Onry Ozzborn has announced a new solo album titled DUO, which features several prominent guest spots, including Aesop Rock, Pigeon John, P.O.S. of Doomtree, The Moldy Peaches’ Kimya Dawson, up and coming Rhymesayers emcee deM atlaS and Homeboy Sandman. The album drops March 25 via Fake Four, Inc.
Ozzborn randomly started collecting beats and recording verses in 2010 with no plan or concept for an album in mind, something the Seattle-based emcee had never done. Considering he’s a founding member of Northwest Hip Hop collective Oldominion, Dark Time Sunshine and Grayskul, it’s a miracle he was able to focus on his solo material at all.
“After a couple years, I ended having like seven instrumentals with only one verse,” Ozzborn explains. “I started hearing other people on them in my head. I reached out to a few people who I though would fit and they obliged. The next thing you know I had one guest on all seven beats. That’s when I decided that I wanted to do a duet album, hence the album title. After that, I slowly just continued to let it happen organically and I finally finished them all up like a month and a half ago.”
After touring and recording with so many different artists over the past two decades, Ozzborn has amassed a solid list of collaborators, but many of them have become more than that. They’re almost like one big family, which made connecting the dots effortless.
“The folks that I have on the album are all friends of mine so it was pretty much smooth sailing the whole way,” he says. “I reached out to people like Kimya, Nathan Quiroga of Iska Dhaaf, David Lincoln Mann, and a few other because I’m a fan off all genres of music. I want to display that on the album, as well and show that it can work with rap music.”
Ozzborn wastes no time with opening track “Nineteen” featuring Aesop Rock. The song reels in the listener with an enticing Void Pedal beat and Rock’s consistently cryptic lyrics. That energy is unrelenting throughout the 17-track album. DUO is undisputedly Ozzborn’s boldest and best album to date. A nearly 14-minute long visual version of the record called duofilm precedes the album and comes out February 25.
“The ultimate reason I named it Duo is because I am inspired day to day by my two kids Nicholas Sire and Violet Ofelia,” he says. “My music and everything I do in life is for them.”
DUO Tracklisting:
1. NINETEEN f/ Aesop Rock
2. STARDOM f/ Latrell James
3. NOT REALLY f/ Rob Sonic
4. FLEE THE COLONY f/ Nathan Quiroga of Iska Dhaaf
5. TURMOIL f/ P.O.S
6. NO TIME TO WASTE f/ Eligh
7. NEONERD f/ Kimya Dawson
8. WIRED f/ Asphate of Maxilla Blue
9. MY FIRST KILL f/ Sadistik
10. FIGURE IT OUT f/ Dem Atlas
11. AIRWAVES f/ K Death of Moodie Black
12. OPEN THE TILL f/ Cloudy October
13. BURN f/ Theory Hazit
14. WINE f/ Homeboy Sandman
15. VERY WELL f/ Terra Lopez of Sister Crayon
16. FIREFLY f/ Pigeon John
17. …….
