Taha Othman Ahmad, known professionally as Odetari, is an American record producer, rapper, and songwriter. His music became popular on TikTok in 2023 and his songs "Good Loyal Thots", "Narcissistic Personality Disorder", "Look Don't Touch", "I Love You Hoe", and "GMFU" all reached the top-10 of the Billboard Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart.
Life and career
Tata Othman Ahmad was born in Houston, Texas and is of Palestinian descent. He started producing and releasing SoundCloud rap music at age 13 with a Native Instruments Maschine given to him by his parents, and later produced trap beats starting in 2018. His stage name, Odetari, is a fusion of his family name, Odeh, with the name of video game developer Atari.
Odetari self-released his debut single, "I <3 Latinas", in March 2023. While working as a substitute teacher at a Houston high school in 2023, Odetari's music became popular on TikTok due to his videos of audio deepfakes of video game characters, which used his songs in the background. After getting fired from the high school, he began releasing songs on SoundCloud more frequently and using them in his TikTok videos. His song "Narcisstic Personality Disorder" became his first to chart when it debuted at number 11 on the Billboard Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart in April 2023; it also became his top-10 debut on the chart the following month. His April 2023 song "Good Loyal Thots" also debuted at number eight on the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart in May 2023.
Odetari gave his first live performance in June 2023 in New York City. In July 2023, he released his debut EP, 3×3, which was a collaboration with New Zealand record producer 9lives, and signed a multi-album record deal with Artist Partner Group. He had topped the Dance/Electronic Songwriters chart for 17 weeks by September 2023. He released his debut solo EP, XIII Sorrows, on September 13, 2023. A Trippie Redd remix of his collaborative single "I Love You Hoe" with 9lives was released in October 2023.
Musical style
Odetari's music has been described as EDM. He has described it as "final boss music". Ethan Shanfeld of Variety wrote that his songs combine "pitched-up rap hooks, glitchy trap flare and menacing club beats" and are "tailored to a young, overstimulated audience" due to their shorter length. Katie Bain wrote for Billboard that his music was "hectic and woozy and strange, altogether giving a feeling like being at a rave happening inside the internet".