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ENTER THE EXPANDING WORLD OF OZONE CREATIONS


Ozone Creations artists, from left to right: Obi Original, Bakarii, Ch!nwe,
Sumer (front), Mack OC, and Breezy2FreshBilly Hawk

by Jeffrey Bissoy-Mattis

March 24, 2022

In the fall of 2021, the pan-African Twin Cities music group and creative
organization Ozone Creations released their first collective project, Coup
D’etat. The 18-track album was more than their coming out party. It was the
culmination of what Ozone members call “plethora” Blackness, a fusion of Black
musical genres that have influenced the group.



In Coup D’etat, you hear Afro-pop, one of the group’s staple sounds, but also
rap and hip-hop, R&B, funk, and more. (The crew will perform Friday, March 25,
at The Cabooze.)

“We're working to be a very good telling presence in the city. Even in the
lessons of being Black, being a monolith is a falsified concept,” says Obi
Original, one of the founders of Ozone Creations, who recently spoke to The
Current in a group interview. “We want to be able to show that being Black is
actually a plethora, and in plethora, there's the power.”

Ozone Creations’ “plethora” Blackness, like titling an album Coup D’etat, is an
act of defiance – a dagger slashing at the belief that all Black people are the
same in culture and identity.

Coup D’etat is about the celebration of diverse Blackness, much like the group
itself. Its artists – Obi Original, Breezy2Fresh, Bakarii, Ch!nwe, Sumer, and
Mack OC – have roots spanning from Nigeria, Cameroon, France, Morocco, Algeria,
Egypt, and the U.S.

In short, Ozone Creations is working to build representation for the children of
immigrants, as well as Black Americans looking to see themselves and their
culture reflected, as well as looking for more opportunities to learn about
their origins and music. 

Since the late ’90s, the African population in Minnesota has soared, including
generations of kids growing up in the Twin Cities metro from Somalia, Ethiopia,
Eritrea, Kenya, Nigeria, Cameroon, Togo, Congo, Ghana, and many many more.
Growing up with parents reinforcing African traditions, while also being raised
“American” by nature of growing up in the U.S., this generation is forced to
bridge the gap between their two homes. It’s in this gap that Ozone Creations
exists.

“I see comfort. Minnesota is a predominantly white state. And all of us growing
up in this state have realized that sometimes you feel alone, but then you find
your people, and then you realize that you're not that alone,” Obi Original
says. 

“And there's generations and generations of us, but there hasn't been anybody to
show us. We are that beginning. And after us, it's just up from here,” he adds.
“I'm so excited seeing the people get comfortable with who they are, where
they're from, and I think a lot of people weren't supporting where they're from,
and I think now, I think they're okay with showing where they're from.”

The origins of Ozone Creations

Coup D’etat was far from Ozone’s introduction to the Twin Cities. For several
years, Ozone founder and Nigeria native Obi Original, a tireless music junkie,
has pioneered a new Afro-fusion locally – ever since his 2019 single “Tsunami.”
To hear him tell it, it’s almost as if it was fate.



“For me, it really started with a lot of old highlife African music [a style
that dates back to 19th century Ghana]. I was always in tune with it since I was
young because we have a very strong Igbo community here in Minnesota and my
uncle Chris was DJing,” Obi Original says. “We have an Igbo Fest here, which I
started tapping in with at a very young age – doing a lot of the cultural dances
and playing the traditional drums.”

Celebrated yearly, over a hot summer weekend, Igbo Fest is one of the largest
Nigerian celebrations in Minnesota, and one of the biggest celebrations of the
Igbo tribe in all of the U.S., attracting Nigerian-Americans from across the
country. Attending these festivals, discovering and immersing himself in
Afro-creativity, and drawing inspiration from Fela Kuti and Prince Nico, the
Nigerian artist who sang “Sweet Mother,” motivated Obi Original to take music
seriously.

“African music is the basis of everything I work on…it is the epicenter of where
we come from as a people. So let's go from the bottom and bring ourselves up,”
he says. “I started really getting into music for real when I asked my mom to
buy me one of these USB mics. I had a guitar and I started really playing.”

In time, he would connect with Cameroonian-American rapper and engineer
Breezy2Fresh, who would help him take his engineering skills and sound to the
next level. Breezy and Obi attended the same high school and were familiar with
each other, but it wasn’t until college that musical fruit began to sprout. 

“I was going to St. John's [in Collegeville, Minnesota] at the time, but I was
working with [Breezy and his crew] and I was like, ‘Okay, these guys have been
doing quality work at other places, how can I match or even do better?’” Obi
questions.

