Ogbonnaya's parents came to the United States when his brother was a baby, with not much to their names. His father balanced working with a full-ride scholarship to school; his mother worked and raised four children. Ogbonnaya's father now has two PhDs and runs an online ministry.
His family's hard-earned success is part of the reason Ogbonnaya got his electrical engineering degree at University of Illinois at Chicago, even though he says he was "very depressed" at school. Any chance he got, he channeled his frustrations into music. "Sometimes your goals seem unrealistic, but then you pursue them, and you see how attainable they are if you actually work at them," he says.
"I used to think that I was good for nothing / Never grow up to be nothing / I used to think that way," Ogbonnaya rhymes on the "Think That Way." He calls that song "a battle in my mind of trying to understand life from my parents' perspective and trying to form my own perspective."
Becoming part of Chicago's DIY music scene likely wasn't the path Ogbonnaya's immigrant parents imagined for him. Though he says he's not sure how his parents view his music career, he's still drawing inspiration from their work ethic.
"A lot of musicians forget about the people that they grew up with or people that have helped them," he says. "I think my dad has influenced me into wanting to be greater than I think I can be. Without relationships, none of this matters."
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