Kevin Olusola doesn’t have a niche. Actually, he has many niches.
Since 2011 he’s thrilled audiences as the beatboxer and a vocalist with the multi-Grammy-winning a cappella group Pentatonix. He’s also the professional classical cellist whose signature “celloboxing”—beatboxing while playing the cello—uniquely blurs the genre divide between classical music and hip-hop.
Olusola’s debut solo album, Dawn of a Misfit, released recently on Sony Music’s Masterworks label, is a personal musical testament to the joy and freedom of not fitting into any one particular box—something Olusola says he did a lot of earlier in life.
“I grew up in a space where I felt like I didn’t really fit into a lot of places,” Olusola said. “Growing up, I loved classical music because it was the music that emotionally connected me to myself. And I was like, oh, man … loving hip-hop, loving R&B, but also loving pop music and loving classical music—how do I weave the two different styles together in a way that they actually feel like they complement each other?”
In Dawn of a Misfit, Olusola answers that question in track after track of inventive mashups of classical masterworks and hip-hop hits. “Dark Winter” takes the Winter concerto from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and turns it into a song about a relationship gone bad. “Halleluja (I Don’t Think About You)—also released in a video performance with the Howard University Showtime Band and Concert Chorale—takes the “Halleluja” chorus from Handel’s Messiah as a musical starting point and turns it into a break-up song. In other tracks, Olusola decks out beloved tunes by Beethoven, Ravel, Saint-Saens and Tchaikovsky in the funky groves and modern sounds of hip-hop.
“What does it sound like to take classical music and hip-hop beats and put them together? What does it sound like to take classical music and modern sounds and make something that feels so especially personal to me? That was the challenge and the great opportunity in this album,” Olusola said.
All of this genre bending, of this resistance to being squeezed into a pigeonhole, Olusola says, is the superpower of being a misfit.
“I realized that a misfit is somebody who owns the fact that they don’t fit in,” Olusola said. “(Being) a misfit doesn’t mean that you’re broken. It actually means that you can be an original. And so, my album is a shout out to all those misfits out in the world, that the things that you were maybe counted out for, the things that you were maybe bullied for—those are the things that are actually your superpower to change your world.”
In a recent video interview, Olusola talks about the personal journey that led him to create Dawn of a Misfit. He also discusses reaching others with classical music and the hard work of carving out a space to bring the different genres of music he loves—classical music, R&B and hip-hip—together under a single label.
“At the end of the day, I don’t think anything should be in a silo,” Olusola said. “Music is music.”
Interview Transcript
Jennifer Hambrick: I’m speaking with Kevin Olusola, cellist, beatboxer, celloboxer, vocalist, and member of the Grammy Award-winning a cappella group Pentatonix. Thank you for joining me today.
Kevin Olusola: Thank you so much. I really appreciate that.
Jennifer Hambrick: Pleasure, pleasure. Well, you have released a solo album, you are now also a solo act, and we’re here to talk about your debut solo album, Dawn of a Misfit, which includes a collaboration with Howard University. So, tell us, if you would, about your album—what inspired it, also what inspired the title.
Kevin Olusola: Oh, wow, thank you. So, you know, I’d say for myself, I grew up in a space where I felt like I didn’t really fit into a lot of places. And I realized that a misfit is somebody who owns the fact that they don’t fit in. And I realized even though I was, maybe, bullied for my differences, I finally learned that those scars made me who I was. And that a misfit doesn’t mean that you’re broken. It actually means that you can be an original. And so, my album is a shout out to all those misfits out in the world that the things that you were maybe counted out for, the things that you were maybe bullied for – those are the things that are actually your superpower to change your world. For me, what does it sound like to take classical music and hip-hop beats and put them together? What does it sound like to take classical music and modern sounds and make something that feels so especially personal to me? That was the challenge and the great opportunity in this album. And I’m so glad I did it because I feel like I came upon something that feels like me. It’s a bit genreless, but it feels super personal.
Jennifer Hambrick: There’s a lot of mixing of musical traditions in your album, mixing of musical style across the album. I’m interested to know how your album, Dawn of a Misfit, conveys how you resolved this idea for yourself of being a misfit. And so, sort of talk us through the album maybe from that particular angle.
Kevin Olusola: For sure. Well, you know, in a lot of ways, I think sometimes classical music may feel like to people – it’s this left field…
Jennifer Hambrick: Kevin, I’m so sorry to interrupt. Now I can’t hear you, which is super weird.
Kevin Olusola: You know, growing up, I loved classical music because it was the music that emotionally connected me to myself. Like, I’d listen to, for example, the Tchaikovsky which you heard on “Like Us,” I would listen to it on the floor of my room and just be weeping from the sheer beauty of it. And I was like, Oh, man. So, how do I bridge that gap, but also tell my story? So, I think in a lot of ways, taking all these different pieces of who I am—loving hip-hop, loving R&B, but also loving pop music and loving classical music – how do I weave the two different styles together in a way that they actually feel like they complement each other? Because at the end of the day, I don’t think anything should be in a silo. Music is music, and if contextualized the right way, should be and can be enjoyed by everybody. So that’s why I was like, okay, the “Halleluja” chorus, I know I can take this beautiful thing and maybe chop it up in a way that it can have pop chord progressions, right? That’s what I did throughout the track. And then what would it sound like to add the right type of hip-hop beat that emphasizes what the “hallelujah” can mean for somebody? Okay, hallelujah, I don’t think about you. Halleluja, I’ve broken up with an ex and I want it to be a joyous thing. Okay, that juxtaposition in this place might actually be complementary because of what “hallelujah” is. So I really thought about, what is the music trying to say within itself, and then what can I bring into it so other people can find their connection point to it? And I did that throughout the whole album, and I’m really proud of where we got to at the end. And I hope to do it throughout my career.