He soon found the answer in learning how to engineer his own beats and
productions. “I really do give Breezy and the crew a lot of credit for
challenging me to get to where I am now with mastering and mixing,” he adds.

“Our story is funny, because [Obi and I] have been brothers for a long time.
We’ve known each other since we were kids. It’s funny how we’ve known each other
for so long, but never knew that side of each other, until we tapped in,” Breezy
says.

While Obi Original was discovering and developing his Afro-fusion sound, Breezy,
who is now the lead engineer for Ozone Creations, was building his name in the
cities as a rapper. Drawing inspiration from J. Dilla, Wu-Tang Clan, and Chance
the Rapper, he was known to rock the mic with lyricism and energy.

“When he did the college real-world thing, I dropped my Midas Touch,” Breezy
says. “People just knew we had a dynamic and we were building a fan base…I
always knew Obi was a music genius…it was a proud moment to see him step out of
the background into the limelight.”

Clockwise, from top left: Ch!nwe, Breezy2Fresh, Mack OC, Obi Original, Sumer,
and Bakarii
Billy Hawk

New recruits and growth of Ozone Creations

The first non-founder addition to the Ozone Creations was Bakarii, one of the
pioneers for the group’s sound and growth. A multi-talented artist, theater kid
and athlete, Bakarii was a student at Hamline University when he first met Obi
Original and Breezy2Fresh.

They connected through Afrobeats and their African origins in 2016, but it took
some time for Obi Original and Bakarii to lay a track together.

“I'm trying to contact this man, Obi. I want to make a song and I cannot get a
hold of him,” Bakarii says. “It's okay, though. I just kept doing me. I was
persistent. I was making beats, and I did a performance with some friends at the
University of Wisconsin-River Falls.”

It took almost two years for Obi Original and Bakarii to reconnect, but once
they did, it was magic.

“We made this song called ‘Slide’ and that was my first time truly touching the
Afrobeat and actually being fully an artist and writer,” Bakarii says. “From
there, I just started trying to do Afrobeats, and that was around the same time
when we were coming together.”

Beyond being one of the lead voices of the crew, Bakarii also runs the
operations and management of the crew.

In recent years, they’ve recruited Ch!nwe, an artist and designer with Nigerian
roots, Sumer, a singer from a family of vocalists with deep family ties on
Minneapolis’ North Side, and Mack OC, a lyricist who joined the crew last year.



Ch!nwe, who released Obscured in February, believes that Ozone can help build
transformational change in the city. “ We're pursuing better quality music out
of this community,” he says. “We want to see things get done to improve. So we
can show people that we can be a group and still be individuals. You work
together to get something to happen, from there you can only encourage the next
people to do amazing things.”

For Sumer, who never lacks in confidence, also recently released a new single,
“Addicted,” becoming a member of Ozone Creations has not only helped her grow as
a musician, it has helped her better understand her own Blackness.

“I started making music around 2019. Ever since, it has been a straight shot to
the moon and to the stars. I just knew I was gonna be the center of attention,
[Ozone] made it easy,” Sumer says as the crew busts out laughing.

“My mama Black, my daddy Black…I just be here you know?” Sumer added. “[Ozone]
really taught me that it is okay to know where you're from, that you're a
descendant of…that's something I've always been feeling lost about, especially
being an African American and knowing that your history is American history. And
also knowing that their history (African history) has gone further than mine and
wanting to understand that. They’ve helped broaden my understanding.”

The most recent addition to Ozone Creations is Mack OC, whose ties with Obi
Original began long before Ozone was a thought.

“We used to live in New Brighton and I remember literally when he was born. Me
and my mom went to visit his apartment,” Obi Original says. 

“I never had a big brother, so I remember one of the earliest memories I have is
of Obi taking me to the park,” Mack OC replies.

Mack has been rapping since high school, when he was known for freestyling and
recording diss tracks. He even had a popular song on SoundCloud. Even with his
proximity to Obi Original, joining Ozone took him a while. 

“When I first started taking music seriously, I still was the annoying kid to
Obi and hitting him up about doing music,” Mack OC says. “I would write him, ‘I
want to work with you.’ Asking him, ‘How do I deal with a project?’ and I would
get no response.”

In the fall of 2020, Obi finally responded. 

“He invited me to his studio, and then I recorded a song with him. And he was
like, ‘There’s a show next week,’ and he told me to come to play our one song
when I got there.”

Building a united community of Black creatives in the Twin Cities

One of the common refrains from artists in the Twin Cities is that they don’t
get enough media support or airplay, and the artist community doesn’t do a good
enough job of supporting and uplifting one another.

