Onry Ozzborn

I've never felt the need to hide my fanboydom over Onry Ozzborn from anyone. 

It isn't that I would ever be ashamed to share my appreciation for a person's music, hell, I spend hundreds of dollars a year running this site with Tom and WE SUCK OFF MAAAAAD MUSICIANS BRUH. It's that I tend to put Onry on a pedestal because, paired with his careful manipulations of the English language over random meters and beaters, HE'S JUST SO FUCKING COOL.

If I was as calm and cool and collected as Onry Ozzborn I wouldn't even know what to do with myself, besides swat away the tail chasing me and telling guys like myself to "get a grip bro".

But whatever, we all have our heroes. Onry is one of mine. And I've had the distinct pleasure of telling him that to his face like NINE TIMES. And I think I opened for Dark Time Sunshine a few years ago with The OPUS, but I don't really remember because of all the fanboy tears I've cried.

Onry's latest album is titled DUO and its liner notes read like a who's who of whoever the fuck Onry wanted to work with. Now, I'm not being dismissive or anything, but the track listing of DUO is like a 16 track demonstration of how fucking COOL this dude is. 

Oh, you wanna drop a new album and have every track be a different duet with a different rapper or musician you like? Yes sir Mister Ozzborn, right this way. 

Peep this laundry list right quick: Aesop Rock, Rob Sonic, POS, Eligh, Asphate, Sadistik, Dem Atlas, Homeboy Sandman, Kimya Dawson, and Pigeon John? HOLY SHIT!

But wait, I think I'm almost more jacked on a few of the people I didn't really know before I got DUO'd: 

Latrell James, I have no idea who the fuck he is, his singing voice is fucking ill, but it's his rapping voice on "Stardom" that makes me want to knock over random bookshelves like a fucking asshole. Latrell is fucking amazing. Dude tosses his speech out like it's an odor he's flapping out of his Member's Only jacket. I can't really come up with any other way of describing his flow. But it's fucking MONEY. 

Nathan Quiroga? Dude takes Onry Ozzborn and makes an indie rock Broken Bells track and it's probably one of the best Onry tracks I've ever heard. I never imagined him standing as tall as he does on "Flee The Colony" because I've never seen him step this far outside of the comfort zone I've constructed for him. The vocal layering over the indie shit is fucking perrrrfect here. 

I've loved Cloudy October for a few years now. He always sounds like we just caught him tearing his bedroom apart. And when he's on a track next to Onry it's like Onry's the seasoned pro who's sitting back smirking while Cloudy throws a fucking tantrum. I can't wait until these two form a supergroup called Kicks and Punches. 

The Eligh collab "No Time To Waste" might be my favorite fucking rap track of any rap album all year, because not only is the meter fucking hot, and the track only about 2:30 long (thank god for short rap tracks), the message and intensity of these two dudes is inspiring as FUCK. I've seen Eligh live about a half dozen times and I've NEVER wanted to bum rush the stage more than when dude starts rapping on this track. 

The Asphate track, "Wired", is a futuristic motherfucking sawtooth synthed horse hoofed galloping demonstration of how much fucking fun syncopation can be when both rappers understand how to dance over a meter without letting a vast vocabulary distract from such a badass rhythm. 

I could continue to write about what else impresses me about DUO, but you'll read others sucking off the rappers we all know murder shit regularly and they're all correct in doing so. 

I mean, Rob Sonic is the creepy uncle mixing chemicals in the basement of hip hop, Kimya Dawson is the substitute teacher we all want to be adopted by, Aesop Rock is a thesaurus vomitting up a dictionary being licked up by a copy of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, Pigeon John is our lack of fashion sense's spirit animal, POS is my best friend but won't answer the fucking phone when I call, or respond to a text, tweet, facebook message or carrier pigeon if it's coming from me, Homeboy Sandman is the rapper who sounds like he only raps in a squat, Dem Atlas is on FUCKING FIRE ALL THE TIME AND HE RAPS LIKE HE'S ON FUCKING FIRE ALL THE TIME...

Go buy this fucking album and tell Onry Ozzborn you love him next time you see him. 

I will.