The Come Up: OT Genasis

Busta Rhymes’ The Conglomerate is steadily rising as hip-hop’s next clique. After Busta’s run with Flipmode Squad, the veteran MC formed The Conglomerate in 2011 with a new set of talent to put on. Besides longtime member J-Doe and buzzing singer Nikki Grier, Long Beach’s own OT Genasis has seen a sudden rise of his profile after delivering the street-ready anthem “Coco” earlier this month. “I think people are starting to get to know me now, and it’s a blessing,” says OT Genasis.

For a quick crash course: Genasis raps about his love for that white like his life depended on it. “Baking soda! I got baking soda!” he shouts, backed by a minimal, menacing beat. In other parts, Genasis manages to spit a string of rhymes ("Hit my plug, that's my cholo / 'Cause he got it for the low low / If you snitchin' I go loco / Hit you with that trienta ocho") with a stop-and-go flow that's infectious. It’s literally crack music.

“CoCo” isn’t the only time OT Genasis got the streets on lock. In June of 2013, the 23-year-old MC dropped “Touchdown,” which was another high-energy song that took over clubs all across the country. As it continued to garner buzz, Genasis got French Montana and Busta Rhymes on the remix to help its staying power. At the same time, he was Busta’s righthand on numerous remixes and freestyles, playing a notable role in The Conglomerate's Catastrophic mixtapes. Now, with “CoCo” separating himself as a reliable weapon in Busta’s arsenal, he’s focused on growing into rap’s next star.

In The Come Up, OT Genasis speaks on the moment he took rap seriously, his former affiliation with G-Unit, why he signed with The Conglomerate, his forthcoming mixtape Alarm, and more. “I want to be above the Jays and the Diddys,” he says. “I want to be above that level. I know what I have to do. Something that I have in mind, something that I won’t sit here and explain because I have a strategic plan. But, in order to get there, I gotta put this work in first. I’d definitely get there.”—Eric Diep

On Growing Up In Long Beach:

OT Genasis: It’s gangsta and it’s fly at the same time. Long Beach is a place where it is hood and the gangstas try to be fly at the same time. Long Beach is different than LA. It’s only like 20 minutes away, but everybody got their own lingo, their own style, their own way of moving. It’s kind of out here in New York. You got Harlem and then you got Brooklyn and then you got all these places. Everybody got their own thing, so it is cool. Then, I went out to Atlanta for a minute when times got hard and everything like that. Came back to Long Beach. I was here and there. I was always back and forth. I just added [OT to my rap name]. Outta Town.

On Taking Rap Seriously:

OT Genasis: Like in school, there was one time I had to have something for a talent show. It was a girl, you know when you go to class, present us with something today or whatever. And I had nothing. At the last minute, there was a girl she had a rhyme on her desk. I snatched her rhyme off her desk. I used it and I performed. It had her name in it and I switched it over in the flow to say my name. I actually got a good response out of it. That’s when I started having the love for music and rhyming. I was in the 3rd grade at the time.

After that, I started really watching rap videos, trying to mimic what I saw and everything. 9th grade, I recorded my first song. By the time I turned 16, I started doing talent shows, selling tickets and everything like that. I was rapping under the name Genasis. I was felt that because I was my mother’s first child, it means the beginning in the Bible. I always felt I was different on the West Coast. I had a different style. I came up with the name Genasis. It was a brilliant idea at the time. I started doing shows, by the time I turned 18-19. I was just trying to work on my timing. Just work on my craft—the creativity of music. I always had love for lyrics and everything like that. Just trying to have this whole package.

I wanted to play football, but I was always ineligible because of my grades. I wasn’t really into school so much. I was into music, I was into girls and I was into playing the sport of football. You know what I am saying? [Laughs] But not being academically prepared. I was into the sport and everything like that. I wasn’t into anything else but really music. That was only thing that I felt that I could do. That was about 19 at the time when I took it so seriously to where I said I don’t want to do anything else. This is what I want to do. After I studied it and I got it, “I can do this. I can really, really do this.” ‘Cause the first thing you start thinking is I want to have all this fly shit. I want to have everything that a rapper has. But it becomes fun and more interesting when you study and you are like, “I could be that muthafucka.” If I do this the right way.

On His Influences:

OT Genasis: Of course, ‘Pac and Biggie. I used to listen to the Geto Boys. Like Scarface and Bushwick [Bill]. I used to listen to them. As far as New York, I used to listen to Dipset. My high school, that was when all that shit was poppin’. Of course, Nas. Of course, Jay. Of course, Rakim. I just try to study everybody. I always try to study everybody. I listen to an East Coast rapper, I listen to a Southern rapper. I listen to everything to try and get the total package and find myself as an artist.

