It's all ahead on this episode of "AHA, A House for Arts."

- [Narrator 2] Funding for AHA has been provided by your contribution and by contributions to the WMHT venture fund.

Contributors include The Leo Cox Beach Philanthropic Foundation, Chet and Karen Opalka, Robert and Doris Fischer Malesardi, and The Robison Family Foundation.

- At M&T Bank, we understand that the vitality of our communities is crucial to our continued success.

That's why we take an active role in our community.

M&T Bank is pleased to support WMHT programming that highlights the arts, and we invite you to do the same.

(mellow music) - Hi, I'm Matt Rogowicz, and this is "AHA, A House for Arts," a place for all things creative.

Earlier this summer, I visited the Albany Symphony as they were rehearsing for their American Music Festival concert at the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center at RPI.

The concert was part of the culmination of their convergence initiative which explored Black American art forms in partnership with local communities and nationally acclaimed artists.

(operatic music) - Every kind of beginning of June, we do a huge, it's usually a big weekend in Troy and usually here at EMPAC.

And it's entirely new and recent American music.

And we bring together literally 30, 40, 50 composers at a time to sort of share their new art with us.

So it's a really celebratory, exciting moment for us and one of our most beloved activities of the year.

Convergence is a project that we're really passionate about.

This is one of the culminating events of it in that we've built this year as American Music Festival entirely around our convergence project or initiative.

It's been running though for almost three years.

And the idea with the help of a great philanthropist and champion of good things in the capital region, Charles Touhey, who really worked on this idea with us and has largely funded it, was to find ways to reach out in ways that orchestras don't usually do.

So in this case, to reach out to the black community in the capital region and to really celebrate aspects of black history and heritage and culture that orchestras don't usually engage with.

We identified three incredible artists, sort of global artists from different disciplines that aren't usually associated with orchestras.

Regina Carter from the world of jazz, the great jazz violinist, Marc Bamuthi Joseph, great spoken word artist from the world of hip hop, poetry, and Adia Whitaker from the world of sort of Caribbean, Afro-Caribbean dance.

- I've been involved not only with the festival but with the Albany Symphony Orchestra at this point for almost three years.

We built a kind of extended residency program together that considered African American culture both in its folkloric context but also in its yearning for cultural equity.

Participating in the festival in this way is a matter of creative expression and creative output, but it's also a matter of intentional civic infrastructure as it relates to the arts.

My particular project with the Albany Symphony Orchestra has focused on the idea of forgiveness.

And the very central question that I've been engaging is, can our democracy survive if we don't learn how to forgive?

How does our democracy survive if we forgive the wrong people?

That question is very much alive in our political discourse, but for three years we've been thinking about it in regards to racial and cultural reckonings.

So for the last three years, I've been coming maybe two, three times a year doing workshops with musicians, with community members, having salons in churches, getting embedded in the ASO family, and taking this inquiry around forgiveness and using it as both a point of invitation and also a broader point of inquiry to do this deep work.

What our planet needs right now is an extension of access to possibility, and that's what the arts bring to us.

That's what music brings to us.

So though the symphony, though the Symphony Orchestra might often traffic in music that was composed 100 years ago, 200 years ago, 300 years ago, it's also important to engage contemporary artists who are thinking about now and the graspable future.

This piece is a spoken word concerto.

So you think about a concerto for piano or a concerto for violin or for cello, these soloists that appear with an orchestra in really grand context.

Well, this is a concerto for a soloist as poet or a poet as a virtuoso.

And it was composed for orchestra by Daniel Bernard Roumain.

It's about half hour long, maybe 35 minutes long, and it's organized in four movements.

And in each movement, I consider aspects of forgiveness that range from the incredibly intimate to the macro political to a kind of the self-inquiry that I think we have to ask ourselves inside of our romantic relationships.

Lord knows you can't have a romantic relationship without forgiveness.

Orchestras all over the country are at a bit of a crossroads.

We had to ask ourselves, definitely during the pandemic and public concerts were shuttered, we had to ask ourselves, who are we within the context of the body politic if we're not putting on shows?

What is an orchestra's responsibility as an element in the broader civic discourse?

For Albany Symphony Orchestra to take on this question is really critical.

And it speaks to their holistic approach, not just to music, but music in the context of American future, and this relationship between a principally European past and the lack of inevitability as it relates to American democracy.

And really asking critically, what is the role of our arts organizations as we form that link.

You know, it's absolutely impressive.

It's about the sustainability of the organization, but it's also about the sustainability of this community.

