Giant Step Interview with Myself & Trek Life

Exclusive Interview with Oddisee and Trek Life

By Seher Sikandar

Regular contributor Seher Sikandar interviewsOddisee and Trek Life to discuss their upcoming album, Everything Changed Nothing special for you Giant Steppers. Check it out after jump.

After briefly observing Jazzy Jeff at A Touch of Jazz (Jazzy’s production company), DC-based producer/rapper Oddisee quickly learned how the famed DJ produced artists from the ground up. Seeing how expensive it was to do this, he sought an approach for doing the same thing more economically.

Starting by creating a highly raved about hip-hop trio, Diamond District (a free promo of the LP, In The Ruff, is floating around the innanets somewhere and an iTunes version is to be released late October), he’s begun to embark on this path. “It’s the beginning of everything I want to do in the music industry: find an artist, produce them, market them, book their tours and get paid.”

Known in the independent hip-hop community as a dedicated artist who shrewdly manages his own career, Oddisee is optimistic that his artist-to-artist consulting will help his peers “experience longevity, income and acknowledgement.”

“It’s an amazing feeling to know my peers trust me as much as they do. It’s a constant reminder that I must be doing something right. It also assures me that I will work in music beyond my own works.”

But so what if Oddisee handles his own ish and does a fair job at it? Why would any artists want to team up with dude? Like, seriously. He says three things:

1) “I’m one of very few independent hip-hop artists making an actual real living from my music.”
2) “I want the best for whomever I work with and that’s truly rare.”
3) “I feel I have the ability to make artists better simply by magnifying what they already are - that in itself is difficult for most artists to do themselves.”

Even Trek Life, an established rapper from the LA area has taken note of the man’s talents. Having developed a close friendship over the years, the two just wrapped up their first official official album together, Everything Changed Nothing (Trek on the verses, Oddisee on the beats). I caught up with the young lads at Trek Life’s studio to chat up their project and this whole little concept O has going on. Peep.

Seher Sikandar is a Bay Area-based photographer and writer who covers music, art, and lifestyle events. Check out her work at rehescreative.com.