Richmond is not a hip hop city. It never has been, and it probably never will be. That was one of the first things I learned when I moved here a few years ago. It is a music city though, that is for certain. Hardcore and punk show flyers riddle the poles of nearly every street downtown. Even the overall fashion sense of the town leans towards a more alt style. So when you think of the artists or bands that would represent the city, you would expect to see ones along that same line. Instead, the walls of Richmond boast pictures of the select few hip hop greats, including Nickelus F, Fly Anakin, and Ohbliv, one of the greatest and most unique producers of our time.

Ohbliv is a music nerd. More appropriately, you could say Ohbliv is a music appreciator. He grew up with parents who were big music connoisseurs themselves, in a house filled with records, yet no record player. With no ability to listen to the music, Ohbliv would sit there and analyze everything about the records. He would reading the song list, the production credits, and studying the artwork, learning about the music without even hearing it. It wasn’t until he was around 14 that he bought himself a record player, and was finally able to hear these albums. He quickly learned that this collection his dad had saved up consisted of classics, and rare albums that at the time were near impossible to find. This would instantly fuel Ohblivs desire to create. From around 7th grade until 12th grade, Ohbliv had rap dreams, and was writing all the time trying to chase that dream. The production side didn’t come into play until around his senior year, when he realized he wanted to record some raps but had no beats. Knowing nobody at all in his circle who produce, Ohbliv went to what he knew, the record player and his dads record collection. He would go on to produce a live pause tape series using that very same record player, and recording his raps. Around 2004 he linked with a local Richmond group called Score One For The Little Guy, where he would produce for years. After that, in a strange turn of fashion, Ohbliv and one of the rappers from SOFTLG would go to start EarthTonez, a five man acoustic soul beatbox hip hop group. The extremely different sound presented from Earth Tones was killing the college scene, performing at every homecoming or party they could. Although this group was gaining a lot of traction, with them touring and getting love, this was never Ohblivs plan. What originally started as a joke between friends, quickly grew bigger than they expected, and Ohbliv was not happy. Ohbliv left the group to pursue what he really wanted to, dusty hip hop.

Around 2007, the Richmond music and art scene was booming. Ohbliv found himself listening to all new types of music, attending every show he could from experimental harsh noise to true beat battles. Through experimenting with his tastes, Ohbliv would then go to form Chocolate Milk Collective with local producers and rappers, and host beat battles and local east coast house shows. This turn in Ohbliv’s career was when he started to link with other artists, and started to see the music that could be made from music. 2009 was the precipice of services like bandcamp, where artist like Ohbliv learned they had a platform to present their music to the masses and be paid for it. Through selling cd’s and tapes, Ohbliv learned the smart ways to market yourself and monetize your sound. Being a student of the game, and learning the importance of a deep catalogue from og’s like Count Bas D, Ohbliv made it a point to produce at least 30 minutes of music a day for a span of a few years. Looking today at his bandcamp, you would see over 75 projects released, proving that his hard work has never stopped.

The 2010’s presented a new era, and a sort of revival for hip hop. Richmond was attempting to force themselves on the map, with artists like Nickelus F and Lil Ugly Mane beginning to make a big name for themselves. Logging on twitter one day, Ohbliv randomly saw a link titled “Fly Anakin and Koncept Jackson rapping over Ohbliv beats” and almost ignored it. “I see a link on twitter, and i don’t know these dudes. I chalk it up as a common thing of people jacking beats, this was a common thing and I didn’t really think nothing of it. The funny thing is, 9 times out of 10, i don’t check those tracks out even. If its unauthorized, I don’t give a fuck about it, it doesn’t exist in my world. But for some reason, I checked it and i was just like ‘yo…… wow you are really doing my shit justice’ and i had to hit them up. This would lead to Ohbliv joining Fly Anakin and HennyLO’s ‘Mutant Academy’, a group now synonymous with Richmonds music scene. Since joining, Ohbliv and Mutant Academy are shaping the sound of Richmond, and underground hip hop in general. Their sound is hard to put into a box, but you could attempt to describe it as avantgarde hip hop. With a production team including his dusty loops, some I’m sure Ohbliv is still sampling from his dads record collection, and a team of rappers with uniquely recognizable voices talking about living in Richmond, smoking weed, and watching weird arthouse movies, it is clear why Mutant Academy has become one of the distinguishable names representing Richmond. So much so that in 2018 Fly Anakin and Ohbliv would essentially ‘receive their flowers’ by having their faces added to the catalogue of richmond artist Nils Westwards mural collection. Plastered on the brick walls of a local Shockoe Bottom business, you can see the detailed and intense faces of the two artists, and understand that they are almost watchdogs for the Richmond music culture.

