Canberra-based rapper ‘OZUMI’ is breaking barriers, in English and Japanese, one song at a time.
I caught up with one of the key figures of Canberra’s underground hip hop scene– OZUMI - to talk to him about what it’s like to be a multicultural rapper in Australia. My aim with this conversation was to shine a light on his creative process and how he embraces the parts that make up his whole, relentlessly honest and delivering his message without any fear of a language barrier.
Words and photos by hreefer.
Ozumi by hreefer. Rapping is hard enough on it’s own, here’s how Ozumi does it in English and Japanese.“The real me is ‘Ozumi’ and the rapper me is Lonely”
It’s a fairly sunny day, nearing the agreed upon time of meeting– 1PM. I’ve been dropped off by a good friend in the city centre, in eager anticipation of finally meeting someone that I’ve been meaning to talk to for a while.
He’s a bit of an enigmatic character, Isaac, known to some as Ozumi. Pretty hard to get a hold of. But once you get a hold of him, it’s hard to shake his impression off you. I’ve followed his music for a bit and I found his talent for not just being a bilingual rapper, but creating a solid and coherent lyrical and sonic atmosphere in two languages to be absolute finesse.
“I’ve fully lived like two lives in a sense, because I’ve done schooling in Japan… Ever since I stopped doing that at 18 all my Japanese has started to collapse, but when I put it in rap form it seems to be completely fine.”
Worried that I might be a little late, I gave him a ring. Just as he picks up, I see him heading towards the location and I feel a bit relieved. I’ve been trying to work on my tardiness this year, one of those ‘resolutions’ that people speak of. We exchange daps and start walking, as we’ve progressed past small talk and he starts talking to me about his music.
For a while, Australian rap (knowingly or unknowingly) sort of closed itself off from outsiders, some of the main offenders being lack of true self expression, and monotony in production, which I’d argue contributed to its stagnation for quite some time. Because of the streaming age, where music is now accessible to everyone and their grandma, a shift in the scene was not only foreseeable, but inevitable.
As a result, in recent years things have been changing for the better, as more younger artists have been bringing a fresh sound to the scene, such as Canberra's very own, OZUMI. The man needs no introduction to the residents of Canberra's underground. Most know him as his former character, ‘SickLonely’. He’s had quite a few tracks that have blown up such as ‘Back in It’ and new releases like WishYouWell showing his range. OZUMI is one of the few in the Canberra scene who is determined to do something for the Canberran underground, and it shows via his relentless drive.
“It’s like putting myself on the paper and just exposing myself, that’s when I was like, I need to put more Japanese—that’s a huge part of me. Half of me is there: why don’t I use the other half?”
Interview
Hreefer: Where did ‘SickLonley’ come from? It was a very ‘sad boys type’--
Ozumi: Right, right. I think I did it by accident, subconsciously, but my favourite rapper is TwistedInsane, and I think TwistedInsane is just two adjectives to describe something, someone that is, like, sad, crazy, twisted-ish.
So then instead of twisted I did 'sick’ and instead of ‘insane’ I did’ lonely’ and then SickLonely. So that's kinda how it was born. So it was gonna be ‘lonely’, I still go under the alias of ‘lonely’, that's part of my tag because i like to think of it as not just one personality in Ozumi it's like the real me and the rapper me–
H: –Your alter ego–
Ozumi: So the real me is ‘Ozumi’ and the rapper me is lonely And so I kept that moniker because that was the reason SICKLONEY was a thing it was kind of like half/half.
H: So was there any relevance, musically, was there a correlation between you and your personality and your music at the time?
O: Yeah, for sure, music started off completely because I was like 16. I wont get into it too deep. I was in a really rough spot and music was the first thing I did to talk about it, in a sense. It's very cliche and corny– well not corny– but like ‘I'm gonna talk about my feelings in a word way but im gonna put it into music’ but it was exactly like that. I never thought I was gonna make music to push to anyone, I thought I was just gonna write it like diaries to myself.