Some of these artists point to Atlanta as an example of what they’d like the
Twin Cities to be. In the Twin Cities you have artists like Destiny Roberts,
Ricki Monique, Rich Garvey, Juice Lord, and Sole 2 Dotz that have done their
part to create a united music community. You also have groups like 3ME and
Illism that have made space for others.

“The creation in our name is that we really are creating a space that before has
been like a glass ceiling,” added Breezy2Fresh. “We grew up hearing that
Minnesota artists can only reach a certain point, and I feel like we're showing
actively that there's enough room for everyone to eat.”

Like their peers, Ozone Creations is also doing their part to build an uplifting
community. One recent example is Shy-I, a native of Nigeria based in the Twin
Cities, who recently collaborated with Obi Original on the single, “Fanta.”



“I'm glad, because being around people like Ozone really allowed me to develop
my sound and really be free with myself,” Shy-I says. “One thing I love about
music is that it doesn't have any rules. You can really do whatever you want.
And it was a comforting feeling.”

Coup D’etat and the future of Ozone Creations

Ozone Creations wasn’t built in a day. It represents the journeys of many
musicians discovering their individual sound and understanding each other’s
Black roots. Coup D’etat, Ozone’s first collective album, was released in the
fall of 2021. It was more than a simple debut album for Ozone, celebrating
diverse Black sounds, it was their expression and storytelling about being
African and African-American artists from the Twin Cities.

“The terminology with Coup D’etat mainly comes from the historical aspect of a
lot of African countries having had the action of coup d'etat. But for us, we
want to be able to have a positive aspect, at least with us being artists, to be
a positive establishment,” Obi Original explains. “I wanted it to be something
that sends a message that people know that we're here, that we have something to
say in different ways.”

Bakarii adds, “We wanted to represent an organized infiltration of multiple
establishments. And in this case, it's the music industry, education, prison
reform, like, there's so many things that need to be addressed. We feel like we
can do something and provide some changes. We know all the power that artists
have and it's to empower artists.”

Many of the tracks on Coup D’etat were recorded and completed a few years ago,
but there were a few new additions that were recorded just months before the
release. Through careful selection and mixing, the group wanted to make sure
that they were sharing sounds and messages that best represented the group.

The album upon first listen feels more like a playlist – a collage of multiple
songs with different cadences, rhythms, and vibes. That was the intention.

“I’ve seen it as a way to get out of the industry of negativity, because there's
so much negativity in the music industry as a whole. And for us, for the culture
that people want to have, we have that culture and we express it in such a good
dynamic, but nobody ever sounds the same. None of us sound the same. What you
hear is distinct,” Breezy2Fresh says.

Coup D’etat is a revolt against the idea that individual artists can’t band
together to make great music. Moreover, Breezy says it is a coup against a music
industry that has a reputation of being cutthroat and unfair towards artists.

“The power now rests more in the artists’ hands. [Artists] are waking up. When
you look in your history, we're seeing that it was always in our hands. We were
just led to believe it wasn't,” Ch!nwe says. “We're becoming more conscious,
business-wise, and music-wise, of the things that belong to us and how to value
it… we become ‘The Avengers’ of it.”

It’s an interesting parallel to think about. Like the heroes of the Marvel
Cinematic Universe, they are able to put aside their egos and collaborate when
required. From a music perspective, it’s the individuality to pursue and develop
one’s sound as part of a collective that uplifts and empowers one another.

Obi Original also believes in the collective. “My inspiration is being like
Wu-Tang Clan, when it comes to being in a group and handling business – pushing
that evolution even in the respect of a collective and all of us eating, being
able to be our true genuine selves in this musical spirit,” he says.

The key for Coup D’etat, and more importantly for Ozone Creations, is to
continue celebrating their diverse Blackness and continue pushing the
Afro-fusion/Afro-pop music in the Twin Cities and the U.S.

“Just like how hip-hop is pop now, I feel like all popular music in general has
Black origins. So I feel like that's how Afro pop is going to manifest in
general. It's already happening just within Ozone,” Bakarii says. “You have Obi
Original making these amazing Afro beats and you have R&B artists, rappers and
different people hopping on them and making it more than just Afro. It's making
Afro-pop, but it's just including so much more. it feels like a metamorphosis
that is just going to keep rolling and rolling.”



Coup D’etat is the first of many collective projects for the Ozone Creations.
Since its release, Ch!nwe, Sumer, Bakarii, Obi Original, and Ozone-affiliate
Shy-I have released projects or singles. Stream their music on Spotify, Apple,
Tidal, or wherever you listen to music.

Ozone Presents: The Essentials Show will feature live music and an NFT release
at The Cabooze on Friday, March 25. Tickets.

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