DMV’s rapidly rising artist discusses everything from the value of lyrics in today’s music, to the efforts behind successfully setting the mood ahead of her major guest performance

Time and time again, those of us consuming the weekly celebrity scoop are reminded of the familiar saying that you cannot manufacture charisma. It’s the ultimate staple that often deflates the fleeting careers of hyper-sensationalized young stars clinging to their PR managers as they attempt to survive their first round of live-streamed interviews. Luckily for this year’s Word Power Presents: The DMV Youth Poet Laureates Showcase guest performer, O-Slice, this could not be less of an issue. One needs only to view the twenty-eight-year-old musician’s fresh take on visuals from musical promos like “Go,” or her carefully cultivated social media aesthetic to see why. Not to mention her confidently relaxed manner when sharing her thought process behind her latest album, Good morning, Goodnight. 

With the 2023 Youth Poet Laureates Showcase in our rearview, Words Beats & Life caught up with the humble MC to hear some of her takeaways regarding her come-up story as an advancing DMV artist creating cross-genre art in the digital age.

WBL: As we have seen across streaming platforms, you’ve been amassing quite the following for your music, and as a response, you’ve been asked to give more interviews. The first question that’s always asked is: How’d you choose your stage name? Despite this, I still feel duty-bound to ask the question you are well seasoned in receiving: How’d you get the name?

O-Slice: I made it up when I was a kid. I've been writing since I was a literal child. So there wasn't really a deeper meaning for it at the moment, it was just the first letter of my first name, and a fun verb. It was super random, but it stuck. My high school basketball team started it off, and long story short, I won my school’s talent show because someone from the team signed me up. I've been O-Slice ever since. It's really funny, because in the back of my mind, I would love to change my name, but I would hate to start over. Now, I’ve embraced it. 

WBL: I do feel that your name fits well with the kind of music you create. The songs I hear you launch fit that marriage of funky, fast spoken and chill vibrance. It's like modern meets old school. What tools or sources would you say that you pull from to achieve this sound vibe?

O-Slice: I've internally gone through so many eras of sounds while making music. Different styles of rap were popular at different times, and I leaned into that. I used to withhold a lot of my music, and then release it a few years later, so the music has a bit of recent nostalgia that way, too. I think it creates this unique fusion of just who I am in the past, present, and future. Everything, everywhere, all at once. 

WBL: We're in a digital age right now. How would you say technology or social media has helped you get more recognition? And which platform has been the most crucial in finding your expanded audience?

O-Slice: Longevity has allowed me to see a bunch of different platforms. When I wasn’t putting stuff on the internet, I was very much an in-person artist. My fan base was the crowd that night. Everything changed in 2016 when I entered a radio contest and a video of me was posted on Instagram. It completely changed the way that I thought about promoting myself. I will say these last two years, I have used Clubhouse and TikTok the most. Background is IG, Twitter, and YouTube.  

WBL: I've noticed through your social media launches, in particular on IG, that you like to keep the visuals fresh. Should we chalk that up to the fact that you're a millennial, or is there more to it?

O-Slice: I really care about visuals and making the feed cohesive and intentional. The artists that I look up to, like Missy Elliott, do cool things visually to match what they bring to the table sonically. So I put a lot of effort into that. As an artist, I find that I think about my music as color. There's a reason why the Goodmorning, Goodnight album was so blue. I try to use my Instagram feed as an extension of those colors to best set the mood. 

WBL: A lot of the performances in your archive utilize or allude to poetry in some form or another. How has poetry affected your come-up in the music industry? How largely do you rely on it now?  

O-Slice: I think that poetry is ever present in my art. I started writing poems before I started writing raps. I think every lyrical rapper had that same path. Every time I feel like I want to hone in and develop my craft, I have gone to poetry. Poetry is always there in my work. It's just the case of presenting it in different forms. 

WBL: You performed as a featured artist during the Word Power DMV Youth Poet Laureate Showcase on April 5, where young talent from across the DMV hopped on the mic to share their spoken word talent. As a poet in your late 20s, you likely remember how it felt to be performing at their age. Could you describe the mindset that you carried during those younger years that aided in your quick rise in popularity today?

O-Slice: I'm just believing in myself. Especially when I was young, and it was hard to. That confidence during performances when I was younger eventually spread to my everyday life. I think understanding that you are special in your own way and nurturing that positivity in young DMV talent is crucial. 

WBL: Speaking of DMV talent, we've had a recent rise in nationally recognized artists from here, including Rico Nasty, Goldlink, and Ari Lennox, to name a few. What do you think is contributing to the DMV getting some special recognition, and what are your takeaways for what the area needs to keep or maintain that attention?

O-Slice: I think that the rest of the world just got cool enough to recognize how cool we are. Like, we've been ahead for a very long time, naturally. I think everyone else is late to the game, but that's fine; we will continue to be great. What we need to do now is just not let up. We should continue to push people out of their comfort zones with the art they consume, continue to innovate, and continue to be as great as we've always known that we are.