Hoosier hip-hop artist O.D.D.I.T.Y continues shaping his narrative with new single

The rapper known as O.D.D.I.T.Y has been writing and recording personal, introspective and mostly serious music for at least the last five years. But the newest single from the Indianapolis native is a little less serious – a “cute little … summer romantic bop,” according to one of the song’s co-writers, Madeleine Jurkiewicz.  She is one half of the sister duo Lily & Madeleine, also from Indy, who are featured on the new O.D.D.I.T.Y song “Cloud N9ne.”

WFYI Morning Edition host Ray Steele spoke to O.D.D.I.T.Y about his career, where his name comes from, the new song, and collaborating with Lily & Madeleine for the second time.

O.D.D.I.T.Y: O.D.D.I.T.Y the alias came about while I was in college, so it's probably been around that name for 12 years or so. The funny thing about it is it actually was generated by Wu-Tang name generator on Google ... it actually was called “phonetic oddity” and I shortened it to oddity and then added the periods so it looks like an acronym, which kind of generates a lot of conversation, but it's not truly an acronym.

Steele: When you decided to write, what was the process in saying, I have something to say and what is that message that I have to put out there?

O.D.D.I.T.Y: It's personal expression. It's almost a therapy. Since I've started doing it, It's been kind of just documenting my experiences in pain and happiness and just emotions. For me it's not making a song and hoping it does well or it is received a certain way. It's just kind of me putting myself out there.

Steele: Madeleine Jurkiewicz of Lily & Madeline said O.D.D.I.T.Y first sent the idea of new son “Cloud N9ne” to her last summer. As with their previous collaboration, she wrote some lyrics, recorded them, then the song went back and forth between them until it was done.

Jurkiewicz: It was really fun, especially because I wasn't like in the studio with O.D.D.I.T.Y. and so when he would send me a new mix, it was like a surprise. I didn't really know what to expect. And it was so fun to see my lyrics and my verse worked into the song in a way that maybe I hadn't expected it to be. 

O.D.D.I.T.Y: Who I am as an artist is lyrical at the root. So while the content on the surface seems a little bit more mainstream sounding, I still like to think it's lyrical and it also is from personal experience. So it's still storytelling in a more mainstream way.

Before “Cloud N9ne,” I last released a song nearly like 10 months ago. And during that time I was working on a rerelease of an album that I previously released called “Love Is ___” so this is going to be called “Love Is ___ Reloaded.” And “Cloud N9ne” is the lead single on that. So I'm going to periodically be dropping new singles from that throughout into the summer.