That’s Ebonii With Two Eyes
Last month a good friend of mine told me that I was “too intense” and it took me a while to figure out what she meant. I think that I knew what she meant but I didn’t think enough of it to give it much thought. A week later while streaming my subject, I had a “Oh! I get it now!” moment. While I enjoy Mariah Carey and Tchaikovsky, I’ve always been more drawn to heavy and bizarre types of music. I want to be disturbed, excited, turned on, and I want to fucking party until I’m either dead or unconscious. In fact, I often seek out such musicians, which brings me to Ebonii.
If you haven’t noticed already, I like a lot of raunch in my music, but not like your basic “big booty” songs. Ebonii’s provocative music is hard to the core. The sex in his songs is sloppy and unapologetic the way sex should be. His music is produced with one eye closed; the shuttered eye introduces lyrical chaos, while the open eye gives his music the cohesion and rhythm required to make a listenable track. To the best of my knowledge, there is no one even remotely like Ebonii. He has a mind-melting catalog of debauchery that is unlike anything I have ever heard to date.
Before I delve into your music, I have to ask where did your artist's name come from?
Hi!! My artist name came from a silly joke me and my friends had when I was literally 12 we went on Google to use a “random rap name generator” and Ebonii just has always stuck with me. It really has no relevance to much, and was never meant to be the word “Ebony”. However, I do think there’s something to be said about the controversial topic of my name. It was never meant to offend anyone, but I also definitely see how it could.
It seems that you’re a “COVID baby” from the looks of your music catalog which dates only as far back as 2021. Is that when you started, or were you a musician long before those recordings?
I’ve been making music for about six years now, so I only really started releasing music during COVID because it was just a time when I had nothing to do except create, and I found my creative output to be more interesting, as I had the total capacity to work away at it.
By the frequency of tracks in your catalog, it looks like you practically live in the studio. How many hours do you spend in the studio on average?
I do spend a lot of time recording (laughter). I’d say I try and spend at least two full days a week working on music. I like to be a very busy person so it’s really a second home for me at this point.
What kind of equipment do you work with when recording your songs?
I personally own an Audio Technica setup, and I use my Macbook to record and process everything. I’m honestly not sure what the setup at the studio I go to is, but it’s definitely not much better! I find the vocals I record in my little home studio usually sound much better.
“The Air is Crisp Air in Mississippi, but the Air in My Home Barn Back in South Dakota Is Much Less Moist, And Quite Significantly Drier”. That’s your first single. Did you do it as a gag, or was it a thought-out plan to release a country song? The reason why I ask is that the song seems to be an unlikely first single for anyone to start their career in music with.
It was definitely a gag. The US election was going on at the time I made that song, and it really got to the point where it was just trying to satire all the bullshit I was seeing on the television. To speak more on the song, it was made in like, two hours in my bedroom all by myself and I definitely do not stand by the lyrics or quality of the song. The only reason I’ve bothered keeping it up is because even I get a good laugh out of it sometimes.
I couldn’t help but notice the increase of intensity in your music from your first single up to your current release; where is that frenetic energy coming from?
I am a very intense person. No reason to beat around the bush with that one. When I feel something, I feel it very strongly, and sometimes that’s a great thing, and sometimes it definitely is not.
There used to be a rap group called Organized Konfusion which is exactly how I would describe your music. It makes sense for the most part (at least in my brain it does), but you completely go off the rails with every one of your songs. How do you balance that chaos with making a cohesive track that people can understand and follow?
A lot of trial and error to be honest. My songs go through many stages and at this point, they’re very collaborative. I feel like this sorta patchwork way of working on my most recent songs has really helped kinda rein some of that chaos in, because I don’t always know if people understand and follow along with my music, and that’s something that definitely scares me.
You’ve done several collaborations with other musicians, can you walk me through what your relationship with each happens to be; how you came to record with them?
