Check out our exclusive interview with Omen44. Our apologies the interview cut off towards the end. We we discus his new album, Year Of The Dragon and much more so check it out. The audio of the interview is below.
All right, we’re here with Omen44, how’s it going, man?
Doing great, sir.
All right, let’s get right in. So you just recently dropped a couple of months ago, your Year Of The Dragon album. Tell me a little bit about the album and how it came together for you.
Yes.
It’s been a minute after I released it. Yes, the album, I dropped it last year, which was the Year Of The Dragon. I have a couple of artists there that I had featured on, that I have featured.
That’s Koki, Craig G from the Juice Crew, The Boot Camp Clique, Shingo 2, that just did a US tour last year, and a couple of producers. One, Kairi Tachi from France, and all that, yes. It’s, it’s, I kind of, you know, my musical roots is in DJ Crush, and Trip Hop, and all that.”
“So, I kind of shifted toward Trip Hop for this album. That’s why I have two drum and bass track, and a house track. It’s, it’s a Trip Hop album.
I kind of imagine of DJ Spooky in the 90s making it. So, yes, it’s a bit of a DJ Shadow, DJ Spooky, DJ Crush type of music.
Yeah, I definitely was going to say, it kind of reminded me of a kind of a DJ Shadow type of album. So, I thought that was really dope, kind of the change, kind of more from your traditional sound to more of this, like you said, the trip hop sound. A lot of hip hop OGs on there.”
“Do you have any great moments or memories that you have in collaborating with these artists with this album?
Oh, yeah, lots of, lots of memories. Yeah, where should I even start from?
Just one or two that maybe stick out to you.
The one I did with DJ Munari, which I featured on Boot Camp Clip. Munari, he was, he got famous off of TMZ, I think. He had this YouTube channel with, he’s married to is African American.
So he had this YouTube channel called Tokyo To Brooklyn. And that actually, that YouTube blew up. And he featured me on one of his channels.
And I made a track with him. I featured Boot Camp Clik. Shout out to Angel that shot the video for me.
We went to, we went to Brownsville. We went to a project in Brownsville to shoot it, too. It was great.”
“I know Smith & Wesson from like early 2010. And it was great to go back to my musical roots with that, too. Shout out to Smith & Wesson.
Shout out to Steele and them. It was just lots of fun, really. Shooting at the studio, making the music, the whole process.
Oh, even with me, I got connected with Shing02, too, this Japanese American rapper. He’s one of the originators of, he’s one of the original Japanese folks that actually began rapping in English. I got to know him through this graffiti artist in the name of Kirk.
He called me up in UK, and I hooked up with them in UK. That was a good experience, yes. You know, at the end of the day, this is about me and my album, and my musical preference, but without all these folks, this was nothing.
It was me just giving it back to the foundation, showing respect, and showing respect towards the hip hop community, like the whole music thing. Yeah, thank you.
Yeah, absolutely.
So that was the whole thing, you know.
All right. Do you have any more upcoming visuals or videos that are set to drop from the project?
“Oh, yes. Thank you. Thank you for asking me that.
I’ll be dropping a video with Richie Spice this coming spring, and by the summer, I’m hoping to drop a video with Shingu 2, too. Very dope. I want people who never heard of these names.
I want you all to… That’s another thing. I wanted to introduce these people to the world, too.
People that never listen to Shing02 or people like this, you know, I want you to go online, go on YouTube, check new Javits. Rest In Peace. These were like founders of Japanese jazz hip hop.
You know, like jazz hip hop in Japan is a huge thing, you know, out there. Like Shingu 2, and these are people that began that movement out there in Japan. So, you know, they have their own cultural thing out there, you know.
And I kind of wanted to introduce that too.
Okay. Absolutely. Absolutely.
Thank you.
So, the song I made with Shing02, and the song that I made with Richie Spice, the videos are coming out for those two. Yes. Yes.
So, that’s it.
Oh, no worries. Now, we are into 2025, which is crazy to think about. But just as a producer, what’s your thoughts right now on kind of the music scene, mainly hip hop, and where you think musically, kind of the production, the direction musically, you think the sound is going, or just your thoughts, maybe some dope producers, new or old, that you’re currently listening to on your playlist.
Just what’s your thoughts overall on music from a production standpoint in 2025?
Good question, sir. You know, to be honest, what am I listening to lately? You know, I was actually listening to Iced Tea during the music with this band.
And he was more into that rock thing. That was really interesting. You know, like, what I see right now is like…
And it’s just refreshing in a strange way. You know, like, this hip hop, right, to me, it’s been in a circle for a while, right? Like, a while.
Like, starting, you know, my whole idea of me doing it over drum and bass and house tracks was basically like bringing music back to that cool work era, you know, when it was more experimental and people would sample these electronic music from Kraftwerk, these German artists, or, you know, something like that. Like more creative and more… Right now, we have this template that the media, the corporate actually, like, imprinted us.
So we’re just following that in a strange way, so people don’t really… I don’t think people really, like…
Like… We hear it in a… Like, hear it from different directions or…
Like, how I see it is like, when, you know, I’m an old dude, so, like, back in the days, we needed to dig to figure out what kind of music there was out there, and like, to understand stuff, and like, we would go out record digging, and just listen to it, and like, get those knowledges and information out of it. But, now that information is overwhelmed, people don’t even know where to start from, you know, and they don’t…
Like, what was that word? Brain dead? These kids are just scrolling the social media all day, and like, not thinking or nothing, and like, just receiving and receiving and receiving, you know?
