MAVI: Multiplicity
Multiplicity. A word that came up a lot throughout the entirety of this interview, ironically is the best way to describe Charlotte artist MAVI. Between being a full-time student at Howard and becoming one of the brightest new stars in the Black music scene, MAVI’s versatility, dedication, and growth, cannot be denied. Since his debut album, Let the Sun Talk, released in 2019, MAVI quickly amassed a large following, as well as some new collaboration with artists like MIKE, Pink Siifu, and Earl Sweatshirt.
MAVI’s style is truly unreplicated within music today, showcasing powerful, yet beautiful production, alongside well thought out, and truly intelligent lyrics. When asked, he described his sound as “neo-blues”. The introspective nature of his work is complimented by his ability to form melodies that bolster the story-telling nature within his projects.
We had the privilege of getting an exclusive listen to his upcoming EP that’s releasing later this month. The project serves as a bridge between Let the Sun Talk and his approaching second album Shango (pronounced: “shoŋ-gō”). Within the narrative of all of these projects MAVI aims to convey two major concepts to his fans. Firstly, is having the awareness of the cyclical nature of everything around us, and second is the growth we need to achieve in order to reach our full potential as a society. These two ideas, which go hand-in-hand, are MAVI’s recipe to a powerful, and prosperous black community.
Overall, this was one of our most fun and interesting interviews that we’ve participated in so far. MAVI is by no means a pseudo-scholar; he is authentically intelligent. If you couldn’t already tell that by his first album, or by his educational background, then this interview will surely show you. There is a method to the man’s mindset; the creativity and energy he brings to every project is something that sets him apart from the rest of the competition. On a personal note: I really hope you all enjoy this interview as much as I did.
So the “222” messages you’ve been posting on Twitter, you wunna talk about what those mean?
The “222’s” are about my upcoming EP, called End of the Earth. It’s a little 14 minute listen that’s dropping on 2/22. Basically, it just talks about my growth and changin’ my life a little bit. The last time I dropped it was a kinda awkward stage of existence that I associated with it. And it’s like, I started to understand how to sustain myself as an individual. So much of my fear, anxiety, weakness, is attached to desire, kinda like how Buddhist’s say: “The end of suffering is the end of desire”. So End of the Earth, is about the end of our earthly attachment to stuff as our place of happiness. And it’s about the end of my home, I’ve been forced to look at where I’m from, Charlotte, differently because it’s changing so much, in ways like gentrification, increasing violence, my friends getting older. All of those roads coming together towards adulthood, it’s about all that. It’s my way of finding peace and stability.
Is there any significance to the February 22nd date?
Well, I chose that cause this is like my 2nd baby, at least to the majority of niggas. It’s a lot of shit, because it’s also in February, which has 28 days, a lunar cycle, and that represents the moon so that’s number 2, whereas Let the Sun Talk was number 1. So yeah, it’s a lot of shit, and it’s an angel number.
So what kind of sound can we expect to hear on it?
I really wish you coulda heard it before this. Matter of fact, lemme just send it to you. If you leak this though it’s gunna be your ass.
Naw I got you.
*Sends file* Ight, run that first track.
*song plays*
Damn, the first thing that came to my head when I was listening was that it kinda sounded like Moonfire from the end of Let the Sun Talk.
Word.
It kinda ties in to that, right where you left off.
That’s a good thing, I didn’t even think about that, but that’s fire.
It’s like it comes full circle.
A lot of it’s about “full-circle” bro because like I moved to New York, then I went home to Charlotte from November until like… last week. So I was there for about three months when I wrote and recorded this. It just kinda reflected the growth, frustration, and… ache. Like I’ve been aching to drop bro, and if it was up to me, I woulda been dropped. So a lotta that emotion is in there. It’s been so frustratin’.
There’s more coming after this right? Shango is next?
Yeah Shango and then Naked Dream, and I have a project with KILLSWITCH. I was tryna drop all those last year. But all type of shit happened that didn’t allow me to do it.
Does this EP tie into Shango or is it just loosies?
It’s not necessarily loosies, it’s more like all one song. It’s definitely a project. It’s just like an in between tho, you’ll see when you listen to the full thing.
That makes sense. Going back to Shango, what exactly are you going to be talking about on that?
So Shango is about how the future moment of Black progress is dependent on Black men’s growth as lovers and as attackers/defenders. And I’m trying to show our duality, and deficiency, in both of them areas. Shango is an Orisha of thunder [see here] and divination, he’s a very multiple being. His weapon is the two-headed axe, which represents his duality, and his colors are red and white, which represent war and peace. So it’s basically about how this next moment of black survival and black thriving depends on our growth and where we should be for our people.
Okay, for sure. That’s definitely going to tie into the overall message you’re tryna convey about the cycles of everything and how it all comes full-circle. From where we started, to where we are now, and then where we’re tryna be.