- Ohzhe is an Albany native rapper with a passion for motivating others.

Jade Warwick sat down with Ohzhe to discuss hip hop and his goals for the future.

- Hey, Ohzhe, welcome to A House for Arts.

- Hey, thank you for having me.

- Of course.

I'm ready to talk about all the things you love and how you got to where you are today.

How would you classify yourself as an artist, or what genre do you think you move most within?

- I feel like my music is more like conscious.

Like I speak about a lot about like what's going on in my environment, what's going on with me, what's going on with people I'm around.

I feel like I'm like a conduit to my environment.

So like whatever I'm taking in, I'm trying to put back out a lot of like transmutation with my music.

So I would definitely say like a conscious self-aware hip hop artist.

- Like a conscious rapper.

- Basically.

- Conscious hiphop artist.

So what does a conscious hiphop artist mean to you?

If you were to give more details?

- Like I said, like someone who's just willing to be a journalist to the environment that they're in.

You know, just speak on what's going on.

Speak on what's going on with yourself, how are you maneuvering through society, how is society maneuvering, adjusting to you becoming the person that you are?

How are you growing as an individual?

What are the things that you're learning?

And it always, there's a lot of people confuse conscious rap with like just having to be this, oh, you not woke type of thing.

But it's not, it's not always like that.

It's more or less about just being self-aware.

- And why do you think being self-aware is important within hiphop?

- It, you gotta be, you have to be self-aware when it comes to like what you're saying, your message is very important as a hip hop artist.

If you don't have a message, you're really not, you're not doing it for nothing.

- Do feel like hip hop is lacking a message in this modern time, or do you think people aren't just looking deep enough to find the people who are showcasing the message?

Or do you think everything has a message from drill rap to just like conscious rap?

- I feel like it all has a message.

It just, it's, you know, 'cause I feel like with the drill rap, it's just their environment.

You switch their environment, they'll talk about different things, but that's just their reality.

You know what I mean?

Like, but how you conduct this like how different styles of art.

There's expressionism, there's one of my favorites is Afro Surrealism.

Like there's different styles of art and there's always gonna be different styles of hip hop going on.

It's just the environment that certain artists are in is what brings that out of them.

A lot of them are angry, you know what I mean?

So like I can only respect it and, you know, give my wisdom and my knowledge from my perspective through my conscious art.

- Oh, I love that.

- Thank you.

- So how did Ohzhe the Rapper happen?

Like what, how did you get to where you are today?

Like what was your journey?

- My journey was just trial and error, bro.

And traveling and meeting different people and learning from other people.

I started at like, I'd say 13.

- Wow.

- With creative writing.

And it was like ways to combat my nightmares.

So I would take different horror figures and try to change them into being good guys so that I wouldn't be afraid of them.

And that led into poetry.

And then LimeWire came out, and I got into downloading the instrumentals, downloading beat tapes for me and my friends to rap to.

And you know, just ciphers at the table, beating on tables.

It's, you know, the classic way of getting into hip hop, and getting, becoming an artist.

And studying.

Studying hip hop was a another big piece of where I was, how it made me to become the person I am today as a hip hop artist.

- Do you remember your first performance?

- Yeah, I do.

- [Jade] All right, give us a little details about it.

- It started off with like, just doing like family events like for cookouts and birthday parties.

My uncle, my cousin, they kind of like put me, DJ Al B, shout out to Tif.

They were the ones that really put me, put the mic in my hand and like, let me rock the crowd and rock and see how it worked.

And then eventually that led into me meeting different people, walks of life.

Swain, Mojave, they ended up bringing me to this performance called UGT.

I had my very first performance, and I made a song about a girl who I got my heart broken by, and it went really good.

So like, from there it was just like I knew performing was something that I wanted to do.

Like at that moment I was like, this is something that I want to keep going with.

- That's beautiful.

And then you had your other show.

I think the "Art of Alignment."

Was that your first like big show or- - Yeah, because it was tailored to the album that I was putting out.

And I was like, I wanted to create an experience for the music that I was doing and I wanted to bring people in and like I said, just walks of life.

Like, I was just meeting different people along the way and they were allowing me to use the band and Corey with Troy Kitchen at the time.

And they, people believed in me, and that helped with that.

So "Art of Alignment" was still a staple.

Like people still talk about it to this day.

- It was amazing.

So what, can you give us a little detail of what was the process of "Art of Alignment?"

Like how did it, like what's the name?

Like how, like, what is it?