I love my collaborators dearly. Lovely Peaches is quite possibly one of the sweetest, most lovely, and most supportive friends I have. We have a very good and open relationship that I am so proud of and happy to be in, which definitely seems to upset a lot of people. I love kkbutterfly27xx as well, he has always been a huge support to me. Of course, my executive producers Beny B and Taylor Matthews are my number one supports as well. But on the subject of how these collaborations came to happen, I have a hard time answering that because they all came to be very organically. It’s just been so lovely working with them all over the years and really finding a consistent groove.
Your catalog skips 2022, what were you up to that year?
2022 was a year of insane creation for me. ‘Groovy Pussy’ was actually released in September of 2022, but other than that I was focusing on finishing my debut, and actually had a chance to start my forthcoming LP, which I was actually able to acquire a budget. I am very much so looking forward to people hearing about that project—the first song that was started in June of 2022.
This year, you released an album, a couple of singles, and an EP of remixes. How long did it take you to put all of that together?
Probably about three years. Anything off the “PU55Y OV3RD0SE” album was worked on throughout 2020-2022, and as for “SDC” and “Munchie” they were both heavily worked on in the latter half of the year.
Your songwriting is anything but what anyone would consider to be “conventional”, and in fact, it’s downright bizarre. Is that you in those songs, or is it a persona you created strictly for musical purposes?
It’s definitely a bit of both. I think it started off as that bizarre, super intense persona, and then as I started to delve more into the contemporary side of things, I realized that I actually could write my own personal story into those more intense songs, such as “SDC”
I hope you don’t take offense to this question (and you don’t have to answer, of course), but are you ever under the influence when you record?
Yes. The title “PU55Y OV3RD0SE” is unfortunately not a lie. In late 2021, about halfway through making my debut, I had a near-fatal overdose of stimulants. I’ve never been open about it as it was incredibly traumatic for me, but creating the world of that album really helped me physically and mentally heal from the aftershocks of that event.
Rather than ask what inspires you, I’d rather ask what drives you. The structure and discipline I detect in each recording are that of an individual who is driven to make the best music possible, instead of what you would typically find in musicians who aren’t signed to big labels or signed at all.
A huge driving force for me is that I don’t feel like enough people are open about their sexualities. Whether that be on the tame side of just being open about preferences, or on the more intense side of what really is going on in the bedroom. I think it’s really important to give those people who might be seen as “deviant” or “slutty” a voice to show that, hey, there’s nothing wrong with being overtly sexual. It’s just another part of life, and it’s important that people are allowed to voice that to me.
Your lyrics are intensely sexual. It feels like an orgy of thoughts. Would it be rude of me to ask if your songs reflect your sexual proclivities?
I feel like I could argue both yes and no. I have definitely had periods of my life where the music rings very true to me (Dick Dominator even samples some sounds from those times) but at the same time, I’m not always in those kinds of moods. It’s definitely a balance for me.
How has the reception to your music been through the years since you began recording?
I’d say the reception has only gotten better with time. At first, I don’t think people really were comfortable with hearing what I had to say, but as time has gone on and I’ve grown both personally and artistically, I’ve definitely noticed that people have warmed up to my music and been a lot more interested and engaged.
Who are some of the musicians you listen to and have any of them influenced your music?
I listen to a wide variety of music. Caroline Polachek, Shygirl, Björk, Nicki Minaj, and SZA probably being some of my biggest sources of inspiration. Musically, I don’t like to think that I pull tons of inspiration, but I am definitely inspired by all of these women daily when it comes to me as a lyricist.
The year is almost out and 2024 looms ahead. What have you got planned for the rest of the year and into the next?
This year I have a few more very exciting singes coming out, and next year my sophomore LP drops in the spring. I can say with absolute certainty that I’ve never been more excited for people to hear my music.
Do you plan to push the envelope further in future recordings, or have you exhausted your deviancy?
I will always push the envelope, whether that be deviant or not, I will never make music that doesn’t turn heads. It’s just not something I’m interested in doing.
Check out Ebonii at your favorite streaming service, and follow her on Instagram.
