Sam O.B. fka Obey City has a unique energy. This soft-spoken New York native is at once a producer, deejay, label boss, tastemaker and champion of the new-New York underground. He effortless handles each role with zen-like serenity—in a lost tradition of American culture, one may have said ‘suave’. What started as casual experimentation and beat making for rappers and friends has evolved over the last 10 years into an unrelenting solo passion, resulting in a steady stream of soul-drenched bedroom music that avoids trends in favor of the enduring.
Obey is humble when it comes to just about everything, but his penchant for the sounds of soul, funk and smooth jams has instilled a vibe that has grown up alongside a rapid evolving urban musical landscape. The result is glossy, shifting dance music that seeks the weird, the unrestrained, the cleverly odd. In the past several years he’s released a pair of sister EPs on the UK label LuckyMe (Champagne and Merlot Sounds), been featured on BBC Radio, toured the US, Japan, Australia and Europe and has begun work on an ambitious solo LP debut. He has continued collaborating with exciting new musicians and vocalists outside of his own solo endeavors.