1Ski OG Releases Debut Album 'Alter Ego'

1Ski OG has spent the past few years turning an audience built through comedy into a career in dancehall. On his debut album, Alter Ego, he makes the case that the different identities were never as disconnected as they appeared.

Released September 25 via Against Da Grain/Epic Records, Alter Ego stretches across 15 tracks, with appearances from Sortie, Romieikon and Fito Blanko. The album is available to stream here, while its arrival is accompanied by the official video for opening track, "The Lord" featuring Sortie.

The title gives 1Ski OG a theme broad enough to move among faith, relationships, betrayal, bravado and dancehall's physical release without forcing those impulses into a single persona. "We all got mixed personalities that sets us aside from each other," he said in announcing the project. "Who you choose to be only you can decide."

That idea starts with "The Lord," an unusually reflective choice for the first record on an album that later makes room for the flirtation of "Have You Ever," the harder posture of "Mad Dem" and the bounce of "Miss Independent." Over percussion and a dark melodic bed, 1Ski OG and Sortie move between melodic passages and direct delivery while treating faith as something to reach for when material certainty disappears.

The accompanying "The Lord" video extends that introduction visually, giving the album a lead statement that is more contemplative than the conventional flex record. The song was released ahead of the album on September 22.

Alter Ego then begins opening outward. "Riches Forever" precedes "Life of a Man" featuring Romieikon, while "Stay To Mi Self," "Mad Dem," "Options" and "Ratatata" occupy the album's tougher stretch. Sortie returns for "Have You Ever," and Romieikon appears again on "Wrong Friend." Fito Blanko closes the project as the featured guest on "Bounce Remix."

The sequencing also captures the musical balancing act behind 1Ski OG's emergence. His records pull from contemporary Jamaican dancehall while leaving room for trap-influenced production and melodic instincts, a combination that has allowed him to build beyond the personality that first made him recognizable online.

Before recording as 1Ski OG, he developed an audience as Valdomore, the comedian and actor from Victoria Town in Manchester, Jamaica. Music initially brought another identity. Performing as 1Ski Mask, he broke through in 2023 with "Dawkniss," a viral release that helped move his career toward a deal with Against Da Grain/Epic Records.

The eventual transition from 1Ski Mask to 1Ski OG carried its own statement about that evolution. "The power is not in the mask, the power is in me," he said of the name change. The line lands differently now that his first album is called Alter Ego. Rather than settling on one version of himself, the project turns multiplicity into the organizing idea.

For an artist whose career began with audiences knowing him through a character, Alter Ego reverses the premise. The album is less about choosing which 1Ski OG is real than documenting how many versions of him can coexist on the same record.