- So "Art of Alignment," it started with I was thinking about how I wanted to release the album and then like, I went to go pay a ticket 'cause I had traffic ticket or whatever.

And one of my friends that I went to elementary with, Zach, he was there and he was like, "Yo bro, are you still rapping?"

And I'm like, "Yeah, bro."

And he was like, "Yo, I have a band, let's do something.

Let's get together, let's work it out."

And from there it was just like...

I had no business.

I chose to get up that day, but it was storming out.

I was like, "Nah, I ain't gonna go out and go pay that.

I'm gonna pay it tomorrow."

So I felt like that was just the spirit of what I wanted to do just pushing me to be there at that time.

So I was just like, "Art of Alignment."

Yeah.

- All aligns together, right?

- [Ohzhe] Yeah.

- So I know you do a lot of community work.

You do like youth groups, you work for gun violence, you run music programs at our local libraries.

Does your community work have an impact on your music?

- Yeah, a hundred percent.

Like being able to be an inspiration to people it is very important especially as a hip hop artist.

All the greats say that.

It's just that's the most important thing is when you have that type of power being able to control crowds and convey your message through a song, it's only right that you're able to inspire the people that listen to you.

So I just try to like make that my ultimate goal is to always inspire.

- And does inspiration really have...

I know a lot of your music from listening to it, is very inspiring.

So how important is that piece to your music?

Are you focused on making sure folks are inspired by your lyrics or et cetera?

Or is that just something that just happens?

- It just happens, I don't like sit down like, "I have to inspire people."

It is like I'm just speaking my truth and speak where I'm at in life and I already know it's gonna resonate with someone because I know I'm not alone with the experience.

It's just I convey my message differently to others.

So I can inspire an artist.

He doesn't have to be a rapper or a singer.

He can literally just do graffiti, and I can inspire that out of that person I feel like.

- That's amazing.

Yeah.

- So do you have a goal with your music?

- Right now is just to learn more about the business and study the business 'cause the business is the most important part.

- And so with that said business is that your version of success?

What's your version of success within this art?

How would you define success?

- To be able to inspire man and to take care of my family and do things that bring people together.

And success is not always about material gain.

To some people it may, but that comes and goes.

I feel like being an inspiration and just being yourself and being who you are, it should be enough to qualify as success.

Of course you want the money.

- Yeah.

(laughing) - But you have to have the discipline to keep it.

And that comes with like a whole bunch of other things too.

So that's where I'm at with it.

- What are some of those things?

- Educating yourself, financial literacy is important.

If we don't have the tools to utilize or understand financial literacy, then it's just all going out the window.

We'll just keep getting money to letting it go.

We wanna take money and we wanna build it and we wanna turn it into something.

And then I'm not saying don't do things that you wanna do with it, and I'm not a financial advisor either, but I feel like in order to get out of the certain situations that we're in it requires a lot of discipline and financial literacy and mindfulness.

- If you were able to give an emerging hip hop artist one piece of advice, just from your standpoint being so experienced as you are, what would that be?

- Study the business, bro, study the business.

It is the most important thing.

You can be creative all day, but if you don't know the business, you're gonna work yourself into some messy contracts.

You're gonna work yourself into situations that aren't favorable, that don't serve you.

We hear it from hip hop artists all the time, from the greatest all the way down to the lowest, they know that the business is the most important part.

So on your publishing, ASCAP and BMI, make sure you have your own distribution which is DistroKid, TuneCore, all of that cool stuff.

Get you a song trust, get you all of these things that are gonna protect you as an artist.

Because if you don't, you're just gonna keep failing and learning and failing and learning.

There's nothing wrong with failing, but just protect yourself as an artist and study the game all facets, not just the creative.

- Yeah, you don't wanna see your song on HBO and then you get no rights.

- Right.

Right?

(laughs) Like that will suck.

- Yeah.

All right, well thank you Ohzhe for chatting with us today, I appreciate it.

- Thank you for having me.

Cool.