And like, you… People need a foundation, actually, like, the core of themselves. Like, what I always think about when I’m listening, or like, when I’m trying to understand the other perspectives in music, like, you know, I tried to find out their core to it.
Like, well, I tried to find out where they came from and how they evolved in a way.
Absolutely.
And like, you know… Like, I don’t really feel that from young people nowadays. Sad to say, but…
Like, people are really busy becoming other people. They’re not, really, you know? So, like, and those stuff are out there.
And like, and everything is just becoming ambiguous. And like, I don’t know. And, you know, everybody’s just attention-seeking, you know?
And they’re not really facing music, I don’t think, in a way that people used to do in back in the day. Maybe I, you know, I shouldn’t take these things, like, you know, I don’t want to feel like an old head, you know, even, you know?
But… No, I understand, I understand what you’re saying. I think the accessibility of music and just information as a whole has kind of made people, some people lazy.
I think if you’re a naturally creative person, I think it’s really dope, just from kind of a journalistic, like podcaster perspective. I think if you’re really creative, whether you’re a producer or a rapper, to get information, like say a sample or something, it’s a lot easier now, I would think, than 20, 30 years ago. It’s that creativity in making it into a beat or making it into a song or whatever you’re gonna do with it, that still falls on the person themselves.
And I think a lot of people get so easily seduced by how easy it is to get samples. Like for example, I could sample Cool Herc, for example. I hear a lot of songs now, they’ll take like almost the entire beat and then just throw a couple drums and hi-hats on it and then rap over it and it literally sounds like you’re listening to the original because you didn’t add anything to it.
Whereas, you know, producers like DJ Premier or Pete Rock or Dr. Dre or DJ Quick or someone like yourself, you’re adding, that’s why I liked with your album, you said, you know, it kind of gives that DJ shadow kind of trip hop. You’re adding new elements and you’re trying something, you’re trying something new, but with producers back then, it meant more because of just the process you had to do, whether it was getting a sample cleared or…
Exactly, exactly.
“Or like you said, literally like the crew digging in the crates, digging in crates upon crates, it literally means what it says. You’re digging through crates of vinyl to find, and once you find it, you’re like, okay, I found this gem, I’ve already in my mind, I’ve got what I want this track to sound like, or if it’s an MC, I really wanted to rap over this, you know, my mom used to listen to this in the 60s, or if it’s an older track, and that’s the part where I definitely agree with you, the creativity part is out because everything is so easily accessible to people now.
Yes, yes, yes. You know, what was that word? Genius field, and normal people imitate or something, right?
Yes.
So, like, yeah, like you, you have to understand that core part, like, of what, you know, especially from now on, like, it’s gonna be AI, you know?
Yeah.
We’re gonna have AI generating 200, 300 songs in like five minutes. And then we got to choose which beat we’re gonna rap over it even, you know? And like, and so what is, what is it gonna be that, that draws that feeling, that draws that some kind of, you know, that’s why, you know, another thing, like, you know, what I, what I, what I very much tell myself is that it has to be real, you know?
It has to be you. No matter what, like, you know, your regret, your sadness, your grievance, everything, you know? It has to be you.
It has to be that core feeling, anything, you know, like. But it has to be you, yourself, like, you, you’re… That’s how I feel, you know, especially when, especially in this world of AI, you know?
Now we’re gonna, now we can’t really tell which is human and which is not even, really.
Yeah, absolutely.
We gotta look at, we gotta look at all these photos, wondering if it’s true human or not, you know? We gotta listen to these music, thinking, is this really just new? I think it’s by humans, you know?
Now, so like, that’s the thing, like, you…
We gotta radiate and shine that human thing, that human intellect, that human feeling, that human, you know, humans are awesome. I’m sorry about this. I don’t know where I’m going to, but…
No, no.
No, this is… No, this is one of the dopest answers I’ve had to this question, so I appreciate it. It’s no authenticity with it.
That’s something I always go back to, but… Do you have any upcoming shows or tour dates or anything coming up you wanna let people know about?
I just finished my Japan tour last year, and…
I was hoping to have a release party in New York, but I’m hoping to have that within this year. I’m working on quite a lot of stuff right now. Some stuff, I have to keep it in secret, but…
Okay.
Yes, make sure to follow me on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or whatever. You can go on YouTube, Omen44. I have a couple of songs that’s in Japanese too, but yeah, in English too, so.
Okay. All right, well, that’s all the questions I have for you. Appreciate you getting down for the interview.
https://linkco.re/uVYv4BM9?lang=en
Listeners, you will really love and enjoy the album Year Of The Dragon. Urge everybody to go pick it up and check it out. It’s definitely innovative, and just everything that we talked about before, it’s authentic hip-hop, and hip-hop comes in many different sounds, shapes, emcees, producers, and I really like your kind of change of pace of what you’ve done in the past and something new, but it’s still authentically hip-hop, so I really appreciate all that you do for the culture, man.
Yeah, no, that’s another thing. Like, you know, when we talk about hip-hop even, it used to be really creative. It used to be something that was trying to, you know…
It’s a culture, you know, and it has to keep on evolving. It has to keep on growing, you know. So, we have to add more ideas to it.