Odd Mojo

Born: Capitol Heights, MD — 1994 / Living: Capitol Heights, MD

Interview by Speciwomen — May 2019

Speciwomen: Who are you? 

Odd Mojo: My name is Mahogany, also known as Odd Mojo. I'm from Capitol Heights, Maryland, and I'm an artist boasting self love awareness through my art.

S: What drew you to music? 

OM: What drew me to music was confidence. Hip-Hop was the first thing I started studying in music. Rappers have to be very confident and that's something I always wanted. I had low self esteem growing up and by me getting into this field I knew it would be something that could help me develop love for myself.

S: Do you remember the moment you decided that this was the path for you?

OM: The moment I knew music was the path for me was back in 2018 when I was going through a bad break up that almost led me to giving up on rap and life. A lot of weird things kept happening to me whenever I was having negative thoughts, like a random person wherever I was would tell me how much my music helps them and how I should never give up. And people told me these things before but this certain time in my life made me feel like “wow maybe I'm really meant to do this shit”. If it wasn't for those random people that knew me from my music with those encouraging words I probably wouldn't even be here. 

S: Who are/what are your biggest inspirations as a musician? 

OM: My biggest inspirations as a musician came from listening to Odd Future in high school. They made me feel fearless and to not be afraid of doing what I wanted to do. As I got more into making music I fell in love with the 90s era of Hip-Hop and R&B. Mixing those two inspirations together created Odd Mojo.

S: If you could collab with three people in the near future, who would they be and why? 

OM: OMG I would love to collab with Tyler The Creator, Kid Cudi, and Erykah Badu. All three of them pushed me to be where I am as a creative. They make me think outside the box but also remind me to be myself because that's how they got to where they are. Originality is what inspires me.

S: What was the first song you ever wrote? 

OM: The first song I ever wrote was me in my bedroom literally bored to death, just surfing the web trying to figure life out. I was freshly out of high school and at the time I was just a broke aspiring model trying to learn how to make it in the fashion industry. Everyday I spent at least 30 minutes or an hour looking at random interviews of Jourdan Dunn or Chanel Iman on how they made it to where they are now. Which led me to this one particular day of doing my daily check up on the modeling world on YouTube. I stumbled across a Drake instrumental, it was so hilarious! I clicked it and made a fake lil rap to it just to be funny. My best friend Rayonte was already coming over my house that day to just chill, so when he came through I told him what happened and he laughed me the fuck out, but he was very interested in what I came up with. When I finally did rap for him, the guy was blown away and said "son, you gotta really do this shit you’re tight as shit" I didn't believe him at first but for some odd reason since that day I kept writing raps.

S: Where does performing bring you? 

OM: Performing brings me freedom. I can truly be myself when I'm on stage. If you met me in person before you even hear my music you would probably think I'm a shy person. All that shit goes away when I hit the stage. It's a beautiful freeing experience for me.

S: Name 5 songs that always keep you going. 

OM: Mick Jenkins - “Understood”, Tyler The Creator - “911/Mr.Lonely”, Jungle - “Casio”, The Pharcyde - “Passin' Me By”, and Erykah Badu - “Time's A Wastin”.

S: What are your thoughts about social media and the constant evolution of technology? 

OM: I have good and bad thoughts about the evolution of technology. The good side of this whole social media thing is that you can meet so many cool people that like what you like faster, rather than going out trying to meet people that like the same stuff as you. But the bad side of that in my opinion is becoming impatient with things. We watch these short videos on our phones and tweet limited thoughts that we have and I think later on down the road it can be a huge mental problem. I don’t spend that much time on my phone anymore because I noticed how much it took me out of living in the present moment.

S: As a woman, how have your experiences shaped your sound? 

OM: Being a women period in the music industry will just make you a stronger person and change your whole view on life.

S: You mentioned you're working on an upcoming MV, can you briefly tell us what this single is all about? 

OM: My new music video 'Sticky Notes' is from my last project 'Channel Yo Mojo' that I released last year in January 2018. The concept of this visual is about me facing the everyday struggles of dealing with insecurities and negative thinking. Throughout the video you will see how things that we search for outside of ourselves are literally right in front of us. This music video is long overdue but the time is here and I'm really excited to see where this takes me. I'm also using this video as promo and hype for the next release of the upcoming EP titled ‘GUH’.