In the fall of 2021, the pan-African Twin Cities music group and creative organization Ozone Creations released their first collective project, Coup D’etat. The 18-track album was more than their coming out party. It was the culmination of what Ozone members call “plethora” Blackness, a fusion of Black musical genres that have influenced the group.

In Coup D’etat, you hear Afro-pop, one of the group’s staple sounds, but also rap and hip-hop, R&B, funk, and more. (The crew will perform Friday, March 25, at The Cabooze.)

“We're working to be a very good telling presence in the city. Even in the lessons of being Black, being a monolith is a falsified concept,” says Obi Original, one of the founders of Ozone Creations, who recently spoke to The Current in a group interview. “We want to be able to show that being Black is actually a plethora, and in plethora, there's the power.”

Ozone Creations’ “plethora” Blackness, like titling an album Coup D’etat, is an act of defiance – a dagger slashing at the belief that all Black people are the same in culture and identity.

Coup D’etat is about the celebration of diverse Blackness, much like the group itself. Its artists – Obi Original, Breezy2Fresh, Bakarii, Ch!nwe, Sumer, and Mack OC – have roots spanning from Nigeria, Cameroon, France, Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, and the U.S.

In short, Ozone Creations is working to build representation for the children of immigrants, as well as Black Americans looking to see themselves and their culture reflected, as well as looking for more opportunities to learn about their origins and music. 

Since the late ’90s, the African population in Minnesota has soared, including generations of kids growing up in the Twin Cities metro from Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Nigeria, Cameroon, Togo, Congo, Ghana, and many many more. Growing up with parents reinforcing African traditions, while also being raised “American” by nature of growing up in the U.S., this generation is forced to bridge the gap between their two homes. It’s in this gap that Ozone Creations exists.

“I see comfort. Minnesota is a predominantly white state. And all of us growing up in this state have realized that sometimes you feel alone, but then you find your people, and then you realize that you're not that alone,” Obi Original says. 

“And there's generations and generations of us, but there hasn't been anybody to show us. We are that beginning. And after us, it's just up from here,” he adds. “I'm so excited seeing the people get comfortable with who they are, where they're from, and I think a lot of people weren't supporting where they're from, and I think now, I think they're okay with showing where they're from.”

The origins of Ozone Creations

Coup D’etat was far from Ozone’s introduction to the Twin Cities. For several years, Ozone founder and Nigeria native Obi Original, a tireless music junkie, has pioneered a new Afro-fusion locally – ever since his 2019 single “Tsunami.” To hear him tell it, it’s almost as if it was fate.

“For me, it really started with a lot of old highlife African music [a style that dates back to 19th century Ghana]. I was always in tune with it since I was young because we have a very strong Igbo community here in Minnesota and my uncle Chris was DJing,” Obi Original says. “We have an Igbo Fest here, which I started tapping in with at a very young age – doing a lot of the cultural dances and playing the traditional drums.”

Celebrated yearly, over a hot summer weekend, Igbo Fest is one of the largest Nigerian celebrations in Minnesota, and one of the biggest celebrations of the Igbo tribe in all of the U.S., attracting Nigerian-Americans from across the country. Attending these festivals, discovering and immersing himself in Afro-creativity, and drawing inspiration from Fela Kuti and Prince Nico, the Nigerian artist who sang “Sweet Mother,” motivated Obi Original to take music seriously.

“African music is the basis of everything I work on…it is the epicenter of where we come from as a people. So let's go from the bottom and bring ourselves up,” he says. “I started really getting into music for real when I asked my mom to buy me one of these USB mics. I had a guitar and I started really playing.”

In time, he would connect with Cameroonian-American rapper and engineer Breezy2Fresh, who would help him take his engineering skills and sound to the next level. Breezy and Obi attended the same high school and were familiar with each other, but it wasn’t until college that musical fruit began to sprout. 

“I was going to St. John's [in Collegeville, Minnesota] at the time, but I was working with [Breezy and his crew] and I was like, ‘Okay, these guys have been doing quality work at other places, how can I match or even do better?’” Obi questions.

He soon found the answer in learning how to engineer his own beats and productions. “I really do give Breezy and the crew a lot of credit for challenging me to get to where I am now with mastering and mixing,” he adds.