(mellow music) ♪ Hey this the track we count our money to ♪ ♪ Big dream (indistinct) not by what you did ♪ ♪ Or what you gonna do ♪ ♪ No, this ain't nothing new to the hustler stacking paper ♪ ♪ Patience's virtue ♪ ♪ Save it we don't chase the blessing it to come to you ♪ ♪ Yeah, it's the track we count our money to ♪ ♪ Big dream (indistinct) not by what you did ♪ ♪ Or what you gonna do ♪ ♪ No, this ain't nothing new ♪ ♪ To the hustle of stacking paper ♪ ♪ Patience is the virtue, save it ♪ ♪ Don't chase the blessings it'll come to you ♪ ♪ Nah, I don't chase the bag ♪ ♪ It don't run from me ♪ ♪ As long as I'm able, boy ♪ ♪ I know that I'm gonna earn something ♪ ♪ Learn something to make it bad ♪ ♪ Stack it and burn one ♪ ♪ Make investments and blessings ♪ ♪ Got you hittin' me let's work some, serve some up ♪ ♪ Thirsty for my purpose ♪ ♪ Furthermore, I have to go and get it ♪ ♪ Ain't no (indistinct) at all ♪ ♪ So I do within my spirit ♪ ♪ Know that it will open doors for my people ♪ ♪ Check the record, check the score ♪ ♪ I done put too many people wanna settle for a loss ♪ ♪ Needed bigger pockets for these goals ♪ ♪ I got a boss like that team gonna Nimi win ♪ ♪ It's time for four quarter ♪ ♪ LeBron on the court at all forces ♪ ♪ Bound to forth play cautious ♪ ♪ My pop says we should style up and smile up ♪ ♪ If they hate then let 'em hate ♪ ♪ And watch the money pile up ♪ ♪ My mom says we should style up and smile up ♪ ♪ And if they hate to, let 'em hate them hate ♪ ♪ And watch the money pile up ♪ ♪ Yeah, this is the track we count our money to ♪ ♪ Big dream (indistinct) not by what you did ♪ ♪ Or what you gonna do ♪ ♪ No, this ain't nothing new to the hustler stacking paper ♪ ♪ Patience's the virtue save it ♪ ♪ Don't chase the blessing it'll come to you ♪ ♪ Yeah, it's the track we count our money to ♪ ♪ Big dream (indistinct) not by what you did ♪ ♪ Or what you gonna do ♪ ♪ No, this ain't nothing new to the hustler stacking paper ♪ ♪ Patience's a virtue save it ♪ ♪ Don't chase the blessing, they come to you ♪ ♪ Yeah, I don't chase I get tracked, tracked, tracked ♪ ♪ What we do what we do what ♪ ♪ I don't chase, I get tracked, tracked, tracked ♪ ♪ What we do, what we do, what ♪ ♪ I don't chase I get tracked, tracked, tracked ♪ ♪ What we do, what we do What ♪ ♪ I don't chase ♪ ♪ I get tracked, tracked, tracked, tracked, tracked ♪ (mellow music) ♪ Yeah I will not I will not fold ♪ ♪ Haters talking bit I will not fold ♪ ♪ Haters talking but I will not, not, not ♪ ♪ Yeah I will not fold ♪ ♪ I know they talking but I will not fold ♪ ♪ I know they watching but I will not fold ♪ ♪ Hey Jay, look ♪ ♪ Get out your mind then get out the way ♪ ♪ Minding my business, my mind on my plate ♪ ♪ Know I'm gonna make it ♪ ♪ Don't care what it take ♪ ♪ Gotta have paces with paving the way ♪ ♪ All about time and designing your faith ♪ ♪ Not about drowning no waste in the wave ♪ ♪ Or scraping the pots for minimum wage ♪ ♪ Just taking my time and practicing faith ♪ ♪ Who you know with a flow like this put 'em on ♪ ♪ Came a long way from a pawn to a king ♪ ♪ One of my things at the store to afford ♪ ♪ All the things that I want ♪ ♪ But I learned it that comes with the way that I think ♪ ♪ One with the way like the waves of the sea ♪ ♪ Breeze to a tree ♪ ♪ Water the piece of my harvest ♪ ♪ Believed that I will not fold ♪ ♪ It's still like, yoh, I will not fold ♪ ♪ Haters talking but I will not fold ♪ ♪ Know they watching but I will not fold ♪ ♪ Haters talking but I will not, not not ♪ ♪ Yeah, I will not fold ♪ ♪ I know they talking but I will not fold ♪ ♪ I know they watching but I cannot fold ♪ ♪ Fold fold yeah ♪ ♪ Yeah I will not fold ♪ ♪ Haters talking but I will not fold ♪ ♪ Know they watching but I cannot fold ♪ ♪ Know they they watching but I will not ♪ ♪ Not, not, not ♪ ♪ Yeah, I will not fold ♪ ♪ Yeah, they talking but I will not fold ♪ ♪ Know they watching but I cannot not fold ♪ ♪ Fold fold fold, yeah ♪ ♪ Get out your mind then get out the way ♪ ♪ Hey, hey ♪ ♪ Say it with me ♪ ♪ Get out your mind then get out the way ♪ ♪ Hey, yeah ♪ ♪ Get out your mind then get out the way ♪ ♪ Hey hey ♪ ♪ Yeah, get out your mind then get out the way ♪ ♪ Aye aye ♪ ♪ Yeah, get out your mind then get out the way ♪ ♪ Aye aye what ♪ ♪ Yeah, get out your mind then get out the way ♪ ♪ Aye aye what ♪ ♪ Get out your mind then get out the way ♪ ♪ Aye aye yeah ♪ ♪ Get out your mind then get out the way ♪ ♪ Aye aye yeah ♪ ♪ Yeah, I will not fold ♪ ♪ Haters talking but I will not fold ♪ ♪ Know they watching but I will not fold ♪ ♪ Haters talking but I will not, not not ♪ ♪ Yeah, I will not fold ♪ ♪ Hey they talking but I will not fold ♪ ♪ Know they watching but I will not fold ♪ ♪ Fold fold ♪ ♪ Yeah, I will not fold ♪ ♪ Yeah, they talking but I will not fold ♪ ♪ Know they watching but I cannot not fold ♪ ♪ Know they watching but I will not, not, not ♪ ♪ Yeah I will not fold ♪ ♪ Haters talking, but I will not fold ♪ ♪ I know they watching but I will not fold ♪ ♪ Fold fold ♪ (mellow music) This is great (laughs).

