Omarion Interview With The Situation
By Jannine Weston
With his emotionally-charged single ‘Icebox’ dominating the airwaves, the former B2K frontman has proved to his critics he is well and truly grown. The Situation grabs a minute with Omarion to find out why ‘21’ was his coming of age.
So many R&B singers break into the industry in their teens, but few make the transition from pop fledgling to pop star. Omari Grandberry however, is one of a handful of hopefuls who made it past that barrier and is now well on his way to becoming a superstar.
After worldwide chart success with B2K, the man better known as Omarion decided to go it alone, and in 2005, a year after the group disbanded, he launched his debut solo album, ‘O’.
Two years on, and Omarion is still going strong. With ventures in film, fashion and his first love, music, the now 22-year-old is in it for the long run. His sophomore set, ‘21’, has already spawned his current smash ‘Icebox’, proving to critics he is ready to compete at top level with the Ushers and Ginuwines of this game.
The Situation sat down with O for a quick chat about music, career goals and saying no to sex…
You’ve just released your sophomore album, ‘21’ in the UK, but it’s been out in the States for a couple of months already – why the long delay?
O: Well, two things, you know. Truthfully out in the states, the record got pushed back a couple of different times, we really just wanted to make sure everything was proper, you know with the record being set up, just to give y’all a little bit of business. You gotta have a proper single chart position in order to sell records, you know, so they really technically we wanted to make sure we was all on board. And two, I feel this recording, that’s how I was able to come up with ‘Icebox’ within that time. We hadn’t technically been done with the album, but we opened up the budget and everything and we got with Timbaland, and ‘Icebox’ came to pop and I’m so happy to have a record like that, because I’m really getting a lot of recognition and people are really feeling that song.
‘21’ debuted at number one in the Billboard charts. A lot of US artists find it hard to crack the UK charts in the same way – why do you think that is?
O: I think because they don’t come over here as much, you know, they don’t spend as much time out here. It’s very tough too, because America’s a big place, and there’s so much high demand. I mean, when you got a radio station that’s playing your record all week, you gotta go and perform for them, and then it’s like they have a radio station in the same state that’s competing against that one, and so there’s a high demand for time out there, so I think it’s difficult in the sense that you just can’t come over here as much as we want to.
The title ‘21’ seems to represent a coming of age – what’s the most important life lesson you’ve learnt so far?
O: Just let it come to you; don’t force it. You know, a lot of people feel like when they reach 18, like for instance when someone asks, ‘How old are you?’ and you’re like, ‘18’, they be like, ‘Oh, you’re young!’ And you feel like, ‘What do you mean I’m young?! I’m 18!’ And to me, it’s not about your age, it’s about your experiences, it’s about your maturity. The older I get, the people that are older than me are still gonna be older than me, and they still say, ‘Oh, you’re young!’ - it never changes! So just embrace it, you know what I’m sayin?
Religion plays a big part in your life and you’re a believer in abstinence – do you think you compromise your values by making sexually suggestive R&B tracks?
O:Well I think it’s definitely hard, because being in the field that I’m in, and you know talking about sexual things, I think it’s very, very tough. It’s kinda like me being in a hard place in the sense that I have come from basically a normal background, where sex was OK and I think because I have changed my life more so than focusing on the record this time around, I think I talk about love more so than sex, but truthfully, it’s a growing process for me.
I think the biggest step for me was just to feel comfortable and not to be like, ‘Well, I’m celibate.’ I do believe in God, and some people have really ridiculed me like, ‘Oh, he’s a liar’, but truthfully I’m just finding my spirituality and finding that I have a lot more self control and am in more control of where I wanna go, because I can control that (gestures to his groin). Most guys can’t! If you can conquer that, you can conquer anything, like your emotions, anything. I think when you start young, the older you get, you get numb to it, you feel like you need it, the more it’s a necessity, you know?
And me being 21 and having it accessible to me like that and me finding my spirituality, I figured it’s a brilliant thing, and I think there’s a lot of young people out there who have thought about it and I just feel happy to be in the position that I’m in to encourage them and make them feel like, it’s OK. Like, young girls, you don’t have to be with a dude and have sex; that’s not what technically a relationship should be about because you get old, you know what I mean? And you can’t keep doing it forever, like, the world doesn’t run on just sex, even though that’s what the TV’s about. I would say it’s about love and friendship.
What’s your next career goal?
O: I wanna start my own video game, but not have like an Omarion video game. Video games take time because they’re so creative and I love doing creative stuff. I wanna open up my own dance schools back home, probably the end of this year, maybe next year. That’s a real cool idea I had as well, just opening up some dance schools.
Who would be your dream collaboration?
O: Hmm… I’m not sure, ’cos I would want to do something that’s spontaneous, but at the same time when people see it, it gets respect. Something crazy like maybe me and Gwen Stefani, something like that!
Or you and Ciara would be cool.?
O: Yeah, yeah, that would be cool!
You’re headlining the show tonight with Marques Houston, 112 and Sisqo – what do you have planned to make your performance stand out from the rest?
O: Well, being that I haven’t technically performed here ever, I would just say my energy. You know, me dancing all across the stage, you know, I think that’s something different…!
Omarion’s single ‘Icebox’ and new album ‘21’ is out now on Sony BMG. For more information, go to his official website: http://www.omarion.co.uk.