I am building a better and bigger version of ‘OCJ’ now.
It’s barely two weeks to his Lagos concert, and the emerging music artist is super pumped to give his fans in Lagos an uber-improved version of himself. He holds constant rehearsals with his bands and at any opportunity to talk about what the future holds for him and his art, he feels exhilarated.
On his Instagram, he is actively sharing short clips promoting his upcoming OCJ Live in Lagos concert and reposting Instastories of friends and fans talking about his concert. If you’ve been active on Instagram this past week, you couldn’t have missed it.
And now, this is all he talks about. His shows. His band. His art. His music. His dream of winning a Grammy. His desire to prove his father wrong for being unsupportive of his music career. His 10-billion-dollar net worth. His album due for release in 2024. OCJ has come full circle. Since 2021, when he released his EP, African Prince, a lot has changed for Odekhian Ehinomen Osborn, as he elucidates in this chat.
The African Prince is now a live performing artist. We are targeting a global audience. I want to be one of the greatest live performers in the world from Africa.
Now that he is back, fans may wonder what took him so long. It’s been two years, and he sure did take his time to sit with himself and put his individuality and his music through the lenses of time, longevity, and legacy to ensure that he is honest about his music and life as an artist.
The reason it took me that long, you know, just taking my time is because I want to drop timeless music, music that will stay after I am old and gone, music that the next four/five generations will come back to and resonate with, music that they will listen to and still feel substance.
Yes, I have been taking my time, to be honest with myself in my music, to find myself in my music, to find myself in my art.
My album is ready. We have a wonderful project. It has everything in it. It has my journey. It has my pain. It also has vibes, so it’s rich. The album is a full body of work that captures my journey so far. My downs and my ups. My wins and my lessons.
He continues talking about the future and his dreams of taking his music beyond the shores of Africa as a global artist while exploring his other artistic sides–scripting, band directing, and cinematography. The vision is so clear that he envisions where he is going and will not stop confidently expressing his belief that he will get to his apex through his many talents. From hosting his show in his home state, Edo, to gearing up for the next one in Lagos on November 11 while hinting at another one outside the continent, he keeps soaring.
The shows and concerts we will be doing now will be around the world. We did one in Edo. We will do one in Lagos, and the next is in North America. I am still an independent artist. I am sticking to the art of it. The art is the most interesting part of it.
I don’t care about the money like that. I like money, but I don’t care about it as far as this music is concerned because the dream is bigger than the wins or the losses in the journey. I want to explore as an independent artist. We will also make a lot of videos, which I will be scripting from the album.
I script my videos. I direct my band. I have the vision and mission of my music and my craft. I know where I am going, and I will get there. I am not a fluke. I am currently worth 10 billion dollars. Yes. I am worth 10 billion dollars of talent,
He says as he proudly explains the richness of his craft and the artist behind it.
Mirrors, OCJ’s soon-to-be-released 13-track album, chronicles his journey through different moments of pain and hope. It gets feel-good. It gets melancholic, but all in all, it’s brutally honest. He is not the type of artist to tell you he has no personal favourites of all his work. He does have a personal favourite–“Middle of the Sea”– a song he recorded in a dark moment of his life. “
I was at a very dark spot in life where I was trying to call forth for light. I was calling God for light. My second is ‘Far Away From Home.’ These are songs that show a lot of my vulnerability. I was very vulnerable with these songs. I was speaking out of pain but in hope. I also tried to stay very positive.
OCJ
It’s hard to discuss deeply sentimental works of art such as these without exploring the inspiration behind it all. OCJ doesn’t hold back one bit as he starts to painfully recall several incidents in his life where his father had discouraged him from making music, which inadvertently kept and still keeps spurring him on. He starts by saying that of all the songs on the upcoming album, there’s only one with a dedication and that dedication is to himself and nobody else, you might add. The song is titled “Dream.”
Because it was just like a dream, where I am now, where I am going to. They’re all in my dreams. Everyone thought I was in a fantasy world, but I am saying them, putting them out and manifesting them.
OCJ
“I remember when I was younger. My dad would barge in and say: ‘So Ehinomen, it’s music you want to be doing in your life. Who do you know that has made it through music?’ That particular reason is why I want to make it to prove my dad wrong. He doesn’t understand the potential that we have. I’m not the only talented one in the family. I also have my younger singer.”
It was easy for his father to take the road less (in this case, more often) travelled and withhold support for his son’s music career despite being from a family of artists. OCJ’s sister is a talented singer, OCJ’s father was a photographer, and OCJ’s grandfather was also a photographer. Yet, his father held back on support. OCJ explains that his father struggled with understanding that he could have a viable future as a music artist because Papa Osborn “had no reference to work with. Where I’m coming from, there’s nobody that has actually made it through music.”
OCJ continues,
So when he asked that question, he was speaking out of fear. I am doing everything humanly possible with all my money, all my sweat, all my blood to prove him wrong.
Ocj
I want to win a Grammy and put it in my father’s parlour just to say, ‘I love you so much but don’t f*ck with me’ so he can respect me so that he can understand. I am one of the best directors in terms of cinematography and scripting.
OCJ
“It’s all to prove my dad wrong. I’m going to be great. I’m going to be a billionaire. I will pour him money, and he will feel guilty,” He declares.
OCJ continues to talk about the vision as it never left him and his sister, who is also a great singer. “My sister sings like Adele and Summer Walker. She is an amazing artist, ” He chips in. He goes back to the topic of his father and calmly adds,
My dad gave up on his art as a photographer so he projects his insecurities and fears on me. He is just like most fathers of creatives who don’t understand the dynamics or the future of creativity, and who don’t see the vast possibilities of what a creative can achieve or be in life.
OCJ
All of these emotions spur him on and drive the messages in the upcoming album, which he promises to tease at his concert. He hints that his dad’s voice is featured on the album.
“There’s a point in the album where my dad was defining the meaning of OCJ in an interview. He gave me the name ‘OCJ’. It means Osborn Campbell Jeremiah. In that recording, he said that he did everything humanly possible to discourage me from music so it would not affect my academics, but I was stubborn and kept pushing and pushing. Then he said that at a point, he, and my mum, angrily left me out of fear and disappointment seeing his first son wasting away in a dream that might just remain a dream, but, shockingly, I didn’t fall. They realised that this was my calling. It was what I was born to be. Now he is proud of me and will be more proud when I attain more success.”
He describes the album as a reflection, aptly titled. “I created a mirror through which you could see yourself, your past, present and future.”
On what’s next for him, he talks about wanting to stand out as a fashion icon while taking his music career to the next level, with North America as the next stop for his live concert after the Lagos edition.
