Out of sight, in your mind. That’s what OSIYM stands for and group members Charlie Black and Nova are well on their way to living up to the name. The two young artists took to the #BigTicket stage in April with their rowdy, high-energy flavour of hip-hop and walked away with some notable new fans. Amongst them were comedian and personality Trixx, the Godfather of Canadian hip-hop, Maestro Fresh Wes, and veteran artist, D.O., along with an audience member who paid $10 for OSIYM’s latest project, Drunk Words x Sober Thoughts, which was being given out for free. “You guys are making quality music,” he told Black. “That’s not free music.” After the show, with alcohol flowing (staying true to their other moniker the #CupInHandGang no doubt), Black and Nova reflected on where they’re headed. After all, like they said on the stage, “Success is a journey, not a destination.”
WHAT’S THE JOURNEY BEEN LIKE FOR YOU SO FAR?
NOVA: Well it’s been crazy, like I have two sons, six years apart so it’s like I started this journey, I began it, just picking up the craft, and then I had my first son, and that changed things. This wasn’t a priority anymore for a while. And then there just kept being situations that kept drawing me back to the music, six years later I had another son, I was in a little bit of a better position, but again that was something I had to think about. Now I have two mouths to feed. But there was a strange turn of events that again brought me back to music, even closer than before.
HOW DID YOU GUYS END UP WORKING TOGETHER?
BLACK: The true e-Hollywood story, we used to work at a bank, one of our dudes that actually came to the show today, he introduced us. He knew that we were both doing music on the solo thing so he was like ‘yo, it would be dope if you did a record together’. Nova had a little set up at his spot, so one day I came through, we did like a couple records, and we were like these sound kinda dope, we let our people hear it, a couple of people were like ‘yo, you guys should make more.’ Then we said yo, let’s make a mixtape. We work well together, we vibe well together, why not do the group thing?
WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE THE NEXT STEPS IN THE JOURNEY TO BE?
NOVA: The next step in the journey is I’m looking for a chance to tour. A lot of people they hear the music and it’s cool, but they come out to these shows and that’s when it’s like we’ve officially won them over. They already like the songs and that’s what brought them out in the first place, then they see the energy and they’re like okay, I f*ck with these guys, I want a chance to bring that as far as possible, across Ontario, Canada, the world, eventually.
BLACK: And it’s just an amazing feeling to bring emotion to people, that’s one thing that got me into the rap game period. I’m a fan of DMX and when I was in school I’d just be listening to DMX. DMX changes your emotions, you could start the day off happy as f*ck and then you put on some X and you’re just like oh, life is too real, things change you. From that I wanted to be the type of person to say things that would get people to start thinking about things or feeling a certain way.
A lot of people they hear the music and it’s cool, but they come out to these shows and that’s when it’s like we’ve officially won them over. They already like the songs and that’s what brought them out in the first place, then they see the energy and they’re like okay, I f*ck with these guys. – Nova
WHERE DOES YOUR STAGE ENERGY COME FROM?
BLACK: That’s natural, that’s me and him, and it honestly spawns from me and him going to parties together, even before the whole rap thing. I have a line that goes, “I was the turn up before trap.”
NOVA: I’m usually the cool one, but when I get up there, it’s just a passion thing, that’s what it is. I go up there and I have to do it for the people man, I love the energy that I get back, that’s what feels good.
HOW DO YOU WANT TO TAKE YOUR STAGE SHOW TO THE NEXT LEVEL?
BLACK: We’ve been trying to do more interaction with the crowd, we want to bring live instrumentation to certain songs, that always brings an extra element to it, you could stop the beat, say you got a drummer, just let the drummer go and you’re flowing over the drum, no matter what anybody says. We love production and all that stuff, but when you hear an acapella, it captures everybody. So with the drummer, it’s not exactly an acapella, but your voice is so much clearer, it captivates the audience, so that’s something that we definitely want to bring into it.
Words By. Priya Ramanujam + Photos By. Iris Gill
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