|
BIOGRAPHY
While the eclecticism of his debut album The Find won him many fans,
Watts Happening pushes the envelope to reveal even more about
MC/producer Ohmega Watts and continues to challenge the expectations
of what a rap album could be. The record includes collaborations with
lauded Philly-based MC/producer Jneiro Jarel and up n'coming Brazilian
vocalist Tita Lima who appears on the DJ-friendly Brazilian-tinged
excursion "Adaptacao." Watts wrote "Are You Satisfied" for Bay Area
blues n'funkstress, and one of James Brown's favorite female vocalists
Sugarpie Desanto, inspired by recent losses she suffered in a tragic
fire at her Oakland home. London instrumentalist, and label mate,
Shawn Lee also provides some key sounds from his over-stocked studio.
The album includes features from favorite Watts cohorts like the
Lightheaded crew, Triple Grip and Theory Hazit.
Ohmega Watts has a wide-eyed, all-encompassing, set of musical
influences that range from the more obvious soul and funk tunes, to
being a big fan of Stereolab and Broadcast, psychedelic Brazilian
sounds, to music by UK producers like Quantic and Mr Scruff. As such
Watts Happening follows on from his debut album, The Find, exploring
and presenting a multitude of beats, rhythms, and styles. With The
Find he threaded these sounds together for the first time and his
popularity grew organically from a virtually-unknown MC to one who has
performed all over the USA including dates like Lollapalooza and
Bumbershoot with Lyrics Born and The Greyboy Allstars. He has
headlined the MusicFest NW show, and played dates with Breakestra, The
Coup, Lifesavas, De La Soul, Blackalicious, RJD2, Michael Franti and
Spearhead, Masta Killa, and Count Bass D. In addition he has toured
throughout Europe and Japan.
Rolling Stone described his album as being full of "Funky soul and
razor-sharp dance-floor cuts," and continued, "this is hip-hop that
everyone - not just fans of the genre - can enjoy". Cutting edge UK
mag Dazed & Confused described him as "One of the freshest talents to
have emerged out of hip-hop's leftfield in the last five years." And
The Source added, "Ohmega takes it back to when it was only about
beats and rhymes, when Jam Master Jay was more than a memory and the
culture had harmony."
Since recording The Find he has appeared on records by Galactic, Shawn
Lee, Quantic, Connie Price and the Keystones, and Australian act The
Bamboos.
On Watts Happening there's a handful of party-pleasing dance-floor
fillers in all different shapes and sizes including the hard-hitting
Afrobeat drum-powered "The Platypus Strut" which was made with a cast
of musicians from the red-hot LA funk and soul scene like Miles
Tackett on guitar (Breakestra) and Todd Simon on horns and flute (The
Lions, Connie Price, Antibalas etc). The space-funk of "Work For
Wealth" featuring fellow-Portland-based musicians Ragen and Barry of
Triple Grip, and rap cuts like "Eyes and Ears" and "Triple Double"
will also keep the DJs happy. There are also mellow or
thought-provoking tunes like "No Delay," inspired by the movies Born
Into Brothels and Boys of Baraka, "Found" addressing a Watts"
religious transformations and "Gone With The Wind" which opens with a
tasty jazz drum lick. |
