Onwuka Interview: Letting the Music Take Control

Funk may not be as prominent a genre as it was in the 1970s, but its influence permeates into every facet of music today. Unlike most genres, strictly defined by certain instruments, arrangements, and cultures, funk is a feeling: jollity, danceability, carefreeness. With funk, the musician does not guide the music; the music guides them.

Onwuka is the latest in a long line of rappers to incorporate funk into his sound. Influenced by the likes of Rick James, the Wyoming-based MC has long injected summery grooves into his work, but Sleazy, the rapper’s latest album, is Onwuka’s first true test of his funkability.

A full collaboration with rapper/producer Xavier, Sleazy embodies the free, improvisational spirit of funk. Even down to the creative process, the album was guided by feeling and instinct rather than coordinated planning. “A lot of times when it comes to writing stuff, my subconscious just takes over,” Onwuka said. “When we first started, we did ‘Xxtra’ and ‘Pie’, and we were thinking, ‘Maybe we should put it out,’ then we decided, ‘Why don’t we just do a whole album, the whole joint?’”

Having started work on the project in March 2021, Sleazy has been a lengthy process of improvising ideas and allowing the music to guide them. The end-result is Onwuka’s funkiest work yet, and a stark departure from the sci-fi laced chaos of his previous work with INSMNC (known together as InsomniWuka). He said:

“The thing I really like about Xavier’s style is that he’s down to let the track build and breathe. A lot of them, like ‘My Funky Grind’, take a minute to get going. It’s a funky type of vibe, like how a lot of funk tracks – not in a bad way – draw along … We went all over the place but still had a funky flavour to most of it.”

At its core, Sleazy is a love letter to funk and R&B, written in the language of hip hop. “I’m a funkster at the end of the day; it’s the reason I got into anything.” However, while the soundscapes are cohesive, Onwuka’s writing tackles an eclectic range of topics. While ‘Insterstellar Fella’ is your more rhyme-heavy cut, ‘Sunday Skate’ is more introspective, and ‘Pie’ is your classic sensual hip hop tune.

“We went all over the place but still had a funky flavour to most of it,” Onwuka said. “I was always impressed by rappers who could slide on any type of beat. It’s still cool to have your own signature sound or a regional sound of where you’re from or where inspired you – I think it’s important to have that – but it’s always been a goal of mine to be like, ‘Oh, Onwuka can kill every type of beat.’”

Four years in the making, Onwuka and Xavier have evolved as artists considerably since starting work on Sleazy, and it shows in the music itself. “Since this album took a while to come out, I would say I’ve become a better rapper through time. Sometimes I would be like, ‘Damn, let me go back and  re-spit certain things,’ but some of it I just left in there, because with the title Sleazy, it’s like, ‘Let’s just go, bruh,’ don’t have to worry about having the perfect, exact verse every time.”

In that sense, Sleazy embodies yet another characteristic of funk: that deliberate messiness, allowing quirks and flaws to shine as the LP demonstrates Onwuka’s artistic evolution in real time. “I try to keep it very authentic. I think something I’ve realised with the rappers I like is that they’re very creative but also very authentic. For the most part, they’re being themselves.”

Even in cases where Onwuka would have done things differently now, he kept old details in, allowing the music and evolution to speak for itself. “Even as I grow with writing, I try to smooth my stuff, because I’m one of those rappers who throws out a bunch of words, so through time, I try to edit and take out words that aren’t necessary to get my point across. Like the track ‘Interstellar Fella’, for example, that track is very wordy, so if I made that now, I might condense it or chop it up a little different.”

(Credit: Wyoming Tribune Eagle)

Onwuka spoke more on how Sleazy helped him grow as a songwriter. “I learned how to make hooks making this album. When I first started rapping, I was one of those rappers like, ‘I’m pretty good at rapping, but I’m not really good at crafting a song yet’ … At first I was like, ‘Yeah, I got bars,’ but with rapping, you’ve got to be like, ‘Okay, actually, let me find my way to actually make these memorable and catchy.’”

The artistic evolution on display is not limited to Onwuka, either. Accustomed to production, Sleazy saw Xavier try his hand at rapping, slowly honing his skills over the course of the project. “You can really see his progression,” Onwuka said. “On ‘Xxtra’, you can see him finding his footing, but then on ‘Go Around the Way’, he killed that track. That’s a crazy verse on there.”

Just as work on the album started naturally, with no concrete sense of direction, it ended just as smoothly. “We were working on this forever, and then one day, [Xavier] was like, ‘I’m done!’ He was basically like, ‘Are you ready?’, and I was like, ‘Oh, wait, I’m really not!’”

However, the end of Sleazy does not mark the end of Onwuka’s work with Xavier. Although the process for the album ended suddenly, work on new material is already underway. “We’re about to drop two other EPs on the way, so we’ve already got things set up,” he said. “One’s going to be more raw and one’s going to be more smooth and spacey again … Xavier does a bunch of different music … Techno, rock – he’s one of those cats who is very all over the place with the different styles he can do. He can make some crazy instrumentals, very vintage, but without sounding too prehistoric.”

(Credit: Onwuka)

Beyond his work with Xavier, Onwuka has an album in the works with producer INSMNC – the latest in their InsomniWuka catalogue. Titled Extra Large Icons, we can expect the LP to capture that signature conceptual madness of the duo’s previous efforts, with an added glaze of funk. “I feel like when I first started, I wasn’t able to implement too many funk tracks – I was just getting it going, getting different beats and production – so now that I’m able, I want to utilise that as a salute to all the funksters who allow me to do this sort of stuff.”

Onwuka is a close associate of The House of Incredible Skills: an online collective of hip hop artists which blossomed in the isolation of the pandemic. “I live in a very secluded area,” the rapper said. “I like in Wyoming, I live next to Colorado. Denver is the biggest city next to my area for stuff like that, so I’m very grateful for any type of internet help. I definitely still play shows out here, but it’s just not the most hip hop area in comparison to California or New York … It was perfect storm timing for me.”

Along with INSMNC, The House of Incredible Skills consists of artists SurvivalInNegativity, Big Noah Genesis, Darryl Watson, Impress Matta, Act Won, Stratic Beats, and Tru Thoughts. They are just a handful of the artists Onwuka has connected with online – something he plans to celebrate with his upcoming solo LP, Digital Surfin’.

On the project, Onwuka said: “That one is inspired by me hopping on Twitter and finding all these different cats … Digital Surfin’ – surfing the web, doing random stuff, and I found all these different people. I’ve got ‘Secret Garden’ with Bootes on there. That one is more introspective, seeing the man behind the mask, in terms of writing … These ones will be a bit more vulnerable.”

Years into his career, Onwuka has defined himself as a rapper in appearance and a funkster at heart. From the funky rhythms of Sleazy to his easy-going creative process, allowing sounds and feelings to guide his pen, Onwuka has carved out a distinct place in the underground as an artist who, no matter how much the industry changes, will always put the music first.

Find Onwuka here.