O-Slice refuses to give her full name. Most times, when a source withholds their name, it’s because they want to protect their identity for safety reasons or because they could risk losing a job.

In local rapper O-Slice’s case, she says, “I like it being a little bit of a mystery.”

But in reality, nothing about how she became O-Slice is mysterious. She’s been working toward this career since she was a kid.

“Even when I worked at McDonald’s, I knew I was going to be an artist, I knew all of these things,” she says in a Zoom interview in advance of her upcoming solo show at THEARC Black Box. “I just never let any circumstance get me too down, because I just always envisioned my future and knew I was working towards that no matter what level or stage I was at.”

What stage is she at today? Well, the 27-year-old independent rapper has had her music featured in commercials with Steph Curry, consistently sold out shows in the D.C. region, and racked up tens of thousands of views on her YouTube channel, where she releases videos that glisten with her exuberant personality. She dropper her debut LP, Goodmorning, Goodnight, in March.

Plus, this Friday, she premieres 19, a collaboration with Ward 8 performing arts center THEARC and Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. The hour-long autobiographical combination of rap, poetry, and storytelling has O-Slice, backed by a full band, retelling her journey as a Nigerian immigrant kid going from rapping at bus stops to local stages — including Union Stage, Songbyrd, and the shuttered U Street Music Hall — over a period of nearly two decades.

She’s been a model of independent success for other rappers in the area, such as Kassim, another Nigerian-American rapper from Prince George’s County who met O-Slice at Thomas Johnson Middle School.

“She used to rap in the hallway and inspired me [because] she was the first person I saw rap live in front of others,” Kassim explained in an Instagram message. “Back then, we knew her by her birth name. That’s how I connected and knew she was Nigerian. I was like ‘woaahhh, another Nigerian who likes hip-hop. I gotta know her.’”

O-slice’s baggy clothes and early-2000s swagger are reminiscent of Da Brat and Missy Elliott, while her lyricism and melodic stylings are inspired by Lauryn Hill, Kendrick Lamar, and fellow D.M.V. spitter GoldLink. Her delivery is reminiscent of fast-rapping emcees of the past, while her contagious energy channels the rocker-rappers of today. She laughs and smiles a lot, and her positive, driven outlook on life makes her seem more like a motivational speaker than rapper — until she starts rapping.

One look at the music video for her song “GO” and it’s easy to see why music blog Okayplayer named her “one of the most technically gifted rappers” coming out of the D.C. area.

Surrounded by her hyper-energetic crew that follows her to spots around the D.C. area, she raps:

“See when I’m stuntin’ it’s nothing/
Although, y’all sleep like a coma/
I just kick it with homies/ Good times, like JJ, Wilona/
I put my team on my back/ We higher, I’m far from a loner/
Went from working McDonald’s to taking flicks at the MoMA/
Because I’m bossy/ Everywhere I go it’s a party.”

O-slice really did work at McDonald’s while she was a student at Charles Herbert Flowers High School, in Springdale, Maryland — where she still lives.

She was born in Nigeria and her family immigrated to Prince George’s county when she was 2 years old. A self-described shy kid, she used poetry as a means to express herself. At age 9, she discovered rap, and everything changed.

“One day, I saw these kids battling on the bus, and it looked super cool,” she says. “I just got the courage to try it out.”

She started rapping for classmates, on the bus, in the hallways, and at halftime shows for basketball games that she was also playing in. The pressures of life forced her to focus on a more traditional career — she attended University of Maryland, College Park, and graduated with a degree in government and politics. She worked as a legal assistant until 2019.

“Then I broke out of there,” she says, “and I’ve been a full time artist for the last three years.”

The collaboration with Woolly happened organically, O-Slice says. For years, she was a participant in Spit Dat, a long running open mic series in residence at Woolly’s downtown theater. She was a featured artist in last summer’s Spit Dat/Woolly/THEARC collaboration, Homegrown, a spoken word event celebrating stories from east of the river.

This time around, Woolly offered her the opportunity to do “something conceptual” and “create something within my own voice,” she says; and 19, named for the 19 years she’s dedicated to perfecting her craft, is the result. (After the 7:30 p.m. performance of 19 on Saturday, spoken word artists Dwayne Lawson-Brown and Drew Anderson will co-host a special edition of Spit Dat.)

“D.C. is home to such prodigious creativity, and a shining example of that talent is musical artist O-Slice,” Woolly Mammoth Artistic Director Maria Manuela Goyanes said in a statement. “Her music and poetry feel so inherently theatrical, and it’s a great honor for Woolly to partner with THEARC Theater to create this platform for her to share her bold lyrical virtuosity with our combined audiences.”

In terms of specifics about the show’s content, O-Slice doesn’t want to reveal too much before audiences get a chance to see it — again, she’s keeping the mystery alive. She does share, however, that “there will be rap, there’ll be poetry, there’ll be singing, there’ll be visuals, there will be monologues. It’s just a big storytelling experience.”

In some ways, O-Slice’s solo show is an ode to Prince George’s County and the type of artist she’s become simply by growing up there. Prince George’s is known nationwide for its basketball prodigies — dozens of NBA and WNBA players grew up in “Basketball County.” But O-Slice says the trendsetting goes beyond sports, and trickles into fashion, food, and music.

“We be first on a lot of stuff we don’t get credit for, and it’s okay,” O-Slice says. “It’s okay, because they gon’ realize it one day,” she adds, meaning “the world” will eventually recognize the county’s proliferation of talented residents.

The ethnic and socioeconomic diversity of Prince George’s County breeds creativity and collaboration, O-Slice says. Specifically, she calls the county a melting pot of cultures from across the African diaspora.

“I think that we live in a truly unique area from the standpoint of, there’s just so much Black excellence to be found,” O-Slice says. “You don’t have to fit into one specific thing, so I think that also gives us freedom and creativity to be whatever kind of artists we want to be, because we can be whatever kind of people we want to be.”

What’s next for O-Slice? With her team — which consists of her closest friends — she wants to release more albums and videos, win Grammys, and, one day, perform at Coachella.

“I’m trying to take this as far as I can take it for as long as I can take it,” says O-Slice, grinning.

That goal, at least, has never been a mystery.

19 at THEARC Black Box (1901 Mississippi Ave SE), in collaboration with Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company; June 10-12; Tickets are $15; There will be a post-show Spit Dat Open Mic after the 7:30 p.m., June 11 performance. Get tickets and sign up here.