DMV rapper and record producer Oddisee realized early on that purpose and success are self-designated. Born Amir Elkhalifa in Washington, DC, to a Sudanese father and African American mother, and raised in Prince George’s County, MD, he witnessed stark inequity from a young age and became as political as the city that shaped him. Elkhalifa approaches the human condition with conviction and candor, blending jazz, funk, and go-go influences into his hip-hop–rooted production. Rather than pursuing record deals or industry gatekeepers, he chose a more independent path—recording, producing, and mixing his own music while steering his own marketing and touring strategy.

Across a string of celebrated releases—Rock Creek Park (2011), The Beauty in All (2013), The Good Fight (2015), Alwasta (2016), and The Iceberg (2017)—alongside headlining performances with his five-piece band Good Compny, global tours, two NPR Tiny Desk appearances, and hundreds of millions of streams, Oddisee has earned wide international acclaim.

Long praised as a deep-thinking MC delivering masterful lyricism over his own production, often infused with the go-go sound of his DMV roots, Oddisee’s work has been highlighted by NPR, TIME Magazine, Rolling Stone, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Complex, HYPEBEAST, KCRW, and many more. Pitchfork called 2017’s The Iceberg “a focused beam of live-band and hip-hop soul that rattles loudly in our present political moment,” while 2020’s Odd Cure was hailed by Exclaim as “hip-hop’s first pandemic masterpiece,” and praised by Stereogum, UPROXX, Bandcamp, and DJBooth.

Oddisee’s latest project, And Yet Still (2024), released on Outer Note, is a modern hip-hop record shaped by a wide array of genres and musical styles. It offers a vivid snapshot into the mind of one of rap’s most compelling creators—an artist who never wastes an opportunity to let listeners into his endlessly fascinating perspective. The title track encapsulates the album’s spirit: a stream-of-thought piece that feels spontaneous yet unified by a core theme of perseverance.