Omotade Adeniyi or “O period” planned to go to law school when he finished up his degrees at N.C. State in May of 1999. He applied and was accepted into both Emory and Wake Forest. But the intelligent Adeniyi said he was burnt out on school, and music, well, it was calling his name.

“Music spoke to me in a way that nothing else did,” he said.

Adeniyi is a voice of essential hip-hop.

His music flows against thick beats. Rapped lyrics of the high-life of riches, Cristal, diamond-encrusted grills and hoes in stilettos will not be found in any of his songs. He sings the life of the “regular dude hustle, everyday anthems.”

“There are huge amounts of people that live the everyday dude lifestyle,” the hip-hop artist said.

With the new approach and “high hopes,” Adeniyi said he and his band, Lower3rds, could go far.

If his music career doesn’t work out then professional school is always an option, but Adeniyi is “living his dreams while he can.”

Although Adeniyi is performing with his new band, he said the band’s success or failure won’t stop him from riding his career in music out as far as it can go.

“Music is my lane, and I want to exhaust it,” Adeniyi said. “I call this part of my life going back to the basics.”

And back to the basics is for Adeniyi. He started out his music career under the same band name, Lower3rds, after graduating. The hip-hop band only lasted more than a year before he recorded a few songs with the already established band, Squeezetoy. Squeezetoy was different than what the hip-hop artist was used to. It was a rock band, and with the addition of him, it became a rock band with rapped choruses.

“Things picked up for me really well in hip-hop but I wanted to join the rock domain,” Adeniyi said.

Adeniyi rocked out with his band mates until the beginning of 2006 when they all went their separate ways.

“I learned a lot from Squeezetoy, but I wasn’t ready to turn my hat in yet,” He said. “I still had some stones left unturned. I need some kind of vehicle to get my voice out.”

So Adeniyi came “back to the basics,” back to his hip-hop start. Starting Lower3rds again, with him as the only original member. This time the band is a more eclectic mix of music with melodic rhythms of him rapping and steady beats, and he said the band members — Hugh Swaso on guitar, Brevan Hampden on percussion, Matt Brandau on bass — plan on bringing lots of it to their shows.

Adeniyi said his favorite song he performs at shows is “People,” a song where he raps over melodic vocal choruses with a few spouts of raspy words — a true mixture of different kinds of rapping and singing.

Lower3rds is named for Adeniyi’s vision of the three groups in the college culture — the upper thirds, the middle thirds and the lower thirds.

The uppers thirds is the “well-to-do, status kids,” the middle thirds is the kids “influenced by the upper or Lower thirds” and the Lower thirds is the group of kids that “know what they speak and speak what they know.”

“We consider ourselves a mouth piece for the lower thirds,” Adeniyi said.

Adeniyi is playing with Lower3rds for their first show back today at The Pour House, but he said he is not nervous about this show like he is usually for all the shows he plays.

“As a band, we are the best live performance,” Adeniyi said laughing and mocking “his ego.”

For all of those who like Jurassic 5 or Little Brother, then O period and his band Lower3rds would suit their taste quite nicely.