Chopped Cheese Crazy: An Interview With Oh No

"I haven't really been doing any press," Oh No explains to me, roughly a week-and-a-half after the release of his new solo album Nodega. "I haven't really been doing anything because I'm too sick. I've been sick this whole time."

Though some exceptions exist, the veteran Oxnard, California-bred artist has been conspicuously absent from the music press of late, despite a rather substantial, high quality 2020s output. As fans know, he dropped duo projects with rappers Elzhi and Tha God Fahim, an inventive two-part instrumental set built off of Roy Ayers samples, and an eponymous full-length as The Professionals alongside his brother Madlib. Yet the release last year of the grift-centric Gangrene album Heads I Win, Tails You Lose saw him properly return to the mic for the first time in five years.

"Honestly, I've always been rapping; I just wasn't putting anything out," he says, citing a painful condition called temporomandibular joint disorder, or TMJ, as an aggravating factor. "My jaw be bugging out. It feels like a damn knife in my ear, so I just rap when I want to and I don't really push it."

On Heads I Win..., his first LP with fellow rapper-producer The Alchemist in nearly a decade, and now Nodega for Nature Sounds, Oh No shows just what the proverbial game's been missing from him as an emcee on top of his elite tier beatmaking. Continuing in the formidable tradition of his prior concept-heavy solo albums like Ohnomite, the colorfully sketchy corner store theme brings a rotating roster of acclaimed guests and longtime friends through the doors to spit with him. His curatorial prowess means he's sharing tracks here with everyone from Ghostface Killah and Talib Kweli to CRIMEAPPLE and Vic Spencer, not to mention Likwit Crew legends like Tash and Wildchild.

That sort of reach and range is all-but unparalleled in hip-hop, but again, we're talking about The Disrupt here, the self-proclaimed Mischievous Rebel On The Next Level, the creative force behind seminal Stones Throw classics and favorites both by himself and for other rappers. "I feel like I'm giving y'all everything with this album," he says of Nodega. "Everybody played their part like crazy."

And with a purported vault practically overflowing with his unreleased beats and rhymes, nothing seems capable of deterring him from pushing his artistry further forward. "I'm going to rap extra crazy now," he says, in willful defiance of his TMJ diagnosis. "I don't even give a fuck no more. I'm going to just go in and do what I can while I can."

One of the things that stands out with your projects is that you have this creative tendency towards a thematic framing device. What drew you to the bodega concept used on this new album?

I was cooking up a lot. During the time when I was working with Elzhi [on Heavy Vibrato], I was working on the compilation as well, getting people down to send verses in. I kept changing the beats and serving it, adding more, kinda like the chopped cheese sandwiches where they come in with the crazy stuff. They'll come in with a bag of Fritos or Cheetos or something, and add this to it. So I looked at it like I was doing that; I kept adding more crazier stuff to it. Originally, it was going to be similar to the Elzhi album, using a specific sound. I just ended up changing it. I wanted it crazy, kind of like them chopped cheese sandwiches.

It is dirty, it's raw, it's gritty. Every time I been to a bodega, it was always gritty and raw. We ain't really got bodegas out here. We got gas stations that you could walk into and get a chopped cheese sandwich out here. I was looking at it just like that.

The features on here definitely add to that craziness, with rappers like CRIMEAPPLE, for instance–

Yeah, nah, he's dope. Actually, I've been setting a folder aside. I want to do a whole album with him. And RLX. They're both dope. I fuck with them heavy.

And then, because of your history, there's guys that you go way back with on here. Wildchild, MED, Guilty Simpson, Tash, Ron C, and so on. It's like, who else is going to bring all these people together but Oh No?

Those are all my brothers. We've been tight so long that there's no way that they wouldn't even be on my project. Those are my guys. I appreciate them to the max. They're always there for me and I got they back.

With these guests, were you giving them any sort of direction or insight into the bigger picture of Nodega?

Yeah, because it's almost like a play or a movie, where it is one day of craziness. So I wanted them to act out their characters, where Guilty is robbing someone or Montage One is about to jack someone. My man Wildchild, he's always the party guy, so I wanted to keep him on the party vibe as well as Tash. Me and Tash go way back as well. Everybody that's on the album, we go super far back. And if we don't go far back, it's probably because we got a bunch of projects in the works. Same with Vic Spencer. I've got a list of these guys. There's a lot of stuff coming.

One of the standout songs on here is "Money Everyday" with Big Twins and Tha God Fahim. From your perspective, as you're curating this project, how do you decide to put artists like those two together?

