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CHRIS ROBERTS: Omaur Bliss's latest CD opens with a haunting voice. It's a woman being asked by Bliss to retrace her migration from Gary, Indiana, where she was a poor, jobless teenager, to Saint Paul, Minnesota, where she became a single mother.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

SPEAKER 1: What did I do? I worked until I had-- until I had the baby, and then I couldn't work any longer. I had to stop working. I work on and off, you know. But being a single mother, I had to get on welfare. And then they help in the times when I was--

CHRIS ROBERTS: She may sound tired and a little sad, but she's also resolute.

SPEAKER 1: You know, I know a lot of young girls are going through things but just to hang in there. And things do get better.

OMAUR BLISS: That woman is my mother.

CHRIS ROBERTS: To the extent that Omaur Bliss's songs are about rising above and eventually escaping the mean streets of St. Paul's East Side, they owe a lot to his mom. He's the first to acknowledge that.

OMAUR BLISS: Strong woman, always was in my corner with whatever I wanted to do, and never hesitated to tell me that she loved me, and never hesitated to lay the smack down if needed.

[OMAUR BLISS, "REMEMBER THE TIME"] Big box and lazy days

DJ soup and lemonade

97 degrees in the shade

Love for the neighborhood

I wish it stayed

We used to fantasize about getting paid

CHRIS ROBERTS: The stories of Omaur Bliss's childhood might apply to many who grew up poor and Black in one of Saint Paul's roughest neighborhoods.

Bliss dabbled in gangs, broke the law, and saw several of his friends get shot or go to jail. At the same time, he played sports, was in student government, and got involved in theater. Perhaps, it's the way Bliss internalized his struggles on the street that distinguishes him.

OMAUR BLISS: There's a lot of stuff that happens to your friends that really gives you this choice outlook. You make good choices. Things happen. The bad choices can take you out.

CHRIS ROBERTS: When Bliss graduated from high school, he decided to put off college and further explore his artistic side. He experimented with spoken word and went to every open mic night he could find. Eventually, his verse turned into raps.

[OMAUR BLISS, "SURGEON GENERAL"] Be make or break a mic

Blaze a fake

Play a rock

Flavor cream of nature nomenclature

Not prefer a rap of favors

Raising a drum shaver

Maggie Libra Aveda

Field reporter Solmaz Gardiki Kurran alternators

Alienated affiliates acclaim and killing it

From here to Nova Scotia Burnham

Seed Testarossa Ponderosa Jesse

Raggett house party racket phone laughing acting

If people are so tired with a B star crashing

Conversationalists will have you broken

CHRIS ROBERTS: There's a very definite vibe Bliss is going for in many of his songs. He says he wants them to sound like '60s or early '70s soul tunes with an avant-garde twist. He employs drum machines, live musicians, and quite frequently, 3- and 4-part harmonies. His rhymes aren't as confessional as some rappers in town nor are they as overtly political as others.

Steve McPherson, music editor at Pulse Weekly in Minneapolis, says Bliss borrows effectively from many different styles.

STEVE MCPHERSON: There's sort of new soul. There's hip hop. There's sort of jazzy stuff. It's very all encompassing.

CHRIS ROBERTS: McPherson says he's also struck by how uplifting Bliss's songs are, which is not what people necessarily expect from rap music. They remind him of a purpose behind another vital musical tradition, the blues.

STEVE MCPHERSON: People forget that things like blues aren't depressing. I mean, it's about getting rid of your troubles. It's about recognizing that there are problems in the world but then getting past it with creative endeavor, you know. And I think that's-- and he's taking that aspect on, which is fantastic.

[OMAUR BLISS, "HOLD ON"] She looks out windows

Waiting like with us for somewhere to go

To places where there were better times and lifelines grow

Further the soothsayers go voice could flow

She like most comes home drinks

Plugs in the TV falls asleep in the middle of The Late Show

Day glow interrupts her dreams and aerials blazing radios

Yelling in apartment 204

Footsteps down the corridor

And she knows there's more than the cigarette she smokes

Few discreet totes random sex with gentleman callers

Her career

CHRIS ROBERTS: Omaur Bliss's career seems to be picking up steam. He's toured many parts of the country and has performed with acts from two nationally known Twin Cities hip hop aggregations, Rhyme Sayers Entertainment and Doomtree. Bliss is headlining tonight at the Varsity Theater in Minneapolis.

Despite a hard upbringing, he's managed to develop a sort of eyes-on-the-prize philosophy that comes through in his music.

OMAUR BLISS: (SINGING) Hold on fight on

When nothing's left to do

Keep on pushing

Keep your head up

Hold on

Hold on

Hold on

(SPEAKING) Life is basically training. We're training ourselves how to be whatever we want to be. And in training, no one comes into the job knowing everything. You're going to mess up. You're going to maybe forget how to do this or that, or have setback after setback.

But the point is, I mean, you're going to a bigger goal. And as long as you can see the good parts of it, then you can make it.

CHRIS ROBERTS: I'm Chris Roberts, Minnesota Public Radio News.

OMAUR BLISS: (SINGING) It keeps with the same intensity as acid

The flesh rotting in the fresh

When all has failed and nothing is left

Pain left dormant is now at the boiling point

Service jobs relationship roles and passing time smoking joints

The tears of frustration have always fallen in the same cracks

We'll never be washed away

We look for brighter days in the bottom of our rum and cokes

And we shall fall in ashes

But life will get better with each smoke

The joke is that life is lifing

Hard to see the sunshine when the clouds are overcasting

There are meanings to silver linings

It's the defining moment

Combining the agony of defeat

With a triumph of surviving

When nothing's left to do