As a young creative it can be hard to find your footing, and the right support on your way to becoming a fully matured artist. Oba Oseghali has been taking these challenges head on his whole life, and on Oct. 11 at Royale he will see years of work come to fruition when he steps on stage in front of hundreds of his peers as the opening act for Tory Lanez.
Ishan, the name Oseghali makes music under, is also the name of the Nigerian tribe his family descends from, himself being first generation American. The New Hampshire native started singing before rapping, but says when he was 12 years old he started to find his passion.
“I put my mic in between my clothes, to drown out the sound, and I was rapping inside my closet,” said Oseghali. “I had my computer set up next to me on a bunch of shoe boxes and that was my studio per say.”
Growing up listening to Biggie, 50 Cent and Joey Bada$$, he says he was influenced heavily by the old school East Coast sound. The rapper draws inspiration from those who came before him, but he keeps his content true to self.
“My biggest philosophy is never write something I don’t do or never comes from my life,” said Oseghali. “Writing is easy if you’re just writing to write, but if you’re writing with a purpose of putting out a message, or the purpose of writing for the culture you gotta sit down and pay attention and think about something.”
In the same vein of artists like Kanye, J Cole and Mac Miller, Oseghali has a perfectionist mindset. He not only writes and performs his own lyrics, but also produces and creates the beats over which he raps. This is no small task as most rappers, old or new, East or West Coast, never even attempt the production side of the music.
“The last thing I want to do is put out something that I didn’t bother to put any effort into,” said Oseghali. “Everything I do has to be as perfect as I can make it to the best of my abilities, I don’t like easy, I like perfect.”
Both albums “Comfort” and “Oba” are entirely self-written, performed and produced solo projects that he has released, along with other EPs. “Comfort” shares a name with Oseghali’s grandmother, whom he was estranged from for most of his life. After finally reconnecting with her in Nigeria via an Oovoo facetime call, it was just two days later that she passed, but the call and her spirit is with him always.
As far as the concert, he said he’s not nervous, but ready for this next challenge. Starting out he said people would listen for the novelty of hearing a friend’s music, now he says he feels genuine support.
“Once I got to college, I had all these people actually care about my music and care about supporting me,” said Oseghali. “It’s going to be really nice in the moment to see all those people out there, who are there for me and rapping along with them and having that moment I’m excited for it.”
While he has done open mics and other gigs before, this show is special, his craft will be on display for a sea of faces he passes every day in the halls of Suffolk.
His set will be 30 minutes and will feature songs from across his catalog. Oseghali also plans to throw in a few remixes of popular songs he hopes will get the crowd involved.
There’s no doubt he will be putting his best foot forward when he steps on stage next Monday night.
