From recording his own records at just twelve years old to collaborating with the biggest names in music, LA-native Iman Omari is an artistic force to be reckoned with. His consistent dedication to the craft and ability to evolve set his discography apart from the rest. I was lucky enough to hop on a call with the 2X Grammy award winning producer to learn more about his journey as an artist, how he’s navigated the ins and outs of the entertainment industry, and his plans to mentor for Serato x TEC Leimert x Undefeated’s Audio Affect Series—an immersive workshop designed to empower the next generation of Black and Brown producer talent in South Central Los Angeles. If you like what you read (or want the chance to talk to Iman yourself), consider applying to the three-day workshop series! Application information can be found HERE (application closes June 15, 2025)
Interview edited for brevity and clarity purposes
Lily Stockton: I figured we could start with some rapid fire icebreakers, if you’re ready? Are you ready? Alright, first question: LA or New Jersey?
Iman Omari: LA.
LS: Spotify or Apple Music?
IO: Neither.
LS: SoundCloud or Bandcamp?
IO: SoundCloud.
LS: First step in your writing process?
IO: Melody.
LS: Favorite piece of physical media that you own?
IO: That’s a hard one…go to the next I don’t know that’s too much haha.
LS: Dream artist to collab with?
IO: Stevie Wonder.
LS: Those are all the rapid fire questions. Do you want to go back to the physical media or no?
IO: Vinyl.
LS: Any specific one?
IO: Nah I don’t have a specific one; really any vinyl.
LS: All right, well, we’re gonna jump into the interview questions now. I read that you grew up in LA. Could you start by talking about growing up here and how you found your way into the music industry?
IO: Growing up in LA and getting into the music industry is kind of a no brainer. Hollywood is here, a lot of the most prestigious studios are here…so, you know, I kind of grew up in that space already. Both my parents are singers and musicians, so I was always in the studio. When I was around 13, I got signed to this guy named Mike City, who wrote Carl Thomas’ “I Wish,” Brandy’s “Full Moon,” Dave Hollister’s “One Woman;” he has a long list of things that he’s written. I was already with him from ages 11 to 15 in the studio recording professionally. Living in LA, it was kind of easy to get into the music, you know?
LS: For sure. On that, how do you think growing up in LA shaped who you are and who you became as an artist?
IO: I think it had a lot to do with it. I find LA and the people in LA to be extremely musical. There’s a lot of incredible musicians out here. So, you know, just having a chance to be around people like Battle Cat, or Terrace Martin, or Mike City, like I was talking about…he’s an extremely musical guy. Having the chance to be around them, it put a battery in my back, so to speak. It was like, Okay, I have to be incredible if I’m from LA and I’m a musician. Just being here definitely shaped how much I was into the music and how much I was dedicated to the music. I don’t know if I lived in, like, Arkansas or something like that, if I’d be the same guy haha.
LS: Yeah haha. Speaking of big names, you’ve collabed with—Kendrick Lamar, Mac Miller, Robert Glasper, KAYTRANADA—just to name a few, could you talk about how you find those collaboration opportunities and what it’s like to get your work in front of people that are so established in the music industry?
IO: Every time that I worked with these people it’s been strictly off of past work. They’ve heard things that I’ve done, and they were like: I want to work with that guy. Which is really a pat on my back because I didn’t have to exhaust myself to get it in front of them. I think my dedication to my craft is what got me in front of these people and I love that. I would much rather be that way than the other way where I’m forcing myself or imposing myself on them. Mine was just purely organic from Mac Miller, Robert Glasper, yeah, all of them. Like for Robert Glasper, his girlfriend liked my music and he was like who is that? Oh yeah, Imma work with that guy. That’s how that happened. Or Mac Miller: Mac Miller was on tour with some friends of mine and they were playing my music. He was like who was that?, and then he sent out word that he wanted to work with Iman Omari. That’s how it’s always happened for me.
LS: How do you protect or preserve your creative authenticity in an industry that stresses quantity over quality? And also, with things like collaborating with other artists—they have a vision, you have a vision—how do you find the best way to blend your visions together?
