The Kitchen: Mocksmile (fka Ωmega)

Mocksmile (fka Ωmega) is a bedroom musician, slash hip-hop producer from the internet and one of the founding members of the infamous cloudrap/gloomcore producer collective NoFace Records, where he does most of the visuals and makes album covers for each and every member of that collective. Based somewhere in Manila, He’s been making rounds lately on his mysterious alias and his body of work in the local beat scene (he clarified in his personal account that he just started producing music for over a year, and that is fucking amazing). He covers a broad range of styles that incorporate cloud rap, trap music, TEAMSE$H type beats and even boom bap in different occasions. He made beats for rappers in Writer’s Block, contributed production credits for Space Impakto, knife, and frequent collaborator and fellow NoFace founder, skinxbones.

I chose to archive Ωmega for many reasons: One, he is one of the hardest working visual artists we have today, and people don’t check out his more “music related” stuff that often.

Two, he improves more and more in his releases. Take “Prima Facie” for example, his style in that project are miles different from what I heard from his older stuff like “some obscure title” from his beat diary, “Songs From a Sinking Ship”. And it's evident that we get to see a bedroom musician evolve so quickly and substantially as we should. Let alone that seeing an internet musician grow in the age of SoundCloud is important.

Three, He drifts his sample-based roots in another degree. Adding more layers into his works that are lush & minimal, and he has a stylish take on each release. That production style of his is what I can appreciate completely regarding being versatile. But don’t let that “producer” banner fool you, he raps too!

That takes us to the fourth reason why Ωmega needs to be archived; he also gives his rapping chops in separate releases. Seeing him live at the Taliwas event in Mow’s QC around October of last year made me want to see more of his live performances. Even if it takes an emotional grip to feel what he’s saying, Ωmega can pull off one hell of a performance in just a ten-minute set. His songs that have him rapping baths with emo (that was before ”emorap” was a thing in the age of SoundCloud) He regularly gets featured in tracks that show his dark side (Listen to Ωmega x skinxbones - Self Help Mixtape). And if ‘nothing nowhere’ and Greaf made a baby, then you get Ωmega.

I’m sure a lot of people will find his releases and other of NoFace’s releases intriguing. Enjoy!

Ωmega - PRIMA FACIE