OMBBloodbath

OMB Bloodbath started receiving national attention in 2019, with the Chicago-drill-inspired single “Shootson.” On the song, the 27-year-old rapper proved that she could rap circles around your favorite MC, and made a strong case for Houston as a gritty epicenter of the U.S. to rival Chicago, notoriously dubbed Chiraq. It was a bittersweet breakthrough for OMB, who would prefer to be seen as more than a menacing street rapper. “People grow and understand the world more,” she explains. “So I never get offended when people look at me as a certain way. I just got to show them with my actions that that’s not me.” As a standard-bearer for a street-level view of life in Houston, the Third Ward native is working to shine a light on more than violence: “You go from ‘Shootston’ to what I’m writing about now. Yeah, I still talk my shit in a song, but then you always got to read between the lines. I’m trying to tell them, ‘Yeah, this is what it is, but this ain’t where they got to be.’ ” She continues, “It’s too much money out here to be on some gangster shit. Tough guys ain’t getting paid right now.”