Osamason hates losing—like, to almost comically extreme levels. Seriously: He’s the type to storm off rather than suffer defeat again.
“The worst feeling of all time is losing,” Osamason told Complex. “It’s not fun if I’m not winning…I’d rather just go in the crib and not lose it all than not win. Fuck it.”
Two years into his career, Osamason has had both notable wins and some harsh losses. Let’s start with the wins: The 21-year-old rapper, raised in Goose Creek, South Carolina, began buzzing in 2023 with the success of “cts-v.” He emerged as a new force in the underground scene that blossomed post-Whole Lotta Red, where vocals are often buried beneath layers of production, static, bass, and intensity. In a short time, he’s become one of the most exciting figures in the underground, with legit star potential and a very engaged fanbase.
Which brings us to the losses. His fans have become too engaged. Or, fuck it, just crazy overzealous—aggressively leaking his music. In one brazen instance, over 400 of his songs, as well as personal photos and texts, were leaked. Osamason has tried different methods to counter this; his team even dropped an EP of leaks to subdue fans, and he moved his latest album Jump Out up from Valentine’s Day to combat the frenzy. But he hasn’t fully cracked the problem. Speaking on it, though, he’s come to a level of understanding, even if it’s still frustrating.
“There’s some leaks that hurt a lot,” he said. “We built a lot of things behind the scenes—like shooting videos, planning a lot of stuff—only for people to prematurely release it. And then, sometimes, I’ll announce, ‘I’m finna drop the song Friday,’ and they’ll leak it on Monday.”
“Jump Out,” the follow-up to the cult classic Flex Musix, carries much of the lore tied to Osamason and the underground scene—rock-inspired imagery, teeth-rattling production, and that signature everything-but-the-kitchen-sink energy, courtesy of rage maestro Ok. But there’s also innovation and growth. The album’s first single, “The Whole World Is Free,” presents a brighter, almost cheerful soundscape that bubbles under the dissonance. Meanwhile, “New Tune” introduces some of the most expansive sounds of his young career, swapping out lo-fi static for a fully immersive, atmospheric industrial texture.
“I didn’t care about mixing as much back then. It was just a loud bass thing,” Osamason said, reflecting on his earlier albums versus this one. “You just felt the bass. But now, I feel like you can feel everything—the lyrics, the melodies, the bass. You feel it as a whole, instead of just feeling it for one thing.”
We spoke with Osamason just a couple of days after the album dropped. While we touched on the leaks and the new album, we mostly kicked back with him, chatting about everything from Lil Uzi Vert to his studio recording process.
Check it out below.
Can you explain your name a little bit?
So I’m a junior. My dad’s name is Osama. And that’s just really the correlation between Osama son. Like exactly how I say it—Osama son, that’s the explanation.
What was your father’s reaction when he heard your rap name?
He didn’t really care at first, cause he didn’t understand what was really going on. But once he really started seeing my name everywhere—it’s popping up on his Facebook and shit—he started to understand it. But he didn’t really have a problem with it.
I hope not. That’s fire.
Yeah. He is chill. Yeah, it is lit. I’m not going to lie. It’s overly lit. I’m putting on.
How do you feel about the reaction to Jumpout?
It is all over the place, I’m not going to lie. I really feel a lot of ways about it. I’m super excited about it now though. I had to really sit back and understand why certain shit was going on, why my album was leaking so early, you feel me? People just really want the music and with me understanding that now it makes me super happy. I feel like now the perception of it is it is getting seen very well. I feel like a lot of opinions are changing too as we’re going on and you’re really getting to understand the music and understand what I really was going for.
What do you mean opinions are changing?
I don’t know. I feel like a lot of people are stuck on my old sound right now. They really expected a lot of the premature songs I was making for the album to come out. Once they understood like, all right, this is not what he’s going right now, you feel me? Maybe it’s time to open up to a newer sound. You feel me? I feel like they’re fucking with it a little bit more now.
What’s the biggest difference between your old sound and now?
I feel like the way I sound in particular, the way you hear my voice. I feel like you couldn’t really hear my voice when I was doing my old albums and really coming up. I didn’t really care about my mixing as much. It was really just a loud bass thing. You just feel the bass. I feel like now you feel everything. You feel the lyrics, you feel the melodies, you feel the bass from the beat. You just feel it as a whole now I feel like instead of just feeling it for one thing,
So it’s like elevated?