Outside of music, Ohbliv is a wholly creative person. With the Ohbliv name itself coming from the movie Videodrome, you can tell where he finds his unexpected influences. Even now, over 20 years in the game Ohbliv says he still feels compelled to create every day. Its almost uncontrollable, sometimes you just need to get an idea out into the world as soon as you can, and the creativity takes over. The need for a creative outlet doesn’t stop with the music itself, Ohbliv has created his own cover art for years, wanting a fully hands on approach and sense of control over his releases. “I try to be hands on with everything, even in collaborations there are some situations where they really try to inhibit that, but i definitely try to get some point across about the direction of it. Its very important to me, design. Design is a whole language in itself and its important to show what is being conveyed by the music” This need for a hands on approach is very apparent in Ohblivs music through his choice of collaborations. He could never be one of those “hit me up, beats for sale” type producers who treat music as an impersonal business. He is very selective about who he chooses to work with, and what product is released. A lot of this stems from the way Ohbliv looks at his product as whole. He keeps true to a certain idealogy and set of values towards his product.

“It’s real to me, I grew up with certain values and ethics with this shit and that’s something I won’t compromise on… My thing is, when it starts to feel like work, that’s when I quit. I want to keep a sense of playfulness and curiosity and interest in my stuff and myself, and not get into the routine of posting beats and making connections, that’s too much. I don’t want to work a job, that’s why I do this. So I don’t want this to feel like a job. But don’t get it twisted… this is not for the weak.”

After speaking with Ohbliv for the better part of an hour about music, I felt like I had gained an understanding of who he was as a person. Towards the end of our chat though, I got to see Ohbliv really light up, when he got to speak about his 14 year old son and the importance of being a father. Ohbliv himself being a classically trained college graduate in Vocal Music can proudly say his son was at an All-District Chorus level for 3 years in a row, often soloing and received the highest score of any tenor in his district. He also can boast of being in all honors classes, creating art from clay, and teaching himself to cook gourmet meals from scratch. Ohbliv believes art in school is a necessity and the importance of providing as many creative outlets for a children as possible. In a sense, you can feel like Ohblivs nurturing behavior as a father brushes off into his view of the Richmond music community.

Although Richmond is historically a punk rock town, rap music is an unstoppable force. The main problem Ohbliv sees with the Richmond music scene is the lack of organization, and the lack of a clear cut sound. He even admits that for his own career, he started gaining the most traction as he did shows outside of Virginia. There is no distant Richmond style or sound, and even the radio stations mainly play new york or west coast rap. The local radio stations may be generous enough to delegate an hour a day to local music, but this small slice of the pie isn’t enough to establish an importance or sound in the scene. Luckily for myself and the other residents of Richmond, Virginia, we have artists like Ohbliv who genuinely care about the community and the music it puts out. As Ohbliv puts it:

“As long as I’m here, there will always be a pocket of hip hop in Richmond”

As always, Ohbliv 10 movie recomendations:

• 1: Wild Style (1982)
• 2: The Spook Who Sat By The Door (1973)
• 3: Space is the Place (1974)
• 4: Alabamas Ghost (1973)
• 5: Fantastic Planet (1973)
• 6: Videodrome (1983)
• 7: Bamboozled (2000)
• 8: House Party (1990)
• 9: Boogie Nights (1997)
• 10: Who's The Man (1993)