Blk Odyssy’s third album 1-800-Fantasy is birth from his most exciting and liberating era to date. “Between exploring a new level of storytelling and also a new world of production and songwriting, this record has been a new chapter for me as an artist,” Odyssy said about the new album in a press release. The project bends genre, as Blk Odyssy has been known to do, through 13 songs and features from Wiz Khalifa, Jackie Giroux, Harry Edohoukwa, and Joey Badass to make for quiet the wonderous experience.
1-800-Fantasy presents Blk Odyssy as a teenage boy obsessed with an elusive woman. Supported by hotline exchanges and cinematic visuals, the album’s stories progresses to capture this teen’s yearning spiral into impatience as he reaches his breaking point in this failed foray into love. In the end, the young boy, though heartbroken, has an epiphany that leads to solitude and acceptance.
Together with the new album, we caught up with Blk Odyssy for this week’s Uproxx Music 20 column to learn more about his inspirations, influences, and aspirations.
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What is your earliest memory of music?
In the back of my dad 1990 Volvo listening to Erykah Badu.
Who inspired you to take music seriously?
Do you know how to play an instrument? If so, which one? If not, which instrument do you want to learn how to play?
I play bass, but I want to learn to play sax.
What was your first job?
I was a bus boy at an Asian restaurant named Taos.
What is your most prized possession?
I don’t own anything material that I value too much, I more so value relationships.
What is your biggest fear?
My biggest fear is the inability to help people around me.
Who is on your R&B Mt. Rushmore?
D’Angelo, Curtis Mayfield, Erykah Badu, and Jill Scott.
You get 24 hours to yourself to do anything you want, with unlimited resources: What are you doing? And spare no details!
I’m creating the world’s best music studio and opening a restaurant. Life would be perfect, that’s all I need.
What are your three most used emojis?
😍✨🔥.
What’s a feature you need to secure before you die?
Kendrick Lamar, King Krule, and Lana Del Rey.
If you could appear in a future season of a current TV show, which one would it be and why?
Them on Amazon Prime. I’m literally obsessed with that show.
Which celebrity do you admire or respect for their personality and why?
Denzel Washington and Kendrick Lamar. I just admire their leadership in the community.
Share your opinion on something no one could ever change your mind about.
Short form content has overstimulated the minds and made it hard for artist that require attention spans in their art to thrive.
What is the best song you’ve ever heard in your life and what do you love about it?
Jill Scott’s “A Long Walk.” I think this song is a perfect example of masterful arrangements. Vocals, music, everything.
What’s your favorite city in the world to perform, and what’s a city you’re excited to perform in for the first time?
Paris & Barcelona.
You are throwing a music festival. Give us the dream lineup of 5 artists that will perform with you.
The headliners would be: Kendrick Lamar, OutKast, Erykah Badu, Rage Against The Machine, and Stevie Wonder.
What would you be doing now if it weren’t for music?
Acting for sure.
If you could see five years into the future or go five years into the past, which one would you pick and why?
I’d go 5 years into the past and make some changes and choices to further my career [laughs].
What’s one piece of advice you’d go back in time to give to your 18-year-old self?
Focus, take what you’re doing more seriously and study. It’s going to change your life.
It’s 2050. The world hasn’t ended, and people are still listening to your music. How would you like it to be remembered?
I want to be remembered as someone who pushed culture forward, someone who created open conversations and made art that provoked thought, and someone who inspired the next generation of artist to create against the grain and not do the norm.
1-800-Fantasy is out now via EARTHCHILD / EMPIRE. Find out more information here.