Jennifer Hambrick: Sure, and you mentioned the “Hallelujah (I Don’t Think about You),” that track. ON that track, you are beatboxing, playing the cello and full-out singing with the Howard University’s Showtime Marching Band and the Concert Chorale—and that’s a track on the album. You also have made a really splashy, nifty video of that particular track with the Howard University band and chorale. That video was actually released just a few days ago, as we’re talking today. The notes to the video on YouTube say, and this is a quote, “This is what happens when classical meets culture.” And you’ve also posted on X about this video with Howard University, and you write: “When classical meets culture, the narrative shifts.” So talk about that, if you will – your take on what happens “when classical meets culture” and this “narrative shifts.” What does that mean?
Kevin Olusola: That’s a great question. I think that when classical music meets the pulse of today, meets the culture of today, now we have a narrative shift where classical music isn’t just for one type of person. I think sometimes people have the perception it’s only for a certain type of person, a wealthy person who goes to the symphony and listens to this music. But what if it can actually be for everybody else, but it just has to be done in a way that they can find their connectivity to it? You know, for me, this is an opportunity to show Black culture in a way that is really beautiful with these Howard students who are just unbelievable in their craft, unbelievable in their joy and the way they perceive themselves. And I thought this would be a cool way to add the Concert Chorale from Howard University and the Showtime Marching Band, bring them both together in a space where the message is the same, but amplified from two different spaces, that we are free to be exactly who we are in this place. And using a classical piece to do that but in our own way, I think, really amplifies that message.
Jennifer Hambrick: Well, and I love this point, I love this topic of conversation, this issue of the divide, as it were, between musical styles and music genres—so interesting, and it’s really an important one. On the one hand, there’s this cliché that music is a universal language, which I happen to believe is true. At the same time, there are different musical styles, there are different musical traditions, and because people have different tastes—you know, someone might prefer Drake over Beethoven, and someone else might like Mozart more than they like Beyoncé – people have preferences. So in an ideal world, we’d hear every piece of music for what it brings to the table and use style or genre labels as a means just of maybe getting under the hood—if I can put it that way—of a piece of music and really kind of understanding and hearing what it has to say, and we would not use labels, however, as a means of dividing each piece of music or each genre or style of music from all the rest, which I feel like is maybe sometimes more how we tend to think of musical style or genre, as more divisive. So, I love that you said a few minutes ago that music is music. This is also my take on things, but in your view if you could amplify maybe just a little bit more, where really does classical music kind of fit in in all of this, in the world?
Kevin Olusola: That’s a great question. Honestly, in my personal opinion, it’s something from the work that I do, and I’m sure there’s a lot of other people that are doing that work—one of my friends Babatunde Akinboboye, who is in the original vide of “Halleluja,” and he’s taking opera and adding hip-hop beats to it. I think that we are working on making it a place that can be of culture, that can be more relevant. Not just something you go to the symphony for, not just something you listen to on a soundtrack, but there are other spaces that you can also enjoy this music and you feel that connectivity. So, I think it takes people who are, I think, not afraid to go out and do that, and who are not afraid of being genreless. Io think there’s something about, you know, being within a genre that provides a certain amount of safety. So for example, if I am in hip-hop, I know all the hip-hop stations, I know where my music can be played. I know that circuits I’m supposed to be on. If you’re in classical music, I know the symphony halls that I can play in. I know the places that would hopefully play my music. But when you’re genreless, it’s like, well, where exactly do I fit in? Well, now you have to carve a space, and that is hard work. But this is why I’m so appreciative of people—when you think about James Brown, he created funk when it wasn’t popular, but that became a sound. I’m not trying to liken myself to James Brown, but I am saying that it is important for there to be people to take the first step. Because now, when you take the first step, you’re going to have a whole lot of younger people behind you that say, “I didn’t even know that’s possible.” And they’re giving me the inspiration to go and try to do the same thing. And they’re not getting knocked down or shard—or they are even getting knocked down or shamed. That’s okay because those pioneers knew who they were and why they were doing it and giving the inspiration from those ahead of them. So that’s what I hope to do at the end of the day. And it’s a lofty goal but one, I think, is worthy of this classical music that I love.
Jennifer Hambrick: And you talk about, actually, being sort of genreless, the kind of uncertainty of being genreless and the hard work it takes to get out of that state. I would potentially argue that you’re not genreless. You’re sort of every genre, you know.
KO: I appreciate that.
Jennifer Hambrick: And along those lines, genre tends to be looked at as a pigeonhole. Here’s a pigeonhole called jazz. Let’s fill it with something that behaves like jazz. But really genre’s more of a pigeon than a pigeonhole, as the saying goes. And so, what I hear you saying is that maybe, in your work, it’s about creating that pigeon.
Kevin Olusola: Yes, exactly.
Jennifer Hambrick: Yeah, yeah. Your debut solo album is Dawn of a Misfit, and you’ve also recently released a video of “Halleluja (I Don’t Think about You)” from that album, you with the Howard University Showtime Marching Band and Concert Chorale. Look for all of that online. Kevin Olusola, thank you again for joining me.
Kevin Olusola: Thank you so much. I appreciate it.