But I feel like it’s still the old sound. I try to bring in things from my past. I don’t completely try to abandon it with the stutters I do in my music or just the different sound effects I add. I’ve been doing that shit for a long, long time.
I remember seeing messages from you being frustrated over leaks. But you said your opinion on that has changed a little. Do you appreciate it more now?
I wouldn’t say I fully appreciate it, but I understand it now. But I still don’t understand…’cause it’s like, “damn, why?” But I know why they really want the music. I’m going to give them the music. It’s not like I’m trying to hold it or anything. They just impatient as fuck.
You drop a lot too.
Yeah, I think I drop a lot too. I’m like, “yo, I’m always dropping. Yo, you don’t really got to do that,” but they just want to. Who would ever know what’s really the point of leakers leaking that shit? Some would say the money, some would say, just so they can say, “I’m the person who did that.” Or just to build a name for yourself. Some people don’t have the physical attraction so all they can do is build a name for themselves online and just do crazy shit.
Is there a leak that hurts the most?
It’s a few of them. It’s some leaks that hurt a lot. We done built a lot of shit without people knowing behind it. Like shot videos to it, had a lot of shit planned for it just for people to prematurely release it. And then some things are, like I say, I’m finna drop the song Friday and they like, “yo, I’m finna leak this shit on Monday.”
It’s like, “why?” That confuses me a lot too. Every song I feel some type of way about that Leaks. I’m not going to lie. It is my art, you feel me?
What’s a studio session like for you?
It’s super dark. I’m not going to lie. I turn all the lights off. Honestly I don’t like people watching me while I record, so when the lights are off and if I can’t see you, I feel like you can’t see me on some shit. So I feel way more comfortable. The lights are off, literally I just go in there, turn all the lights off. I just record for hours on hours probably would make on the average seven songs. The best I’ve ever done though is 10 songs in one night.
In how many hours?
I’d say eight hours. I think it took me eight hours, maybe 10 songs. I’m probably making a song and a half every hour at the time though. I’m recording myself though. When I made the 10 songs and shit, I was recording myself, so I was editing the songs as I was going and mixing the songs and stuff. But I’m pretty sure if I was with my engineer I probably made 15 or something.
When you say the studio is dark, are you talking pitch black?
Yeah. Super pitch black. And if I got a TV or a screen, I’ll put a movie on in the background and if we got candles, I’ll have some candles on.
What kind of movie?
A scary movie. A horror movie or an action movie. Just something that’s like, if I look up for one second, there’s something interesting going on on the screen.
What’s the food situation? Are you eating a lot? Fucking around on your phone?
I’m trying not to be on my phone at all. I try to put down my phone a lot. Cookies are a must. That’s really the only food. Either we going cookies or Domino’s Pizza. That’s good stuff. But cookies is really what it is. Soon as we get to the studio we have the cookies off the bat as soon as we get in…chocolate chip cookies.
But is it like Chips Ahoy! Or does it have to be fresh baked?
No, you got to bake it. They got to put it in the pan. You got to do the extra shit. You got to put some love into my cookies.
What was your reaction to seeing Lil Uzi Vert playing your snippet?
That’s Uzi. I’ve been cool with Uzi. I’ve been locked in with Uzi. I just never told the world or anything. Not like I don’t really need to do that. But I’ve been locked in with me and he been telling me he been fucking with my music and he’s super inspired by just the wave that’s going on now. So I kind of expected it, bro.
Tell me the story of the first time you met him. What stood out?
He got me hip to Domino’s Pizza. I’ve always loved pizza, but he ordered a specific Domino’s pizza. I’m not going to tell y’all this specific pizza, but he ordered a specific Domino’s pizza and I was like, “wow, this shit really do be hitting.” And ever since then I’ve been ordering Domino’s.
Wait, why are you gate keeping the pizza?
I can’t because that’s his sauce. I don’t know if he want me to put the sauce out there, but it is a saucey shit. It was super fire.
Did Iron Maiden really sue you?
They did not sue me. They didn’t sue me at all. They did get in contact with me and was asking me to politely take it down. And I took it upon my own hands to post it on my story and my fans kind of went out of control. But they didn’t sue me. They didn’t threaten to sue me. They just asked me to take it down and I took it down.
And then you changed the cover to the Future pic?
Yeah, that was super fire. I feel like for that one specifically, we knew that was the cover from the beginning. Once I got the name and we saw that picture, we was like, “yeah, this is the inspo.” Nobody’s ever tried to recreate a picture like this, So it was lit.
How much money was that?
That was $100,000.
Why that picture?
