Ohno's Rel$ Explains Group Name & Difficulties As Latino Rapper

Los Angeles duo Ohno is comprised of rapper Rel$ and producer Infameezy.

Rel$ says that the group name is based on the transition towards a more mainstream sound.

“When we made the transition from doing underground,” he says in an exclusive in Friday’s DX Daily, “when we were doing that stuff, yeah, our fan base that we had at that time, we figured that that would be their reaction like, ‘Oh no,’ which it was.”

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The 17-year old rapper says that he got to speak with Oh No about using the same name. At first, the producer did not give Rel$ a clear approval.

“It seemed like he wasn’t,” Rel$ says, “but then he was cool at the end. I was just talking to him for like a good 10 minutes, 15 minutes and at the end, we ended up being cool. I was like, ‘dope.’ He said he wants to link. I was like, ‘Hell, yeah. More than happy to.'”

Rel$ also discusses the difficulty of being a Latino rapper in predominantly African-American industry.

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“It’s a really big challenge,” he says. “Especially since I’ve been doing Ohno, too, we’ve been into like many different events, stuff like that. It’s been a big challenge. I guess they don’t take me seriously probably. On top of everything, I’m young. That might be a really big thing. It’s getting better, though. Thank God. Everything’s getting better. We are getting more accepted.”

The duo is releasing its Three Commas EP on July 21.

“Pretty much Three Commas is a little bit of superficial stuff,” Rel$ says. “We got a little bit of lovey dovey stuff. Very little bit of lovey dovey stuff and a little bit of the Rap real stuff without being too underground.”