Alive at Five: Ohzhe’s journey to opening for KRS-One

Present Perfect

ALBANY — The pursuit of perfection is both the light that guides artists to create and the weight that anchors them to the mire. For Ozymandias Merci Morris Jr., perfectionism is a sparring partner with whom he’s all too familiar.

The need to be great supersedes the effort. When the words come to him, he picks up his phone and begins typing out a few bars. They sit on the screen before he selects and erases them. Back to the start.

On this afternoon, he hides from the blazing midday sun under the shade of a tree inside the amphitheater at Jennings Landing. He recalls how he would come here to sit near the water and write. Next Thursday, July 11, he’ll return to take the stage as an opening act for Alive at Five’s Hip-Hop Night, featuring KRS-One.

Water holds power, but Morris doesn’t invoke Bruce Lee when he speaks of it. He conjures his mom and how she’d often sit next to the lake in Washington Park. Bruce Lee, the fighter, spoke of water’s ability to adapt or destroy. Morris, the rapper, sees it as a manifestation of peace and constant flow.

As a teenager, Morris attended school mainly for social reasons, struggling with anger and bullying. He later learned to channel his stress into creativity, particularly through hip-hop, which he started in school by rapping over beats he downloaded off the internet. His creative writing classes further honed his skills.

Morris’ Instagram showcases a mix of self-promotion and gym videos, emphasizing positive well-being and physical fitness, inspired by a coach’s advice. A boxer, his latest track, “Apollo Creed,” reflects his passion for the sport and his philosophy of learning from losses.

“I used to explore all of Albany,” he said. “The main places that I would go would be here, or in the Empire State Plaza where I would sit and try to write.

“I would sit and write on the stage in the plaza and envision myself being there.”

That dream was nearly realized two years ago when he was slated to open for Doug E. Fresh at Alive at Five. It was scheduled to be the last show of the series, but the water came. The skies opened up, sending the concert under the highway. Thunder and lightning followed, shutting the production down for good.

“That crushed my spirit,” he said, describing himself as a mix between an optimist and a nihilist. “God was like, ‘Nah. You don’t need this. You don’t do this.’ … And I just was like, I didn’t want to rap after that day.”

What got him back in the game? Someone asked him to.

“It’s just something that I do,” he said. “And I’m really good at it.”

KRS-One wasn’t so much in Morris’ ears as a kid as he is now as a father. As an adult, he’s drawn by The Teacher’s message to educate and inspire, touching on themes of social justice, knowledge, and empowerment. Since emerging as part of Boogie Down Productions in 1987, KRS-One, born Lawrence Parker, has urged listeners to educate themselves, stand up against injustice, and work towards a better future.

“He had this one theory. Well, it’s not a theory. I feel like it’s fact,” Morris said of KRS-One. “Our subconscious mind is our higher consciousness. You hear that voice in your head, that is what is already connected to source. You have to utilize that to put yourself in a better place or put the world in a better place.”

“If we all were thinking and using our collective consciousness and that connected source, we would be further along in society.”

Morris has recently moved from his phone to pen and paper to write. When the words come to him, he picks up his pen and begins to scribe a few bars. They sit on the paper, and before he scratches them out, he draws a bracket and continues to flow. It’s a technique Craig Earle (DJ TGIF) taught him. The words may not be perfect for now, but he said, “Maybe I’ll go back and be like, this wasn’t a bad bar. I’m gonna try to use this for something else.”

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