That’s what Flex Musix look like. And then when we took the picture, we did it in the studio. You got the speakers in the back, obviously I had the [Vetements] hoodie on with all the money. It is real flexing. I was just overly flexing.
What’s up with the covers paying homage to rock bands?
I feel like the aesthetic is just so fire. The aesthetic is super eye-catching and it’s always different. It is just pushing a boundary. I feel like that’s what everybody should strive to do is push boundaries and create and just be inspired. Rock is hand in hand with hip-hop too. Literally. I was at the skate park the other day and I was watching a few skaters going crazy and I was listening to the music that they were listening to, but it’s us, you feel me?
And it just reminded me of how much we are the new punk. We are the new age rock, but it’s just in a hip-hop aspect. But we bring a lot of elements into it from what we sample. And sometimes you’ll hear a bass and the shit sounds like a heavy metal guitar. We do that shit on purpose.
You say you were at the skatepark. Do kids recognize you when you pull up to something like that?
I wasn’t at a public skatepark, but I was with some pro skaters, though.
Are you nice though?
I’m not that nice. I’m trying to get nice though. I used to be decent when I was a kid and I kind of got out of it. I don’t know. A black kid trying to skate? They’re not going for that in the household. At least not in my household, they wasn’t going for it. They wasn’t trying to buy me no Vans. I was skating in Jordans and shit. I wasn’t. But now that I can get back into it and buy my own boards and shit, I’ve been getting into it crazy.
Do you have a hobby?
Nah, not really. I mean, I record all the time. I’m not going to lie if I’m not recording, I’m in the house taking care of my cats.
How many cats you have?
I have two.
What’s their names?
Flexer. And I can’t reveal the other one’s name right now because we’re still trying to solidify it.
What do you mean solidify?
The name we got for him right now, we don’t know if we really want to keep it yet, so we just waiting on it.
You’re more of a cat person than a dog person?
Yeah, I love animals in general. I love animals a lot. But I love cats. I got two Bengal cats.
The thing about cats is they’re unpredictable. You don’t know if a cat’s going to scratch you or show love.
Nah, you know. I mean you don’t know if you just pull up on it. But cats are not just the people to pull up on. I feel like I relate to cats a lot. They don’t care. They don’t give a single fuck.
My cats don’t care at all. They do whatever they want. They scratch whatever they want. They go in my closet, fuck up my Rick Owens pants. They don’t care at all. They’ll shit on my rug. They’re potty trained. But if they’re on some reckless shit, they don’t care how much I spent on the rug. They do what the fuck they want. They live life with no regrets. And they got nine lives, dead ass. They going to use those nine lives.
Has your cat made you very upset over ruining something?
He hasn’t ruined something completely yet, but I have a rug in my living room, an undercover rug and he has most definitely took a shit on it. And I was pretty upset. Only reason I was upset is because he doesn’t understand what he’s shitting on. I know how much the rug costs, but he doesn’t. He just does it.
You talked a little bit about your sound and the underground scene. Where do you fit in amongst the underground?
I don’t feel like I fit in at all. I’m not even going to lie. It is kind of a weird place right now, but that’s cool though. It is cool not to fit in. I never really fit in high school. I wasn’t in the cool kids group. I was always off doing my own thing. Fucking with my own people.
Is that really true? I feel like sometimes that’s something cool people say, but they were always really cool.
Nah, I wasn’t. I feel like there was cooler people than me. People might say, “oh, he was pretty cool.” But in my opinion, I wasn’t that cool.
So you had kind of your own clique and then what was the clique? What were you cooling?
It was really sports players because I was playing sports in high school. I was on the basketball team until sophomore year. I played football for my freshman year. It wasn’t just sport players, but just people who did all type of shit. We all played basketball, football, we went outside, we just chilled out. It wasn’t no crazy shit, but we just weren’t that cool. We weren’t getting a thousand likes on our pictures in high school and shit. We was just chilling.
Are you a real hooper?
Nah, I’m not a real hooper. I’m not on some D1 shit, but I am pretty decent. I’m not the worst in the room right now.
Who’s the most famous player person you ever hooped with?
I don’t think I ever hooped with no overly famous people before. I try not to though. I’m not going to lie.
I like to hoop with people who I know personally and I’m super close with. I don’t like to hoop with people in public. Some people just be going too hard and it’s like I don’t like losing.
But are you hooping against people you know could beat?
Not that I know I can beat, but I know it might be a little challenge, you feel me? But nigga’s not beating me though. I hate losing—the worst feeling of all time is losing.
