UNBOTHERED
Shot by @allyschmaling
For those getting their first introduction to the Boston-native, Oompa is a critically acclaimed, poet, rapper, and educator who describes herself as “forever representing the queer, black, orphaned, hood kids n’ them”. Since arriving on the scene in 2016, Oompa’s undeniable prowess as a rapper and honest storyteller have seen her win a slew of awards and praise, including the Boston Music Award for “Unsigned Artist of the Year'' in 2018 and NPR’s “Slingshot Artists To Watch'' last year. With the release of her first two projects “November 3rd” (2016), and “Cleo” (2019), she’s reached major heights as an independent artist. Her award winning live act has sold out countless Boston venues and seen her share stages with the likes of DVSN, Charli XCX, 24KGoldn, Tinashe, UMI, and Rico Nasty.
Now, Oompa returns with her third, full-length album, ‘UNBOTHERED’, an additive blend of hard beats, playful freestyled versus, and unexpected sonic influences ranging from New-Orleans bounce to gospel. With her earlier work exploring the depths of pain, grief, and overcoming, “Unbothered” finds Oompa in a new found state of peace, following a period of global turmoil. Across a collection of twelve-songs, Oompa invites her listeners along for the ride as she unfurls her own journey of healing and personal reflection. Her mission? “I want people to know by listening through my discography that joy is possible. It is not always easy, but is always possible”
To celebrate the release, Oompa exclusively walked us through the joy-filled world she’s created for us on ‘Unbothered’, track by track.
1. AMEN ft. BENJI
Amen was produced by and sent to me by one of my favorite PKs: Benji. It opens in a prayer. For the listener. For the protagonist of this story. For me. In conjunction with God, my angels, and ancestors. It is confidence in a wish fulfilled even though the story has all but begun. That’s the kind of assuredness being present brings. This song was initially called “Both/And” because it talks a lot about wanting the things that feel important to this world we live in, but also prioritizing the “small” things that bring the most genuine joy and peace that are beyond earthly understanding. Right off the bat I want you to understand the duality of my humanness. Yes, I want just my slice of the pie, but I don’t want to be limited to the slice when I’m capable and deserving of the pie. Yes, I want the floor seats, but I’ll take the nosebleeds if I’m riding with the gang;with the folks I love. This is the kind of tug-of-war that you face when you are seriously building the world you want to live in. That war can absolutely cause distress (and will), but that is what being human is. ‘AMEN’ is a fitting title because instead of getting caught in the tug, it fast-forwards through the part where you think you have to get life perfectly right before you can receive the blessing. Because you don’t. You just stay committed to the journey and the blessing that belongs to you will find you.
(Produced by Benji)
2. CHANI SAID (Interlude)
The Chani Nicholas app is the best $11 I spend every month. For me astrology has become important, not in pathologizing people or prescribing them or letting them avoid accountability, but to me it’s about empathy-building. If I know what motivates you as a Taurus moon, or what all your defenses are as a Virgo, I feel better equipped to love and understand you. That said, one day while contemplating the album I was listening to my weekly reading from Chani, she dropped this gem that asked us to think first about the world we most want to live in. And she didn’t ask us to stop after imagining what needed to shift around our desires. She asked who we needed to become in order to become a part of that world. And I thought it was a perfect question for all of us thinking that joy is formulaic and something we organize externally, instead of internally. But it also leads us perfectly to this next track, UNBOTHERED;
3. UNBOTHERED
‘UNBOTHERED’ tells us exactly what it’s about. The joy and the healing ain’t performative. I spent/spend so much time in performative healing. The face masks and the buzzwords. The self care practices and so-on. The trying to convince people I’m where I say I am. But healing (and I don’t go too in depth on this album at all) is actually ugly as hell. It is the scab after the wound. It needs tending to and time. It needs nursing. It festers and pusses, itches and sometimes burns. But it is a part of the process. If I’m going to build the world I want to live in, then a true me; a healthy, self-loving, self-adorning, stable, and honored self is going to have to evolve first. There are no other options.