H: Because that's what art is for,
O: Yeah, I put up maybe 20, 30, 40 songs before I thought maybe I’ll put one up that's public. And so for ages I was just doing ‘SickLonely’; just me talking to me in my raps. And then I showed a few friends and they were like ‘oh you can actually rap’, and hearing that I was like ‘oh cool maybe I’ll do a little bit’, because it was kinda cool. It wasn’t until like two years ago, or three years ago now, I met Emy. And I met a couple other rappers in the Canberra scene .
I thought there were no rappers in Canberra. I thought I was the only one, I thought no one did it, because I wasn't a part of the scene at all. I just assumed Canberra is too small, there's no way in a quarter million people there's a dozen rappers. But I met a few rappers and producers and they inspired me to be like damn you can do this as a hobby, like actually, not just a fun thing to do on the side to show your friends. Ever since then that's when it started off, so, SickLonely just came from being down in that era, just being an edgy teen.
H:How did you decide that you want to have Japanese in your music? And you did touch on that a bit earlier— that you were a bit worried that people might not understand, but what made you go ‘fuck it, this is part of me, this is what I do; this is my music.’
O: When I realised that like, I’m still realising it now, constantly, it’s still a constant realisation to make, that music is about you, people listen to music for you, in a sense. You'll always make music for people to relate to, or to catch a certain feeling but at the end of the day if you say what's on your mind people are going to mess with it, you know.
And a lot of people that listen to me, I’m sure, don't listen to me because of the generic things that I try to put in there, or the things I try to put in there for others. They listen to me for my thoughts, and they relate to it, I think, that’s a big part of artistry.. At least that’s what makes me love an artist; hearing their thoughts and being able to relate to that.
And the more I realise, it's like putting myself on the paper and just exposing myself, that’s when I was like, I need to put more Japanese—that’s a huge part of me. Half of me is there: why don’t I use the other half? Like, I’m not just this dude in Aus who speaks English, there’s other things that I can do. Being able to openly think this music is a form of being able to express my whole self; therefore Japanese must be a part of it.
H: Let's talk about language, like purely. So when you were younger were you taught japanese by your parents?
Yeah, so mum’s Japanese, dads New Zealand, according to my mom before I turned two I was speaking– both languages as one for me as a kid. I never used one more than the other, it was like a blend. So before I was two I was already using numbers and counting to ten in English and Japanese.
And when I’d speak I'd say, ‘dad’ and then I'd say, in Japanese ‘can I have this’ or I'd say 'food’ in Japanese but I’d say ‘dad’.
Ever since I can remember I've known both , there's never been a point in my life where I was like ‘oh i don't know this and had to learn it. I've just known it somehow. It must be there. I couldn't imagine learning a new language right now. I feel like that's impossible. I don't even know how I know two to begin with.
I get upset sometimes when I feel like I'm starting to lose it a little bit, I'm like damn. I used to go to Japan every year. From the age of three or something, I've gone every year for a few months. I’ve fully lived like two lives in a sense, because I've done schooling in Japan and had my Japanese friends and did school for four months and come back here. Ever since I stopped doing that at 18 all my Japanese has started to collapse, but when I put it in rap form it seems to be completely fine.
I've known it somehow, it's just there, I couldn't imagine learning a new language right now, So it just came from birth, mom just did a good job at helping to keep the essence of Japanese alive in me.
——
On the way home I thought about the interview and the things Isaac spoke about (off record) and they made a lot of sense. Like I said before, it’s pretty obvious that rap in this great nation of ours is slowly steering away from the antiquated sounds that were made popular by a few, only because they worked for said few- and it’s becoming something more introspective and intimate.
This is a super positive sign for the Australian hip hop scene. Now it's deeply intelligent lyrics and well thought out sounds that are slowly helping to put us on the map. People who are unafraid to represent deeper things that mean more, such as their culture, their languages, their influences and the like.
That’s not to decry the artists who came before us, they had their strengths, but unfortunately it was all concentrated into a single pocket that never really left the borders of this country. But maybe that's our responsibility from here on out. The framework has been set and the foundation has been laid a long, long time ago, it’s just a matter of us rolling up our sleeves and laying down the path.
Here are the goods, your steezeness.
New single Hush is out now!
Hush - YouTube
Go listen to Ozumi wherever you get your music: Spotify
And follow his journey here: Instagram @ozumi404
By hreefer for Mustard Flats