IO: I’ve always been independent, so I’ve never really had to listen to anybody. I make all my own decisions, and that is something I’ve done intentionally. I don’t want to be a part of anything where somebody’s going to take my art, and try to guide my vision even though I’m the artist. Yeah, because I’ve never been signed, I’ve never had to deal with that, and I’m proud of that.
LS: Do you find it difficult to navigate certain things because you’re not signed? Or do you think that it honestly opens up even more opportunities for you because you’re directing your own path?
IO: The only thing that I find to be difficult about not being signed is the financial freedom. When you’re independent, there’s a long time where you’re just flat broke because you’re trying to figure it out haha. Where, if you’re with these major labels, they already have funds to make sure that you have the look, and they’re gonna put you up in all of the nicest things, you gone be with the nicest producers, nicest studios, all of that. So yeah, I think that’s the main thing. It’s just like not having that financial backing is what makes it difficult, but everything else is a W. I don’t have to listen to anybody bothering me, so that’s cool [thumbs up].
LS: Did you ever want to do label side, or did you kind of go into music knowing that you wanted to be independent?
IO: When I first started out, my dad used to be my manager, so that’s what we were looking for. But after I’ve dealt with, like, the woes of trying to get a deal I realized actually, I’m okay with just being independent. Going in there, you got to sing for the agents; they’re asking you all of these, like questions; and yeah, it’s just a whole ordeal. I felt like I was kind of shucking and jiving, if you will. So, yeah, yeah, I like being independent. It’s way better.
LS: No yeah it sounds like it. I guess speaking of being independent, and you know, making and creating on your own terms, where do you draw your inspiration from? Do you have certain sources that you know you can listen to something and it just instantly gets you in the mood, or things like that?
IO: Usually, when I’m trying to pull information, YouTube has been one of my go-tos. I’ve been an avid YouTube user since it came out. I just go listen to a bunch of different music to try to catch a vibe. Also, just life. Living life is very important for me as an artist, because what am I going to write about if I’m not experiencing things, you know? Between YouTube and living life, those are usually my inspirations.
LS: Do you have recommendations on how to find new music on platforms like YouTube? I think sometimes you can kind of get stuck in the algorithm, and it’s a little difficult to find new genres or new artists.
IO: Don’t be afraid to type in something that you’ve never typed in before. If you don’t listen to country, type in ‘The Best of 2025 Country Music’ and just see what’s on there. Don’t go into it like I have to hear something that I like, or I’m turning this off. Just go in there, purely trying to explore and hear new things. I think that’ll be helpful. Type in whatever, like ‘jazz’ or ‘orchestral music’ just to see what happens!
LS: Can you walk through your process of creating and getting from like the thought to the release?
IO: Usually I come up with the name of the album first, because I’m like, where am I? what am I trying to convey with this?. I remember when I was making my last album, I was watching a lot of Marvel movies. You know the whole Marvel Universe thing where they have all of these different versions of the same universe? It’s one person, but it’s different versions of what’s happening to them in these different universes. So I was like, okay, let me do a play on that. When I did Saturday Morning Rise, if you were to look at the artwork, it’s me, but in four different situations on the same day.
But then when I’m thinking of the sound, I don’t know. That’s kind of up in the air. I have to just create in order to figure out what the sound is. But once I get that first song, I’m basing everything around that first song for the album so we can have, you know, some type of cohesion. From there, I just do it until the end…until I get to that number. Usually works well, because, trust me, I ask people, does this album sound insane, like I just have a bunch of different random songs?. They’re like, No! It sounds like it’s super together and you put it together really well. So that process works at least for me.
LS: What’s the longest you’ve ever worked on a song?
IO: Hmmmm, three months…It’s terrible.
LS: Was that, like, you just couldn’t get it out? Or was it like a lyric thing…?
IO: I just wasn’t satisfied. It wasn’t until 90 days later that I was like, Okay, I like it now.
LS: What’s your threshold of going from I don’t know about this to I would be proud to release this?
IO: As I get older, I’m way less patient with myself. If I start a song, and I record a verse and a hook…just the top line…and then the next morning I listen to it, if I’m not like, Whoa, this is incredible, I’m done with the song. I’m kind of like Quincy Jones in a way, where if I don’t get goosebumps from the song, then I feel like it’s not worth it.