4. OCTAVIA SAID (interlude)
OG said she doesn’t need to hit us over the head with our character’s self-realization and declaration of their power. Of their limitless. They just behave according to their power and do what they need to do. This line was perfect. Because it's how I’ve been approaching my own processes of scabbing. The necessary stakeholders of that work are in it with me. Otherwise, I am not making a spectacle of it. You feel it in the songs. You see it in how I honor me. But my aim isn’t to bleed on you to do it. Not everybody needs your blood, wants to hold your blood, deserves it, or knows how not to have it. Income Lebron. An example of unwavering confidence and self-contained confidence and self-respect.
5. LEBRON
/lee-brawn/verb
“to do what one wants, while others do what they can”.
One day, while getting ready for the day, I was feeling magnificent and like a bad bish, I thought to myself, “You know who must always know they are truly a bad bish? Lebron'‘ I mean, with constant comparisons, defied odds, conversation, naysayers, applause, and battles the public will never know about, he remains undoubtedly one of the best to do what he does (if not the best). To me, it’s not about the everyday victory, it’s the commitment to the long haul. To the joy of giving your craft everything you have for as long as you can. It is finding victory in going above your own limitations so that you can get what you want. That’s what I mean when I say, “I Lebron.” So whether or not you’re on the court, in the court, or just trying to get out of bed when life is hard, this is an anthem for beating your personal best each time you do anything, and bragging to your SELF on your SELF when you do.
6. OUTTA PATIENCE
This one is simple: I think I’m running out of patience. For the politics of the industry that want me to think I’m not it. I’m it. I’m running out of patience for doing other people’s work. I’m running out of patience for my own bull. I’m living this life and it’s marvelous.The people I love are welcomed to join, but they’re not bringing their b.s. along for the ride. I want you to feel this track from the minute the sample drops, until the dance break in the end. I want your body to feel impatient and like it has to move. This track is all about the energy that you feel when you press play on this song. It’s the right follow up to Lebron’s energy-- I need you to remember what these songs made summer feel like.
This was the first time I had ever considered a beat I made for an album! I’m super new to learning how to produce and am NOT ready for that league yet. I brought this beat and song to Dephrase who immediately validated it and knew which instruments and sounds to use to take it to a more polished place. We let it sit some and I showed it to folks. I told them my inspirations for the song and nobody picked up on that. Some of my favorite music is New Orleans brass music, so naturally I love that 504 bounce. I think there’s a certain knowing you have to have to be able to do that music the right way, with its many nuances, but I certainly wanted to nod to my love for it in this track. When it just wasn’t working, I told Dephrase in a session where we were supposed to be finishing the entire project, that I wanted to scrap it and start anew. We listened to some reference tracks for the feel I was going for, and we went to work. Dephrase more than understood the assignment. We took the entire session to work through this track, and when it was finished, I knew it was the single I’d hoped it would be. It jumped the line, and here it is now.
(Produced by Oompa and Dephrase)
7. IT AINT SAFE
This is both a warning to those people desiring a world outside of the illusory (half out) and about the ownership of the danger I represent in choosing to know I’m dope in this one too (the half in). We’re back to the tug-of-war mentioned in ‘AMEN’. I know I’m dangerous, and not because of the reasons we’ve been spoon-fed by the larger world. I’m dangerous because I know my power. And I’ve only scratched the surface of that knowing. Imagine me getting so close to God and my ancestors that no one can ever tell me what I am not and can’t do ever again? Imagine me knowing how fire we all truly are, and only ever expecting that level of treatment for us all? Oh man. Imagine me inspiring other people to know that? Yeah, it aint safe. For me. But it’s mostly not safe for those threatened by me. Because I’m everything you fear I am. Thanks Octavia Butler.