Do you hate losing to the point where you’ll cheat?
I wouldn’t cheat, but I don’t know. We going to either have to keep running it back or I’m going home, straight like that.
See that’s how I know you’re a hooper. That’s Michael Jordan energy.
No, bro. Who likes losing though? I know somebody who likes losing. I’m not going to lie. I know a person who likes losing, but I hate losing.
Sometimes it’s about having fun.
You see? Fuck that I’m not losing. It is not fun if I’m not winning.
When was the last time you lost at something
Bro, Last week.
I was hooping yo. I lost three games back to back. It wasn’t even because of me. I’d accept it if it was because of me. Like, oh, I’m selling. Nigga, I’m hooping my ass off. Niggas is not listening to me, not playing defense. “Come on, bro. Get right.” I went home, I left. I’m the type of person I’m taking my ball with me. I had the ball that day. I was taking that shit home. I called the Uber. I was out of there. I don’t give a fuck we out.
I’d rather just go in the crib and not lose at all then not win. Fuck it.
I saw an interview where you list all the jobs you’ve had, can you tell me your favorite job outside of being a rapper?
My favorite job has to be Wendy’s. I got to eat all the food and at the time when I was working there, they had this crazy ass sauce. I don’t think they sell it no more. It was some crazy ass Wendy’s sauce that they used to have and it was super fire. I was taking food home every night. So that was one of my favorite jobs and one of my least favorite jobs probably would be—I used to work at UPS. And I used to have to throw boxes in the back of the trailer all day. I clock in and they just feed you boxes and you just throw ’em. You’re not really supposed to throw ’em. You’re supposed to pack ’em up and make it neat. But I was just throwing boxes all day.
Did you ever see a box with delicate stickers and you threw it?
Hell yeah. I was seeing PS5s throwing ’em. I don’t really care. It is not like they didn’t care either. UPS don’t care. They just be back there watching us throw the shit. That’s how they teach you to do it. They be like, “yo, throw it. Just fill the truck up.”
What’s this year going to look like for you? Why are you excited?
I’m ready to tour, yo. I’m ready to just do shows every day. Like back to back shows. I’m ready to show ’em. I’m just ready to give them my all. I love performing. It’s really my favorite part about this shoot.
What do you like about performing?
Just the energy that’s given back to you. To go on stage and I am singing a song and I got thousands of other people singing a song with me and dancing and going crazy and just in a different mode to where you’re not thinking about how people see them in that moment. They’re not thinking about what other people are thinking about. They’re happy to see me and they’re just living their life. So it just makes me feel so good, bro. I feel like everybody should be able to feel that energy in life. It’s just beautiful.
Who’s the best performer you’ve ever seen?
I’ve seen Yeat perform at Rolling Loud. That was super lit. I’m not going to lie. Yeat went brazy. That shit was insane. Yeat be rapping his ass off. I’m not going to lie. He be rapping his ass off. I be feeling what he’s saying too. Everything he’s saying.
Are there any other rappers that inspire you?
A lot of my peers in the underground inspire me because a lot of people in the underground that did a lot for this shit that don’t get no cred and just been on shit. Before, a lot of people been doing this shit now and making it popular now. But they just kind of get left in the past. They get buried, you feel me? And they don’t really get a name.
I like Duwap Kaine. He’s a super big influence, especially for the underground in general. I feel like a lot of people forget, there’s certain phases you got to go through. There’s certain people that you listen to that influenced a lot on how today is, you feel me? Because they’ve been doing this shit for so long now, but we wouldn’t understand it.
Speaker Knockerz, he’s another superhero influence and just the fact that he’s from South Carolina too, which is super inspirational. Rest in peace Speaker Knockerz. But he’s been ahead of his time with the autotune, the lingo he been saying, the swag, the music videos.
Lil B too. I know a lot of people probably say Lil B, but I went back to really listen to some of his shit now and as a kid I probably thought it was funny and shit, but he was actually rapping. This nigga really be spitting. I’m not even going to lie. It is not even no gimmick shit. I understand why people say he’s so influential. He would do some shit 12, 20 years ago. We’d probably listen to it as kids and then we’d do the same shit as we’re older and forget it was him.
But we’re all inspired by shit that we see subconsciously. No matter what you do in life, you’re always inspired. It’s just how the brain works, and then you just realize it when you go back to it and be like, ”Oh damn, maybe I did get this from here because I’ve been heard this song.”
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