On His Street Hit "CoCo":

OT Genasis: Shit nothing fake about that. It’s just street shit. Everything that I was doing, all those movements and everything, it was authentic. It was how I was feeling at that moment. You know what I am saying? Shit, you can’t buy that. You can’t pay for that. It was something that it was the way that I felt at the moment when we were shootin’. All that shit I was doing, all those facial expressions. When you come from the struggle, you come from the street, and it’s time to jump in the box. You have to jump in that box. Use that with the shit that you’ve learned.

I guess [my music] just comes out that way. I turn up. I drink. I party, but I’m still on some street shit too at the same time. I guess it just how it came out. I was in there in the studio, singing, “I’m in love with the coco—caina!” You know what I mean? “I got it for the low, low.” I was just in my zone. It just came out like that. It wasn’t trying to be anything ‘cause when you try some shit that’s when it don’t happen. If you trying to make a hit record, it won’t happen. You gotta have a good time with it.

On His Time With G-Unit:

OT Genasis: I had pitfalls all the time. Most of it came from me not trusting my gut and trusting my hand. Worrying about what other people have to say. That was my biggest problem, having somebody else think for me. I mean, I always lived by the code. Stay solid, and be yourself. And not to be fake. You being fake with yourself just by listening to someone knowing that’s not really want to do. It’s a lot of people that came around out of some point in my life to where they’re like “I think this fits better.” And I know it doesn’t fit better. But because of their position in life or in the business or whatever, ‘cause of their position I kind of downplay myself. Let me go and what you feel, but it never works out. But [“CoCo”,] I trusted my gut and I talked to Busta. Busta trusted it. And now we turned up.

That wasn’t even because of the G-Unit situation. G-Unit situation was dope, but I only had a single deal over there. Shout out to G-Unit and 50. I learned a whole lot from that dude. I don’t have nothing bad to say about that.

When 50 discovered me … I think it was YouTube or something. I think my manager brought me to his attention or something like that. But he called me on some crazy stuff. But yeah, shout out to Fif. We did this big ass show together and did everything. I only had a single deal or whatever. Around the time, he had so much go on with that Vitamin Water. It was the SK headphones and all that. I learned from 50 really just the way you carry yourself. Just always stay business-minded and don’t let a lot of people in. That’s how he moves and that’s what I learned from him. I’d watch him. You know, people think you are not watching, but you just watch. You just study. That was definitely something that I learned from him.

I had a single called “Jackie Chan” at the time. It was cool.  Like I said, you need all these things to happen. That situation needed to happen to me. And that brought a lot of attention in the streets. Everybody was like, “Oh, you got your deal!” So that brought a lot of attention to me and I learned a lot from that. In the business, I learned a whole lot of stuff. It just taught me—you gotta learn this shit man.

On Busta Rhymes And Joining The Conglomerate:

OT Genasis: After the G-Unit situation, everything was calmed down. And we knew it wasn’t a situation no more. So, I dropped “Touchdown.” When I was doing that, I was running around doing shows and grabbing the mic in my city. I’d go to the club and rush the stage and just perform. I’m not supposed to perform tonight. I just go in there and I just perform. My song was hot and everybody knew it.

We did that, and [Busta Rhymes] had met me in the club. It was a club called Playhouse. One of my homies is a DJ over there, Justin Credible. I told him to put it on. [He] put it on, I performed. Rocked it. It was crazy. We linked up there. He chopped it up with me. “Yo, let’s meet up. Let’s talk.” So I went to the studio probably a couple days later, we talked business. We got the deal done. Shit, I’m here.

I like that Busta’s so passionate. He’s so passionate about it. He wants everything done properly. Like everything done on time. It’s a bittersweet situation sometimes because you know we can get into it or whatever, but we brothers. Shit happens. That’s what I really like—that he’s so passionate about it. And you can see that. You feel it, good or bad.

The Conglomerate is more like a family. From the way that everybody talks and talks about each other’s craft. Just the way we vibed in the studio, everything is just authentic. It ain’t like some shit that’s forced upon you. You forced to be around him or you forced to do something. It’s genuine. You know that you can do you. You just want to be anywhere where you know you could do you.

On What's Next:

OT Genasis: I’m working on the Alarm mixtape. That should drop pretty soon at the right time. I’ve worked on it for about two months now. Everything coming along real good, it’s just kind of hard to put everything together when you still recording and you find the music that you may be thinking its the last song then you record again. Other than that, it’s about to be done.

Basically, the mixtape is about everything. I just want it to be authentic. I just want everybody to see that I am talking about real shit here. I’m talking about personal shit. I’m also real impersonal shit that may not sound like it through my delivery or through the beat selection, but you’d be surprised. It’s kind of crazy for you to understand right now, but you’ll be surprised. You’ll get what I am talking about. You’ll see features, but not too many. I think it’s time for me to expand my wings. I just want to really do me. I want the people to know who I am. Who OT Genasis is.