Big Twins, he gets the paper, you know what I'm saying? And Fahim gets the paper as well. They both get paper. I felt like they were a good match. With my projects, everybody doesn't always have to know each other. I like putting people together that I think with sound good that don't even know each other. Because I'm pretty sure they're going to end up linking anyways.

Still, you have to have an ear for knowing who's going to work well with each other, right?

Yeah, of course. I listen to a lot of music too, and everybody that I work with, I study them. I kind of know what they would want or what they would sound really good to. The way I make beats, I'll make the beat, oh, it sounds good, but not great enough. So let me see if I can go a little bit further. I like to go further and keep pushing limits until they sound the best that I can make them.

What about "Gutter Streams" with Alchemist? Was this originally intended for Nodega or was this something you guys had worked on for the Gangrene record that you thought would fit on this album?

No, that was a song that we worked on prior to it. It was a gutter song; it was really, really raw. I don't even know if it would've fit on the other album, possibly. I've been putting out a lot of mellow stuff, some different things. I wanted some raw shit back.

You're working with all of these great emcees, not just as a producer but as a fellow rapper. Putting these tracks together with these guests, how do you know where you fit in? How do you determine what it is that you bring to a given song?

I feel like I'm the Alfred Hitchcock of it. I don't want to be the "rapper rapper." I want to be more of the narrator, start it off and then let them just show their talents and their skills. I just fit myself in. If I felt like I needed to say something there, I put myself in there. Like the Logic joint ["No Parking Zone"], I wanted to set it off to bring him in so it brought him in better, rather than just having a verse that plays in a hook or some shit.

And on that track in particular, you break that fourth wall a bit. So when is that Oh No x Logic album dropping?

2020! We got joints in the can. I'm known for having millions of songs that don't come out, usually it's because of a sample. If you're here, you get to hear the craziness. It's absurd. Everything I do is absurd. Lately, I've been 3D printing. It's too much.

Jesse the Tree & Jason Griff, Spruce Allmighty

(buy it / stream it)

Chicago-based beatmaker and Insubordinate Records proprietor Jason Griff has been nothing short of an EP-generating machine this year, dropping short yet solid efforts with Alaska, Rapswell, and Stan Ipcus, among others. His latest comes as a tidy two-hander with Providence rapper Jesse The Tree, whose recent full-length Worm In Heaven for Strange Famous left a gratifyingly dry mouthfeel, IYKYK... Though only six songs long, their Spruce Allmighty delivers on the verdant majesty of its cinematically-derived title. From the subtly shambolic opener "Russian Doll" on, Griff finds spaces and tones that most modern day boom bap producers routinely miss in their quest to ape the old rather than seek out something new. It certainly doesn't hurt to have such an affable emcee by his side casually blending the comfortable mundanity of domestic life on "Anne Hathaway" with the gamer culture winks-and-nods of "Fishing For Anvils." Alex Ludovico shows up both punchy and punchline-prone on the delightfully dubby "One Last Shot," while ShrapKnel fellas Curly Castro and PremRock help convert closer "Self-Help Defense" into an existential alloy comprised of galaxy-brained bars.

Ransom & Conductor Williams, The Uncomfortable Truth

(buy it / stream it)

His catalog spanning some two decades, Ransom seems in the prime of his career right now, dropping 2020s projects with the likes of Nicholas Craven, Harry Fraud, and V Don. With his DJ Premier team-up The Reinvention from October just barely in the rearview, the experienced New Jersey rapper returns just a few weeks later opposite Griselda go-to Conductor Williams for The Uncomfortable Truth. His technical proficiency and streetwise themes on offer here match that of his recent high quality output, yet coupled with the Kansas City producer he appears to have found a uniquely optimal fit. There's something about the way the somber yet sturdy soulfulness behind "BLOOD STAINS ON COLISEUM FLOORS" jibes with the lone survivor mindset of its lyrics, emanating authenticity without taking cheap shots of bravado. That mic pugilism continues on the organ-saturated "BOMAYE," a relentless barrage of bars inspired by Ali. He switches to a more mournful mode on "LATE REPLIES," letting listeners into an intimate space his generational peers are far too shook to reveal. But it all comes together for "TRIGGER OR TRIGGA," in which Ransom minces no words with his wordplay.

Three new tracks to snack on...

Tony Bontana, "Battered Chips"

AJ Suede & Televangel, "Sueder One"

BBGuns, "Lich"