The Break Presents: OMB Bloodbath

Certain artists experience roadblocks before their career even kicks off, but nothing can stop destiny. Houston rapper OMB Bloodbath (the OMB stands for Only My Brothers) had a passion to pursue rapping early on in life. Known then as a young girl named Alexandra Nicks, she recorded her first song, titled "Tre's Finest"—named after her beloved neighborhood of Third Ward in Houston—when she was 9. Once she got a little older and had more music under her belt, Bloodbath began selling her own CDs at school.

The aspiring rapper, who started getting hand tattoos at 14 (a move that was frowned upon at the time), continued making music while getting involved in the streets and facing some legal troubles. In 2012, she went to jail for burglary charges, and got out in 2014. A year later, she filmed her first video for the song "Shootston," which was released in 2016. This was the song that got her name buzzing both locally and beyond. Rhyming over G Herbo's frenetic "Chiraq" beat, Bloodbath breaks down her reputation and what goes into surviving life in Third Ward. Bloodbath goes from flow to flow with ease. "Nigga, don't claim gang if you don't ride about/Nigga don't gangbang if you don't die about it," she raps.

In 2016, she also went viral for her contribution to Monica's #SoGoneChallenge, in which the singer challenged people to spit their own verses over her hit song of the same name. After "Shootston" arrived and she experience her viral moment, OMB Bloodbath kicked off her 2017 mixtape series Nothing But The Moon, which features the rhymer delivering bars over popular beats of the time. She dropped the third installment in the series in April of 2019. That same year in September, she released two mixtapes, A Few Forevers and A Few Forevers 2, to keep her momentum going.

While OMB Bloodbath was continuing to drop new music and give back to her community with her annual Everybody Eats Food Festival in Houston (a family-friendly food and art festival currently in its third year), she faced another legal roadblock. In February of this year, Bloodbath was arrested and charged with directing activities of certain criminal street gangs. Police believe she is part of two gangs.

Just months later, after she was released from jail, she had her biggest song yet. This past May, she dropped the BBY KODIE-produced "Dropout" featuring Maxo Kream, which currently has over 2 million streams on Spotify and 1 millions YouTube views. That same month, her signing to Interscope Records, in partnership with the labels LVRN (home of 6LACK and singer Summer Walker) and 10:22PM, was announced. Now, with follow-up songs like the melodic track "Bolt" and her appearance on Chase B's recently released song "For Me" with fellow Houstonian KenTheMan, everything is off and rolling in her career.

Catch up on OMB Bloodbath's journey in this week's edition of The Break.

Age: 26

Hometown: Third Ward, Houston, Texas

I grew up listening to: "Lauryn Hill and Cal Wayne are my favorite artists of all time. I was infatuated with Lauryn Hill. The fact that she's a woman and she sings and raps, and she's hard, like she could stand with the best of them. I feel like she's the greatest of all time. Cal Wayne, he's from my neighborhood, and he's basically like our Tupac. He's the Tupac of Third Ward. He knows how to tell a story, and walk you through Third Ward just by listening to a song. So that's why they're my favorite."

My style’s been compared to: "I get compared to a lot of people, but I don't really never pay attention to comparisons because I feel like I'm one of a kind. So I don't really pay attention to that."

I’m going to blow up because: "I'm blessed and highly favored, but I done been through so much. I done got shot in the head, shot in the back, was paralyzed for a month. I done been to prison for two years. I'm from one of the most treacherous hoods in Houston, and I survived all this. I've been wanting the same dream since I was little, and now it's unfolding. I really feel like it's me. If it wasn't me, I would have been gone a long time ago, or just gave up a long time ago. You got to believe in order to get it. You can't doubt yourself. So I know it's going to happen. I'm just waiting for the rest of the world to catch on."

What’s your most slept-on song, and why?: "I don't want to say it's slept-on, because I did it on somebody else's beat. I had redid Drake's 'From Time.' And that's going to forever be one of my favorite songs. It's not really slept-on, because it got me a lot of attention. But if that was my beat it would have been out of here for sure."

My standout records to date have been: "One of my biggest records would probably be 'Shootston' and 'Bolt.' 'Shootston' was my first song, It was one of my biggest. I don't really promote them records no more because there was a lot of stuff that ain't supposed to be in the video, so I try to keep it where it's at. But that's for sure my breakout record. 'Dropout' with me and Maxo Kream hit a million in four months. And that's one of the quickest times I ever hit that million views."

My standout moments to date have been: "I know I get a lot of opportunities now that a lot of people don't get. But I'm still humble, so it don't feel like I just made it yet. I don't want what's going to be the breaking point of when I feel like I made it. Maybe when I got me a No. 1 or a platinum record or something like that. But right now I'm just working. I'm just blessed and grateful."

Most people don’t know: "I sing as well as rap. I done dropped a couple singing songs, but I got a song called 'Could've Been.' And I'm singing in the whole song, and it surprised a lot of people. But trust me, we just working our way up."

I’m going to be the next: "G.O.A.T. There ain't no other way to put it. I can do everything. I want to be the next big artist, the next mogul, the next community leader. I just want to be great all the way round. Whenever I leave this Earth, I want to leave a good legacy. Like I want people to know that I was a good person with a good heart and I made good music. Everything's just good."

Follow OMB Bloodbath on SoundCloud and Instagram.

Standouts:

"Shootston"

"Dropout" featuring Maxo Kream

"Bolt"

Chase B, OMB Bloodbath and KenThe Man's "For Me"

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