Photo: Echezona performing last October at the Mattapan Teen Center’s annual block party on Hazelton Street in October. Coming back to where it all started for him was “paying if forward,” he said.
One of the city’s best artists, according to the judges at the Boston Music Awards, is Dorchester’s own Echezona Onwuama, a 25-year-old from Four Corners who fuses a raw talent for hip-hop wordplay with his Nigerian roots and church choir background to curate sound that is starting to turn heads nationally.
Known on stage simply as “Echezona,” he won Afro/Caribbean Artist of the Year at the Dec. 17 BMAs. It was sweet recognition for a young man who spent much of his youth at Dorchester’s Blue Hill Boys & Girls Club, where he honed his style of freestyle rap.
His breakout first album with Koma Toast Records‘ Brian Price and JPRiZM is a perfect blend of his African and Dorchester roots – an album titled ‘Ényí’ that means ‘friend’ in his native Igbo language and showcases melody, rap, and tunes that pleasantly stick in the mind days later.
“Certainly, I can rap, but my mother always encouraged me to acknowledge my singing voice and tap into my heritage,” he told The Reporter in an interview this week. “It would be a disservice not to own my bilingual abilities. That led us to bring that collaboration together of rap and singing and melody. It’s the bridge between bars and ballads – melodies and metaphors.
“I still do wordplay within singing but sometimes you need to have a balance that people can sing along to and is simple and it’s been about learning how to bridge the two,” he added.
Echezona was born and raised in Four Corners, attended Weston Public Schools in the METCO program, but returned daily to his second home at the Blue Hill clubhouse on Talbot Avenue.
At first, he had trouble fitting in as an eight year old “with a long name that was difficult to say” and Nigerian clothes that stuck out. But he soon realized a natural talent for freestyle and when old enough to join the club’s music room, he met Rick Aggeler – who now leads the Mattapan Teen Center (MTC) and has cultivated a long line of musicians, videographers, producers, and cinematographers.
“He changed my life – Rick,” Echezona said. “I said I wanted to rap and wanted to make music. I really wanted to do that. From day one, he helped nurture me and my talents and the rest is history.”
He also credits the support of his parents, Chief Sir Azuka Onwuama and Lady Patroness Ebere Onwuama, and his siblings, Miss Nneoma Onwuama and Chief Chidalu Onwuama, for putting music “in his blood.” He recalls singing and playing African drums in the church choir at Grove Hall’s St. Katherine of Drexel Catholic Church, and watching his parents write and arrange music for the choir.
“I didn’t know how it would all play out at age four, not necessarily, but music has always been in my life,” he said. “It’s in my blood. My parents were all for my talents as long as my grades were solid. So, I kept at it. I wasn’t trying to do this as a hobby.”
A big break came in 2020 when he teamed up with MTC alum Clark ‘Clark D’ Lacossade – a Grammy-nominated producer, engineer, and beat maker. Echezona wrote lyrics to a “beat tape” called ‘Self Care Vol. 1’ that showed the potential for a new kind of music.
“Six years removed into this career it was one thing that showed my rapping ability at a high level,” he said.
That ushered him into BMA this year, and coming back to Mattapan to perform at the annual Deatrich Wise block party in October. He learned of his BMA nomination last fall, and said it was an experience that paralleled his Catholic faith.
“As a God-fearing man and a practicing Catholic, I make a point to read my Bible and it was like Psalms 30:5 where ‘joy cometh in the morning,’” he said. “That’s exactly what happened.”
That joy came with mixed emotions because his older cousin, Ugoboy, was also a nominee in the same category and they were in direct competition.
“His dad is my mother’s older brother,” he said. “It was a really tricky situation. It was hard because if anyone is an Afro beat star, it’s him. He is fully immersed in that, and I was kind of an artist put there because they didn’t know where I fit. In the end it was a win for our family.”
Soaking up the win over the last few weeks has not been easy, as Echezona said he has been “concerned about maintaining the hustle.” However, the award has led to new attention from Afro beat pop star Davido, and a possible connection and music relationship with him. It has also led to a continuation of trying to cover ground in Los Angeles.
“I’m going for a Grammy nomination in 2026 and then to be recognized at the 2027 Grammy Awards. So, it’s about not letting up,” he said.
