2024 was a huge year for LA, all things considered. Kendrick Lamar had his year-long victory lap, using his platform to highlight up-and-coming rappers from the city. Tyler The Creator kept the energy going with the 10th anniversary Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival. One of the artists who appeared at both is OhGeesy, best known as a member of party-rap crew Shoreline Mafia.
When we’d last heard from the rowdy quartet, founding member Fenix Flexin had departed the group and he and OhGeesy had embarked on their respective solo careers (Rob Vicious and Master Kato have seemingly dropped off the radar). OhGeesy’s career especially has flourished locally, but it seemed that rap fans outside the Golden State just weren’t ready to hear what he had to say.
That may change this Valentine’s Day, with the release of OhGeesy’s official debut album, Paid In Full. Backed by Atlantic and bolstered by the release of Geesy’s singles “What It Iz” featuring Lefty Gunplay (who was recently featured on Kendrick’s new album GNX), “Babygirl” with Lil Tjay, and the title track, Paid In Full finds Geesy stepping up his rap game and firing on all cylinders, admitting on a Zoom call that he recorded the album completely sober.
If the album doesn’t strap a rocket to his back, his debut performance at Coachella in April just might, as he and Fenix Flexin reunite under the Shoreline Mafia banner. As he tells me during our insightful and surprising chat, “We both have our own solo thing, but it helps feed into each other. Shoreline’s sh*t only going to make our solo stuff stronger.” With this two-pronged approach, don’t be surprised if OhGeesy rides the wave boosting the West Coast to unprecedented heights.
You have a new album coming out, what can you tell me about that?
Paid In Full, my album I’ve been working on the past year, is about to drop Valentine’s Day. I’m excited for it, excited to show what I’ve been working on. I’ve been locked in. I was, like, putting myself through boot camp, just staying away from anybody, no partying, nothing, just working on music.
You know what? I like to hear that. It shows your focus. That’s a good mindset for staying on it.
You got to make time for the job. I got to separate myself.
Absolutely. The album is a Valentine’s Day release. Is it going to be a lovey-dovey album? Are we going to get a lovey-dovey OhGeesy album?
It’s not lovey-dovey, but it’s some joy on there for the ladies, for sure.
What’s been the thing that you’ve learned the most about yourself in the process of making an album? Because you have mixtapes, you’ve done group projects, but this is the thing that you’re going to introduce yourself to the world with, more or less. What’s something you learned about yourself, and what’s the difference that it’s made in your process?
I think that I could do anything. I did the whole process sober. No partying, no nothing, no distractions. So, it just made me feel like I’d do anything.
You know what, that’s surprising to hear. Because, for the longest time, I associated you with party music.
Yeah, I make party music. I just make vibe music, sh*t that you can ride to, and sh*t that you could play it at the function, but everyone always associates me with drugs and sh*t.
But it’s crazy. I never do none of my music on drugs or partying. When it’s studio time, it’s lock-in time, that’s when I’m working, you feel me?
That might surprise the average person, because when they see you come out on stage and you and Shoreline are bopping, it just projects a certain image. What is something else about you that would surprise people, if they got to know the real OhGeesy?
I like doing a lot of self-care. I like hiking, I like working on my mental. I like being mentally strong, so I like hiking, going to the sauna, working out, just working on myself.
I have a friend like that. She’s always doing sound baths. Have you ever done that?
Nah, I want to do it. I have that on my to-do list, for sure. I looked up some classes they have about the beach.
Is that going to work its way into your music? You going to start rapping about doing yoga and stuff?
Nah, I feel like it makes me a better artist. I’ve been doing that. That’s my same routine. Any time I start working on an album, since GeezyWorld, I’m hiking, meditation, all of that stuff, just self-work, and I feel like it makes me a better rapper.
Speaking of being a better rapper, walk me through your process with the album. I know a lot of people write, some punch in, people do different things. What’s your process, and how has it evolved on this album?
On this album, I think it was half, 50-50, punching in and writing. And I think that’s the first time I’m doing that.
You are a member of a group, but also a solo artist. How does working solo change your mentality when you go into the studio, when you’re putting down the songs?
Sometimes it’s hard, but most of the time, it’s not, because I feel like I put in the same effort that I would do as a group. As a group, I’m coming up with the ideas. I’m picking the creative, I’m picking the beat selection, and all that stuff. I feel like it’s the same process for me, so it kind of makes it easier. Definitely, being in a group makes it easier, just rapping back and forth, it makes it just so effortless.
What can you tell me about the album, or about the mood of the album, about the producers on the album, the features on the album? Just run it down.
I feel like the mood of it’s like hustler sh*t, real trap sh*t, me being the entrepreneur. You hear that hustle sh*t in all my lyrics. I’m really rapping, I’m really elevating. I’m trying to showcase my rap more.
Last year was an enormous year, in terms of LA. I went to Camp Flog Gnaw, and they had the Mustard And Friends set, and when you popped out, somebody was asking me, “Who is that?” I’m like, “That’s OhGeesy. You don’t know OhGeesy?” What’s going to get you to that next level, to where you pop out on a stage and everybody knows your name?
I think the next Shoreline album, for sure. Right after this album, I’m working on the Shoreline album. So I feel like that’s just going to take us to the level we were supposed to go to, and we just had an intermission.
Coachella is going to be the official reunion of Shoreline Mafia, right?
That’s right.
Walk me through the last few years. What was that process like, of being a group, splitting up? What are you doing in the meantime? And then, how do you get back together as a group to say, “This is what we’re going to do, and this is when we’re going to do it?”
I feel like working on myself, me and Phoenix both working on ourselves, was one of the best decisions we could have made, and I feel like that’s what made coming back together so easy. We’re in a much more mature head space, and we’re healthier, happier than before. So coming together is just a no-brainer. It feels like we picked back up where we left off. I feel like we both rap better, we’ve lived life more. We just got more sh*t to talk about.
What was really the beginning of that discussion? Who reached out to who, and how did those discussions come about?
Well, we’ve always had the same homies, all growing up. So my boy Benji, shout-out to my boy Benji, he kind of just put us back in talks. I seen Fenix was doing his sh*t, I was doing my sh*t, so it was just, “Let’s just f*ck with each other again.” It’s not like we ever fell out over some crazy sh*t. We just had creative differences, and we just wanted to do our own thing for a minute.
What are you looking forward to the most out of 2025?
Hitting the road later this year with Fenix. Doing Coachella, I’ve never been. Coachella is such a big accomplishment, to be on the stage. I’ve never even been there as a guest, so I’m excited to go for my first time, and I’m going to be on the stage, and with Fenix, doing it like how we started.
Next year, if another interview opportunity should happen to come up, or we’re backstage at a show or something, you see me, I say, “Hey, Geesy, what you been up to, man,” what do you hope to be able to say that this year brought to your life, how your life changed, how you elevated?
I don’t know. I feel like my life is just constant elevation, and just always getting better, so I’m just grateful for everything I have, for real. In the grand scheme of things, there’s nothing really more I wish for. I’m happy, and I just wish to just keep getting better at what I do, and keep growing as an artist, and being a better person.
Paid In Full is out now via Atlantic Records. Find more information here.
