Artist Profile: Oddie Strangeluv

Written By G.C. Bellchamber

Oddie Strangeluv, born-and-raised in the Crenshaw neighborhood of Los Angeles, lays down rhymes that capture the duality of the revelry and struggle of a rising artist; while the grind and hustle shapes his mentality, it is his idiosyncrasies that convey his true adeptness as a rapper.

Growing up with dreams of playing professional football, Oddie was sidelined in his senior year of high school with a gruesome knee injury, effectively forcing him to reconfigure his life entirely. He faced a genuine reckoning; what was next for him?

He took a leap of faith, harnessing his upbringing around his musically inclined family to begin creating his own artistic output. Yet, his journey was formed by a pilgrimage of self-acceptance; he had to transition, physically and mentally, to be in touch with his genuine personhood in order to overcome the doubt that surrounded him.

He marks Tyler, the Creator, the infamously self-attuned rapper from nearby Hawthorne, California, as his model for this journey; the way Tyler carries himself artistically aided Oddie in shaping his own mindset and style.

“At first, in the hood, at least around that time, they wasn't playing no damn Tyler Creator… Listening to Tyler, it made me feel okay with being who I am for real. Listening to his music, it was just so different, and he was okay with being that way…But then it connected with me in a different way..  Igor is the reason why I wanted to start rapping.”

As he pushed himself to be different, and decided to take the route of an artist, his immediate family struggled to support his path, a disappointing development that he cites as the biggest obstacle he’s had to overcome in his journey.


“[It was a struggle] just being constantly misunderstood… I have a lineage of family that is into music, singers and people that play instruments, but life got to them… I feel lacking that support early on was very hard for me, but it did still make the drive even harder. I would say [that was my biggest challenge] because it's like you live a different life than everybody around you.”


The three projects he released on streaming in 2024, SAMSARA, THE MAGICIAN, 2 Tided Luver, and South Central Isolation Tape, represent, largely, this journey of self-discovery. Throughout the process of this output, Oddie was learning to produce his own instrumentals, becoming more and more comfortable with the sound that he intended to create.

His style of production leans heavily on vocal samples and loops, contributing to the alternative motifs that permeate his work.

Yet, with his newest project, FLA$H, is his strongest yet, synthesizing all of the work and development that Oddie has put into his artistry.

From the funky flips of “FIRE FI DAT” to the mellow bars of “FIND A WAY”, FLA$H puts the entirety of Oddie’s arsenal on display, marking his brilliant first steps into true artistic cohesion.

While Oddie is still heavily influenced by the internet rap scene of his adolescence, he aims to continue to push his sound and his pen beyond their current bounds, pursuing his art as he does now: with no arbitrary limits.


“I like the sound that I have [now], and I feel like I have no bounds when it comes to where my sound is going to go. I’ve got so many genres that I want to try; due to my influences, I want to try so much. So much different sh*t.”

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