LS: Yeah, you know, I think as artists though it can be difficult to take a step back and be like no, you know, this is good.
IO: Right, haha.
LS: Speaking about your process for creating, we’re gonna jump into talking about the Audio Affect Series that you’re doing. I have a couple questions about that. First of all, what is the Audio Affect series? And how did you get involved?
IO: The Audio Affect series is Serato coming together with TEC Leimert and Undefeated to gather talent from the South LA community and teach them about music tech: how to use different DAWs (digital audio workstations), how to create a beat and the process, and different ways you can look at how to musically create. For example, if I want to take some type of MIDI controller and connect it to a DAW to create on the spot, we teach them how to do all these things.
How I got connected is pretty simple. My sister, Ill Camille, she’s a part of TEC Leimert and I’ve been working with her for a long time. She just kind of put my name in there like hey man, Iman would be great! When they hit me up to ask me to do it, I was like Yeah! I’ll do it [two thumbs up].
LS: Did you participate in anything similar to this when you were younger and coming up in music? Or is this kind of more new for you as well?
IO: Well, I went to a music conservatory called Alexander Hamilton High School, and we had an electronic music class with a teacher named Mr. Bruning…shout out, Mr. Bruning!..He taught us about everything. We learned about Pro Tools, Ableton, Logic; we learned about move synthesizers, all of that. So yeah, no, I had an extensive lesson when I was younger about electronic music and music in general. So yes, I have experience with this before. I think it’s incredible that they’re doing the Audio Affect Series, because not too many people have the ability to go to a conservatory and get that type of hands-on information.
LS: Then, how do you anticipate workshops like the Audio Affect Series can reshape the music industry further down the line?
IO: I feel like the more that the younger generation has the full scope of what to do, it’ll just put music in a better place. We’ll have better music. There’ll be more authenticity in music, you know? Right now it’s a lot of cookie cutter things happening; there’s a lot of artists that are in music that aren’t necessarily musical. I feel like the Audio Affect Series is just helping lead the charge just by keeping the youth musical and having people that are actually dope and have pedigree teach how to be great, how to be fantastic in music.
LS: Yeah, I definitely agree. Do you have advice for people who are interested in music or producing but might be hesitant to dive in for whatever reason?
IO: Yeah, I would say just go in head first. Don’t worry about what people are going to think about your music. Just keep going; keep going; keep going. Because, again, slow and steady wins the race. You don’t have to necessarily hurry up to drop something, because you see this artist has dropped like 10 mixtapes since last week. You can literally go at your own pace and once you get to that place, to where you feel like you can put your music out there, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the reception. If you spend that time on your craft, people will be able to hear it.
LS: Mhm, mhm. Aside from seeing you at the Audio Affect Series workshops, what else can people expect to see from you? Or where can they expect to see you coming up?
IO: You can see me DJing with my DJ partner named DJ Kase—we’re called 411. You can see me randomly dropping music. You can see me performing just about everywhere. If you go to my Instagram (@iman_omari) I’m always posting about all the things I have going on. So yeah, you’ll see me doing just about any and everything that has to do with music.
LS: And you’re still based in LA?
IO: Yes! That’s where I’m at right now. In Los Angeles.
LS: Nice! Well, those are all the questions I have. If you have anything else you want to add, or we can wrap it up?
IO: Nope, just make me sound like Neil DeGrasse Tyson and we’re good.
LS: Oh I will, I will. Thank you so much for your time!
What? An immersive, three-day workshop designed to empower the next generation of Black and Brown producers in South LA through hands-on experience with music-making processes.
When? July 25-27, 2025
Where? Volume Studios, Inglewood, CA
Who? Iman Omari, DJ Khalil, DāM-FunK, Amber Navran, Lyric Jones, Sarah2ill, Oh Gosh Leotus, Battlecat, Dope Candi, Linafornia, Dibia$e
Application closes June 15 (submit HERE)
Listen to Iman Omari’s music on SoundCloud and YouTube Music.
