OMB BLOODBATH DISHES OUT BEATS AND BREAD
It’s sort of a fitting image for the Houston rapper OMB Bloodbath, just days away from hosting her second food festival and music concert, she’s outside eating crabmeat. And she’s doing it in a style all her own, while standing in a hallway of one of those trendy apartment complexes that pop up out of nowhere in Montrose.
The posh complex and even posher residents are a billion miles from The Bottoms, as her section of Third Ward is known, even if in reality it’s just a little more than a 15-minute drive south.
She’s been rapping since she was 9 years old, and Bloodbath, whose real name is Alexandra Nicks, is no overnight success. Her music, a mix of hard raps and singing, has chiseled into it the story of the streets..
While politely licking her fingers to clean them of some leftover crab juices, she waxes on about how she’s navigating the music industry on her frequent trips to Los Angeles. She’s had to pay attention to avoid the hangers-on and the people who promise to make her famous, she said.
She’s been having meetings with rap-star groomers and record companies, and by all accounts, she has made it. But all of that doesn’t matter to her as much as her Third Ward community.
In her time making music, Bloodbath has earned the respect of close peers such as rappers Chucky Trill and Cal Wayne.
“She blossomed, and I’m proud of her,” said Cal Wayne, a Third Ward rapper who famously shared a photo with Beyoncé when she returned to Houston following Hurricane Harvey. He’s known Bloodbath since her early days rapping. “You can’t deny talent,” he said.
“She started everything when I met her, and they were little kids from the Bottoms, ” said Wayne, who has been mentioned in Bloodbath’s music and was presented with a street legend award at last year’s food festival.
The event in August was one for the books, with a roster of Houston rap talent that stretched far and wide. Local promoter Amy Mueller, whose Bounce & Turn party brand specializes in Houston-centric rap, was one of the reasons the show was a success.
Bloodbath said it was the vibe of the B&T parties — an easy mix of people from all over town that could include battle rappers, gangster types, members of the LGBT community and DJ Screw
acolytes — that she wanted for her event. The second Everybody Eats Food Festival takes place at the Satellite Bar in Second Ward and will feature an array of food businesses as well as a crop of local rap talent.
Bloodbath says the idea to do a food festival was spontaneous. She knew she wanted to do something that would bring people together. But she didn’t want it to be about elevating her career. “It wasn’t about me putting on, it was about me putting on blackowned businesses,” she said.
The atmosphere she wants for the event is family friendly, more love and peace than anything she might talk about in her music, or have lived in her past. “I come from a very violent neighborhood,” she said nonchalantly.
Unfortunately, that violence touched home last year. One ingredient that will be missing from the upcoming edition of the food fest is Bloodbath’s Scoot Up Gang comrade Kenny Lou, who died in a heavily publicized shooting outside of a Houston strip club.
“She really comes from here,” Wayne offered about Bloodbath’s background. “She was out there really, really thugging,” he said.
But he said that beyond any co-signs for the rapper, and the support of her neighborhood, what really sets Bloodbath apart from so many rappers who don’t make it past a Soundcloud account is she’s a natural storyteller.
“She can make a message come to life,” he said.