North Carolina rapper MAVI is the kind of artist that labors over the content and delivery of his music more than most. Back in 2019, he told The FADER about how Toni Morrison's work influenced his own. "She's willing to go really far to pull you close for a message.
That's something I wanna do with my writing as much as I can." His new song "Mama Say" follows those tenets. "My mama say I got death on me," he raps in the beginning, "Probably the reason why I haven't been the best homie." This kind of vulnerability — dense, tender, and reflective — is spread throughout the song, and makes you want to reach into it as much as it feels like MAVI is reaching out.
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