I put a lot into my hip hop.

I put a lot into my craft and I just wanna inspire the ones that are coming next after me.

And let this be an example that you can do this too.

Don't give up on yourself and always, always take care of yourself.

'Cause you can't take care of yourself, you can't take care of nobody.

So always prioritize self-care.

And please check my stuff out man.

If you vibing with me, come to a show, come see me.

I'm out in public.

I'm always in the community helping the best way I can.

And again, I'm just very excited to be here and I'm blessed.

(laughed) So fired bro (laughs).

- [Man] That's awesome.

(upbeat music) (man singing in foreign language) ♪ You know you better keep moving till you out of breath ♪ ♪ Push it to the limit ♪ ♪ You aint finish till you break a sweat ♪ ♪ Now drop it low like you working on your squats ♪ ♪ Give it all you got ♪ ♪ No win ambition just ambition when you in your prime ♪ ♪ Just stay like (indistinct) ♪ ♪ You popping like Frisco ♪ ♪ Eager like papa and (indistinct) ♪ ♪ This is just another one for the move ♪ ♪ This the groove ♪ ♪ It's the one that's out there into it ♪ ♪ If you looking for results better get a routine ♪ ♪ Working on your booty just to fit them new jeans ♪ ♪ Gotta do the little wiggle just to fit them both ♪ ♪ Cheese even little booties matter ♪ ♪ Better eat your protein ♪ ♪ Nothing better than taking care of your health ♪ ♪ It's better to do in now than leave yourself on the shelf ♪ ♪ Get yourself grace in the process ♪ ♪ Gotta have faith in the mindset ♪ ♪ It hurt but it's not death ♪ ♪ Aye go aye go aye go ♪ ♪ Aye go aye go aye go ♪ ♪ What what what ♪ ♪ Keep moving keep moving what ♪ ♪ Keep moving keep moving what ♪ ♪ Keep moving keep moving ♪ ♪ Keep moving keep moving ♪ - Yeah, you see it.

Let's go, art money.

Shout out (indistinct).

Shout out to all my people.

Shout out to Jay Warwick.

Shout out to Juma.

Shout out to Jordan.

Shout out to Mama Love.

Katrice Chester, I love all y'all.

Shout out to the whole 518.

We here, I love y'all peace.

(dramatic music) - Thanks for joining us.

For more arts, visit wmht.org/aha and be sure to connect with us on social media.

I'm Matt Rogowicz.

Thanks for watching.

(dramatic music) - [Narrator] Funding for AHA has been provided by your contribution and by contributions to the WMHT Venture Fund.

Contributors include The Leo Cox Beach Philanthropic Foundation, Chet and Karen Opalka, Robert and Doris Fischer Malesardi, and The Robison Family Foundation.

- At M&T Bank, we understand that the vitality of our communities is crucial to our continued success.

That's why we take an active role in our community.

M&T Bank is pleased to support WMHT programming that highlights the arts, and we invite you to do the same.