Ohmega Watts
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Ohmega Watts |
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Ohmega Watts, real name Milton Campbell, is a hip hop producer and vocalist from Brooklyn, New York. He releases music under the name Ohmega Watts and as a part of the Lightheaded crew.
Biography
Campbell was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, by West Indian Parents from the Island of Jamaica. He lived in Brooklyn 8 years before moving to Laurelton, Queens, NY.
He grew up listening to many types of music including reggae, backwoods hillbilly country, calypso, soca, death metal, 80's pop and hip-hop, but only started to take a serious interest in music when he was around 11 years old. He gravitated towards hip-hop, listening to "Golden Age" artists including Run DMC, LL Cool J, Big Daddy Kane, Dana Dane, BDP, Eric B. and Rakim, Pete Rock and C.L. Smooth and Gangstarr, but the artists who influenced him the most were artists in the Native Tongues Posse, such as A Tribe Called Quest, Jungle Brothers, De La Soul, and Black Sheep.
Ohmega Watts' first release was “A Request”, a soulful and DJ-friendly solo 12” featuring his group Lightheaded and Quannum Recording Artists The Lifesavas. “A Request” received praise from respected DJs, including Mr. Scruff, Gilles Peterson, Greyboy, and the Los Angeles-based Heavyweight Record Pool. Ohmega Watts' sound was compared to Digital Underground drunkenly colliding with Pete Rock at a high rate of speed.
A record deal with Ubiquity Records was signed shortly after this first release. Ohmega Watts' first solo album, "The Find", was released on Ubiquity in 2005.
Producing since 1997 and MCing since 1993 the Ohmega Watts resume includes tracks produced for Mars Ill on Ill Boogie, for Listener on Mush, plus he’s recorded as Lightheaded for Day By Day Ent, and as Return To Sender on the Piece of The Action compilation. Hailing from Flatbush, Brooklyn, brought up by Jamaican parents Campbell moved to Florida for college and then settled in Portland, Oregon. He is now part of a bustling Northwest independent scene that includes the Lifesavas (who appeared on his debut single), Boom Bap, Soul Plasma, DJ and MC MungXXXtreme, Libretto, Lightheaded and The Blacknotes.
In 2005 MC and producer Milton Campbell aka Ohmega Watts will come correct with organic and energetic hip hop, funk and soul on his debut album “The Find”. The Find refers to both musical and personal inspiration, as well as a time where he was walking through the city and came across a one dollar bill, and track themes span from crate diggin’ dreams and musical reminiscing, social commentary and spiritually charged story telling all the way to the far out extremes of experimental fusion emo glam butt rock. Inspired as much by hip hop legends like Eric B & Rakim and Premier as contemporary electronic producers like RJD2 and Fallout Boy, and old school experimentalists like Shuggie Otis, The Find pushes current industry-standard boundaries. “Sick of the monotony; we got the remedy; Magic had AIDS; but money made him healthy” he declares in “Long Ago.” Most of the music is played live and re-sampled by Watts and a cast of supporting musicians - there are no loops or played-out samples and within tunes he often switches beats up moving from one musical vibe into another.
Discography
LPs
- The Find (2005, Ubiquity Records)
- Watts Happening (2007, Ubiquity Records)