“Our story is funny, because [Obi and I] have been brothers for a long time. We’ve known each other since we were kids. It’s funny how we’ve known each other for so long, but never knew that side of each other, until we tapped in,” Breezy says.

While Obi Original was discovering and developing his Afro-fusion sound, Breezy, who is now the lead engineer for Ozone Creations, was building his name in the cities as a rapper. Drawing inspiration from J. Dilla, Wu-Tang Clan, and Chance the Rapper, he was known to rock the mic with lyricism and energy.

“When he did the college real-world thing, I dropped my Midas Touch,” Breezy says. “People just knew we had a dynamic and we were building a fan base…I always knew Obi was a music genius…it was a proud moment to see him step out of the background into the limelight.”

New recruits and growth of Ozone Creations

The first non-founder addition to the Ozone Creations was Bakarii, one of the pioneers for the group’s sound and growth. A multi-talented artist, theater kid and athlete, Bakarii was a student at Hamline University when he first met Obi Original and Breezy2Fresh.

They connected through Afrobeats and their African origins in 2016, but it took some time for Obi Original and Bakarii to lay a track together.

“I'm trying to contact this man, Obi. I want to make a song and I cannot get a hold of him,” Bakarii says. “It's okay, though. I just kept doing me. I was persistent. I was making beats, and I did a performance with some friends at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.”

It took almost two years for Obi Original and Bakarii to reconnect, but once they did, it was magic.

“We made this song called ‘Slide’ and that was my first time truly touching the Afrobeat and actually being fully an artist and writer,” Bakarii says. “From there, I just started trying to do Afrobeats, and that was around the same time when we were coming together.”

Beyond being one of the lead voices of the crew, Bakarii also runs the operations and management of the crew.

In recent years, they’ve recruited Ch!nwe, an artist and designer with Nigerian roots, Sumer, a singer from a family of vocalists with deep family ties on Minneapolis’ North Side, and Mack OC, a lyricist who joined the crew last year.

Ch!nwe, who released Obscured in February, believes that Ozone can help build transformational change in the city. “​​We're pursuing better quality music out of this community,” he says. “We want to see things get done to improve. So we can show people that we can be a group and still be individuals. You work together to get something to happen, from there you can only encourage the next people to do amazing things.”

For Sumer, who never lacks in confidence, also recently released a new single, “Addicted,” becoming a member of Ozone Creations has not only helped her grow as a musician, it has helped her better understand her own Blackness.

“I started making music around 2019. Ever since, it has been a straight shot to the moon and to the stars. I just knew I was gonna be the center of attention, [Ozone] made it easy,” Sumer says as the crew busts out laughing.

“My mama Black, my daddy Black…I just be here you know?” Sumer added. “[Ozone] really taught me that it is okay to know where you're from, that you're a descendant of…that's something I've always been feeling lost about, especially being an African American and knowing that your history is American history. And also knowing that their history (African history) has gone further than mine and wanting to understand that. They’ve helped broaden my understanding.”

The most recent addition to Ozone Creations is Mack OC, whose ties with Obi Original began long before Ozone was a thought.

“We used to live in New Brighton and I remember literally when he was born. Me and my mom went to visit his apartment,” Obi Original says. 

“I never had a big brother, so I remember one of the earliest memories I have is of Obi taking me to the park,” Mack OC replies.

Mack has been rapping since high school, when he was known for freestyling and recording diss tracks. He even had a popular song on SoundCloud. Even with his proximity to Obi Original, joining Ozone took him a while. 

“When I first started taking music seriously, I still was the annoying kid to Obi and hitting him up about doing music,” Mack OC says. “I would write him, ‘I want to work with you.’ Asking him, ‘How do I deal with a project?’ and I would get no response.”

In the fall of 2020, Obi finally responded. 

“He invited me to his studio, and then I recorded a song with him. And he was like, ‘There’s a show next week,’ and he told me to come to play our one song when I got there.”

Building a united community of Black creatives in the Twin Cities

One of the common refrains from artists in the Twin Cities is that they don’t get enough media support or airplay, and the artist community doesn’t do a good enough job of supporting and uplifting one another.

Some of these artists point to Atlanta as an example of what they’d like the Twin Cities to be. In the Twin Cities you have artists like Destiny Roberts, Ricki Monique, Rich Garvey, Juice Lord, and Sole 2 Dotz that have done their part to create a united music community. You also have groups like 3ME and Illism that have made space for others.

