Features : Horrorcore rap artist Lil Ose puts the dark lyrics you expect to music with unexpected light

Seventeen-year-old horrorcore artist Lil Ose has gone off the horrorcore playing field with the release he is featuring, “New High Energy.”

He is not changing his genre. He just likes to do different things.

“I want people to just be able to hear it, play it loud, play it in clubs,” he said. “It’s one of those songs that you listen to when you just need an energy boost, basically. It’s one of those songs where you want to just party.”

His horrorcore, most of his catalogue, is genuine horror core, but with “New High Energy,” he said, “It’s just an upbeat party song that you can have fun with.”

It’s OK to admit it

The energy is strong enough

To brighten city lights

I don’t f___ with nothing

If the city lights ain’t bright

The lyrics are not his usual kind. Though explicit, they have a sexual energy instead of the dark, violent vibe. The hip-hop beat and rap are accompanied by trippy electronic, dance and techno with some metal rock and a little jazz adding spice.

All his music has a wild fusion of genres, and he changes up the mixes to create wildly different sounds in each one.

“I like doing something new with my music,” he said. “I like for each project I do, each song I do to be different, to have its own sound, to have its own feeling. My music has a lot of genres all entwined together.”

He began putting out music in 2022, with a song called “I’m Crazy,” followed by a nine-track album, Black Hole.

“New High Energy” was the third project, the 11^th song, he put out that year.

He was in the studio working out a beat, and his engineer, Eric Kluxen of FXBG Public Radio, Fredericksburg, Virginia, said to him, “Well, this is pulling away from your horrorcore. You really want to do this?”

Lil Ose said, “Yeah. Let’s just show another area that I can reach with my creativity.”

After “New High Energy,” still in 2022, came a six-track EP, Marbas, then two singles, each with an instrumental version, “Big Bad Bully” and its instrumental version, “Big Bad Bully Pt. 2,” and “Black Joker” and “Black Joker Pt. 2.”

In 2023, he put out two singles with accompanying instrumental versions, “He Couldn’t Swim” and “GORgo.” He finished up the year with an instrumental single, “Illuminati” and a single with lyrics, “Lesbian.”

“I call it horrorcore for the main genre because for most of the lyrics that I have I’m just saying all this crazy stuff,” he said.

The lyrics, except for “New High Energy,” are dark indeed. Lil Ose draws on his own experience with mental illness, anxiety, bipolar disorder and suicidal thoughts. He is also an avid reader of history, literature and mythology, and imagery from that reading fills his lyrics.

“I study a lot of different religions and spiritual things, like demonology, folklore, Greek mythology and things like that, so I get a lot of the dark lyrics from different gods and goddesses and traditions,” he said. They provide the frameworks for the stories he tells in his songs.

Lil Ose, born, raised and living in Washington, D.C., writes his own beats and music. He works with an audio engineer, but he directs the work as to the sounds and structure he is seeking and then composes the different pieces of music for individual projects.

His musical influences come from jazz, ’90s rock, including Iron Maiden and Metallica, and hip-hop and rap from Tupac Shakur, NWA, Eazy-E, Lil Wayne and Biggie.

The music, whether serving as a backdrop for the lyrics or in the instrumental pieces, has its own beauty and fascination. The instrumental pieces that accompany the songs with lyrics have their own structure and sound. The rage, anguish, demonology and darkness all come in the lyrics, not the music.

He is currently working on an album to be released sometime this summer.

With a push to promote “New High Energy,” he is seeking a wider audience, and new fans. This song is an excellent introduction to his musical creativity.

“What I’m mainly trying to get out of this is some new fans and just to get it out there, hopefully all over the world, but mainly to get it out there and see where it goes.”

Connect with Lil Ose on all platforms for new music, videos, and social posts.

Amazon Music
Apple Music
Spotify
YouTube
Genre