OL’B1, born Oscar Lorenzo Bernal Jr., is not a product of one city, one sound, or one experience. Raised between Los Angeles, Anaheim, Houston, Temecula, and beyond, his life was shaped by constant movement, cultural collision, and early loss. Those realities didn’t just influence his music—they became it.
Born in Los Angeles to a Mexican-American mother and an immigrant father, Oscar grew up navigating different neighborhoods and identities: Lincoln Heights, East L.A., South Central, Paramount, Anaheim, and later Houston, Spring, Texas, and Bullhead City, Arizona. While those environments exposed him to different cultures and perspectives, they also meant he never had the chance to grow up alongside childhood friends or feel rooted in one place.
As the oldest of four siblings, responsibility came early. A step-father played a pivotal role in Oscar and his sisters’ lives, only to later lose his life to gang violence. Months after that devastating loss, Oscar’s biological father passed away from cirrhosis. Exactly one year later, his mother—his foundation—died from the same illness. In the span of a short time, Oscar lost the adults who shaped him, protected him, and gave him purpose.
What followed was survival mode.
Grief turned inward, and Oscar faced homelessness, substance addiction, mental health battles, and trouble with the law. Life was never a walk in the park—but even in chaos, music remained constant. It became his outlet, his therapy, and eventually his direction.
“I wouldn’t say my childhood was the worst,” Oscar reflects. “My mom made sure we had everything we needed. No matter how hard it got, she always made it happen.”
That strength shows up in his sound.
Oscar began rapping at 16, freestyling at high school parties in 2007. Early on, people noticed his word choice, delivery, and cadence—telling him he had something different and should take it seriously. He listened.
Musically, OL’B1 is a collision of worlds. Raised on Hip-Hop and Heavy Metal, artists like Outkast and Metallica helped shape his sonic palette. But when it came to inspiration, two legends stood tallest: Ice Cube and The Notorious B.I.G. Ice Cube’s political awareness and unapologetic truth-telling, combined with Biggie’s masterful wordplay, taught Oscar how to say something and say it right.
His style today is passionate, lyrical, rough, and gruff, rooted in Hip-Hop, R&B, and Heavy Metal, with no concern for fitting neatly into a box.
Much of his music was written in Anaheim and Los Angeles, recorded in Anaheim and Long Beach, and shaped in everyday spaces—the park, liquor stores, train tracks, and libraries, where he spent hours reading comic books, autobiographies, and novels, absorbing stories that mirrored his own struggle and survival.
OL’B1’s latest releases, “Pray & Contemplate” from the Phases EP and the newly released “PAIN” music video, are raw reflections of that journey. They don’t ask for sympathy—they offer honesty. More singles from Phases, including “Phases,” “Rage,” and “Fate,” are on the way, each expanding on a life lived through extremes.
Above all, Oscar carries gratitude.
He dedicates his work to his mother and father (R.I.P.), crediting them as the reason he is who he is today. He also gives flowers to those who believed in him before the momentum—Graphik The Great, Big Wave Studios, and Big Game James Morales—for seeing potential when he couldn’t see it himself.