(Produced by Benji)
8. LAKIYRA SAID (INTERLUDE)
I try to journal every day. Sometimes I dont have it in me to write, so I voice memo my thoughts down for the day. On this day back in the winter of 2020, I just decided that I didn’t want to fight any more. I was exhausted. I don’t want to turn on the news to understand what is true about the world, when all the news is interested in, is getting people to see them as relevant. Thereby, only knowing how to show us death and destruction. I don’t want to prove to people that I care about Black people, by becoming a martyr. I don’t want to prove to the person I’m in love with that I’d fight for them or their love. I don’t need certain ways I carry myself to protect me any more. I’m laying down my weapon. Not because there won’t be threats, but I have so many tools I’m armed with, a danger could never, honey! I do not want a legacy full of sadness and regret. Of death and destruction. Of all the blood I’ve left on prior records. I want to be remembered for the things that brought me pleasure. For the joy I incited. For the self worth/respect I demanded. For the bodies I’ve loved. And the people they carry.
9. DEEP
Deep is about pleasure. About intimacy. It’s a double-headed dragon for the sexy and the spiritual. It’s the sexiest song I’ve come out with thus far. It was freestyled and written in like an hour, but it’s the FEELING it evokes that I think is most successful. It is about all the intimate moments my body remembers. That remembering charts my existence; my histories in a way that most things do not. Sex is hella fire in this way.
10. WHERE MY SILKY?
‘WHERE MY SILKY?’ is just playful. There’s an extended metaphor here, but it’s an if-you-know-you-know kind of thing. It’s just playful. The playful side of love and sex that is the kind you laugh all through. It’s an off-an-on all-day kind of thing, that I think queer relationships experience most. You watch some tv, do your thing, get some food, do your thing, play fight, go for it, fall asleep, do your thing, shower, do your thing. And the next thing you know the mimosas have turned into tequila sunsets. It’s a beautiful thing. Just pass me my silky. Hair too laid to mess it up right now. It’s also in this way about the comfort required to be able to get this kind of connection. If you can’t wear a bonnet, scarf, or du-rag in this situation, you cannot reach the heights I’m talking about here.
11. GO feat. Dan DeCristofaro
‘GO’ is cookouts and Lovers’ Skate at the nearest rink. Is a kidless aunty’s two-step. It is what blooms in summer time stupor and the painting over what has to die in winter. ‘GO’ is real Gemini season energy, in that it is about falling in love in the summer air, with a boo you just met and simultaneously just fell in love with (think camp counselor love), and focusing only on the euphoria of that feeling. It is planning the rest of your life without understanding what is required. This is the love where you slap red tinted glasses on, and all red flags look like surrender. We know it will end in flames, or with us having to return to the reality of our lives and our city-girl hustle, but for now, we go. We get lost and hope reality doesn’t find us. And the memory of that love-- because one day it will be but a memory-- is where you can always access that person, and they you.
I stepped into the studio with Dephrase with just an energy and a few hums. Some Chaka Khan and G-Funk references and knowing I wanted to get lost in the two-step. Dephrase, like he does, took care of the basics. We went back and forth on a few melodies and a few sounds, but ultimately he knew the assignment and he brought to life one of my favorite songs on the project.
(Produced by Dephrase)
12. EVERYTHING GOOD
‘EVERYTHING GOOD’ is the most chill song on the album. It is the stillness that peace is. It is about being called to do the ugly work so you can get what you need. You can have all the plans in the world, but if you’re asking for real joy,real peace - oh you can’t just pick up and leave and think it’ll find you in Cali. You can’t just throw away the skeletons in your closet and not ask the spirits to leave. It’s real work. But the work becomes most obvious when you just sit still. When you sit in the gratitude that you can find everywhere. Hope is not in the future, it’s right now. We don’t have to die to see heaven. Everything Good, baby.
Dephrase had been holding on to this song for a while and tried to get a few people to write on it, but just wasn’t happy about it. As soon as he showed me the song I fell in love. In a few short hours of a session we had this song. Completely unchanged after the first few mixes.
(Produced by Dephrase feat. Grey Ziemba)