Pentatonix’s Kevin Olusola Reveals the Surprising Reason Why Jay-Z Inspired His Debut Solo Album (Exclusive)

Pentatonix’s Kevin Olusola can thank a Jay-Z lyric for his very first solo album.

The singer and cellist speaks with PEOPLE forward of his debut solo album Dawn of a Misfit popping out, revealing how the rapper impressed him to department out from the a cappella group he is identified for.

When requested what he hopes followers will get out of Daybreak of a Misfit, Olusola, 36, says that he’d like for followers “to see me for who I really am.” “I think in a lot of ways, if you’re a Pentatonix fan, you may see this album and go, ‘Well, this is not the Kevin that I know,’ and that’s perfectly fine.”

Olusola paraphrases a lyric from the 2009 tune “On to the Next One,” the place Jay-Z, 55, raps that ought to followers “want my old s—, buy my old albums.”

“I think one thing that Jay-Z says I appreciate of goes, ‘If you like my old albums, buy my old albums,’ ” the singer says. “For me, if you like me in Pentatonix then watch me in Pentatonix, but the evolution of me as a man and a father and also understanding my identity, you’re going to get the full extent of that.”

Olusola digs deeper, saying that his new album “may make you feel uncomfortable.” “And that’s perfectly okay as long as I’m being truthful to who I am, which is I’ve known I’ve always been a misfit.”

So far as new followers choosing up his album and listening to his music for the primary time, the father-of-two hopes they’ll “connect to the messaging of it’s okay for you to be a misfit.”

“It’s okay for you to not feel like you fit in because the things that make you unique, that maybe you were teased about and maybe you were bullied for are the exact things you’re going to need to change your world.”

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Daybreak of a Misfit encompasses a vary of songs from instrumental covers to pop songs like Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy” and “A Change Is Gonna Come” by Sam Cooke, to sampling classical music from artists like Vivaldi and Beethoven. There’s even a playful tune devoted to his daughter, Kaia.

All embrace Olusola’s aptitude and fervour for classical music as a cellist — particularly his lead single “Dark Winter.”

After being a premed scholar at Yale College, Olusola thought he was going to be a physician who lived in China. After authentic Pentatonix members Kirstin Maldonado, Mitch Grassi, and Scott Hoying noticed a video of him enjoying the cello whereas beatboxing to Mark Summer time’s “Julie-O” in 2011, he modified course right into a subject that he by no means thought he can be in.

“To have this wild opportunity to do something I never thought that I was even qualified for, I’m just super appreciative of that opportunity,” he says.

Whereas engaged on the album, Olusola says he journaled about what he wished out of the method, which included a “healing process” for him, “thinking about all the identity issues I’ve gone through throughout my life.”

“And I feel like this album has done exactly that and so now to release it out into the world, it just feels so therapeutic and such a climactic moment in my life, and so I’m just super appreciative.”

Daybreak of a Misfit is obtainable to stream.