“The creation in our name is that we really are creating a space that before has been like a glass ceiling,” added Breezy2Fresh. “We grew up hearing that Minnesota artists can only reach a certain point, and I feel like we're showing actively that there's enough room for everyone to eat.”

Like their peers, Ozone Creations is also doing their part to build an uplifting community. One recent example is Shy-I, a native of Nigeria based in the Twin Cities, who recently collaborated with Obi Original on the single, “Fanta.”

“I'm glad, because being around people like Ozone really allowed me to develop my sound and really be free with myself,” Shy-I says. “One thing I love about music is that it doesn't have any rules. You can really do whatever you want. And it was a comforting feeling.”

Coup D’etat and the future of Ozone Creations

Ozone Creations wasn’t built in a day. It represents the journeys of many musicians discovering their individual sound and understanding each other’s Black roots. Coup D’etat, Ozone’s first collective album, was released in the fall of 2021. It was more than a simple debut album for Ozone, celebrating diverse Black sounds, it was their expression and storytelling about being African and African-American artists from the Twin Cities.

“The terminology with Coup D’etat mainly comes from the historical aspect of a lot of African countries having had the action of coup d'etat. But for us, we want to be able to have a positive aspect, at least with us being artists, to be a positive establishment,” Obi Original explains. “I wanted it to be something that sends a message that people know that we're here, that we have something to say in different ways.”

Bakarii adds, “We wanted to represent an organized infiltration of multiple establishments. And in this case, it's the music industry, education, prison reform, like, there's so many things that need to be addressed. We feel like we can do something and provide some changes. We know all the power that artists have and it's to empower artists.”

Many of the tracks on Coup D’etat were recorded and completed a few years ago, but there were a few new additions that were recorded just months before the release. Through careful selection and mixing, the group wanted to make sure that they were sharing sounds and messages that best represented the group.

The album upon first listen feels more like a playlist – a collage of multiple songs with different cadences, rhythms, and vibes. That was the intention.

“I’ve seen it as a way to get out of the industry of negativity, because there's so much negativity in the music industry as a whole. And for us, for the culture that people want to have, we have that culture and we express it in such a good dynamic, but nobody ever sounds the same. None of us sound the same. What you hear is distinct,” Breezy2Fresh says.

Coup D’etat is a revolt against the idea that individual artists can’t band together to make great music. Moreover, Breezy says it is a coup against a music industry that has a reputation of being cutthroat and unfair towards artists.

“The power now rests more in the artists’ hands. [Artists] are waking up. When you look in your history, we're seeing that it was always in our hands. We were just led to believe it wasn't,” Ch!nwe says. “We're becoming more conscious, business-wise, and music-wise, of the things that belong to us and how to value it… we become ‘The Avengers’ of it.”

It’s an interesting parallel to think about. Like the heroes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, they are able to put aside their egos and collaborate when required. From a music perspective, it’s the individuality to pursue and develop one’s sound as part of a collective that uplifts and empowers one another.

Obi Original also believes in the collective. “My inspiration is being like Wu-Tang Clan, when it comes to being in a group and handling business – pushing that evolution even in the respect of a collective and all of us eating, being able to be our true genuine selves in this musical spirit,” he says.

The key for Coup D’etat, and more importantly for Ozone Creations, is to continue celebrating their diverse Blackness and continue pushing the Afro-fusion/Afro-pop music in the Twin Cities and the U.S.

“Just like how hip-hop is pop now, I feel like all popular music in general has Black origins. So I feel like that's how Afro pop is going to manifest in general. It's already happening just within Ozone,” Bakarii says. “You have Obi Original making these amazing Afro beats and you have R&B artists, rappers and different people hopping on them and making it more than just Afro. It's making Afro-pop, but it's just including so much more. it feels like a metamorphosis that is just going to keep rolling and rolling.”

Coup D’etat is the first of many collective projects for the Ozone Creations. Since its release, Ch!nwe, Sumer, Bakarii, Obi Original, and Ozone-affiliate Shy-I have released projects or singles. Stream their music on Spotify, Apple, Tidal, or wherever you listen to music.

Ozone Presents: The Essentials Show will feature live music and an NFT release at The Cabooze on Friday, March 25. Tickets.