Right. And it’s about recognizing that time is circular. We’re gunna live so many lives, cause you know, when you die, where is there for you to go? The law of conservation of mass and energy basically prevents us from leaving these universal bounds. So it’s almost like, we gotta come back.
You study Bio right?
Mhm.
So what fields of science do you really get into?
Neuro. I love neuro, and cognitive psych. My mama always joke on me because my mama’s a nurse. She’s always like: “Damn nigga, you got a Bio degree but if some shit happened to me you couldn’t help me”. So, I’ve been takin’ anatomy and physiology, more of the things that are useful in the clinical background. Just tryna complete my studies. This semester though I’m takin’ Math, African studies, Zulu, and psych.
Okay, I got you, I’m a neuro major too; how you feel about the role of mental health in the Black community?
My thing is, it’s all bio at the end of the day. Black people live around so many environmental hazards. Whether that’s stress, pollution, violence, lack of space, whatever. And so many stress factors bein’ placed on our community, it results in… not so good of a neuro-cognitive outcome for us. Even when you just look at our black history, so many of our historical figures were literally disabled, in the sense that they never had access to their proper channels of treatment. And that’s just the reality of bein’ black period. Like, we never have access to things we need to make us better, or well. It’s really all the stress factors, and the epigenetic shit. Our pain, our trauma, or stress is passed on to the next generation. It puts us in a situation where every answer is a bad answer. Ya know?
For sure, especially the limitations of having access to stuff like health care and therapy and shit. Outside of that, do you think we take mental health seriously enough within our community?
Well taking clinical health seriously is different from taking it seriously in general. Cause, historically speaking Black people have strong, valid reasons, not to trust the hospitals, in certain cases. It’s crazy because the people that I know that got the most peace, they’ll just go sit on the porch for hours; or they’d go out fishing with their buddy the same time every-week So in that sense, how are we not taking mental health seriously? You find your shit, within your constraints.
Yeah, I agree it’s necessary to distinguish clinical mental health from literal mental health. And the way we go about it is different, but it still works. We’re essentially just left to our own resources, but it’s still a burden to maintain those problems on our own.
And then they put hazardous mechanisms in our community, that’s a regular tool of white supremacy. The ‘Crack’ Era, liquor store on every corner, these things… they go hand and hand with the lack of resources. So at the same time we gotta promote alternative non-clinical modes of dealin’ with our issues that may be healthier.
For sure. Damn… What role has Howard played in your growth?
It really helped me a lot because Howard allowed me to get some more intellectual firepower that I could put into my music. It also gave me a home in DC. It’s just such a hub for cultural blackness. The culture and music scene here dude its singular… like dead ass singular. Just the history of Black excellence, Black achievement, and Black beauty, it makes DC an amazing place to be.
What about Charlotte? How did growing up impact your artistry?
Well, my favorite rappers are like my friends from Charlotte. Those are the people that if I got writer’s block I just gotta go by them. Regardless where I got the beats from or where I’m at in my life, I just need to go be around my friends, and my family. My mama. My brother. My father. These the people that inspire the artistry in me, because they remind me the stakes in this.
A little off-topic, but I’m curious, you’re a Hornets fan right?
Yeah. Yeahhhh. They hoopin this year boy. My nigga RTM MB bro. You know about him?
Yeah I seen he’s been rapping a little.
Nahhhh, don’t play with that man, he’s not one of them, that nigga’s the best basketball rapper ever.
You think he’s better than Dame??
…Yes. Charlotte-bias.
Wow. I respect the bias though. We also wanted to talk about Harlem a bit. in another interview, you talked about how it was kind of a “mecca” for Black music? What about that community stands out to you?
Harlem’s just such a fly place to me bro. I love it here bro. Just because it got so many criss-crossin traditions. Just how niggas do. It got tradition in the streets, it get tradition in teaching alternative religion to Black people. Live music, instrumental music, soul, jazz, and salsa… like this where Malcolm X came to learn how to dance. That’s why I’m here a little bit you know. It’s like a little maroon baby safe place. That’s why they want to gentrify it so bad.
Yeah, that’s one of the biggest issues we run into at our school. We try to use our voices as students to bring awareness to the harm that brings when they buy land and displace communities. But institutions will always just… do what they do.
Yeah bro, it will never be in the best interest for White institutions to do something positive for Black people ever. They don’t give a fuck. Appeals to humanity, on behalf of Black people, don’t work on White people. They just struggle to see us as fully human, or at least… human in the same way they are.
Especially when it’s the same people running the institutions, passed down from generation to generation.
Exactly.
Well, that’s all the topics we got, you got anything else you wunna talk about.
I quit smoking weed. That’s pretty important. This my first interview since I stopped smoking. Just moving through my existence as a “brain-in-a-vat” it’s like that vat is filled with water now, instead of like soda pop. It’s been interesting for sure.
Also, Add a part in and write what you think about the EP bro.
Definitely, I’ll add a little review in the intro.
Yessir. Also, I’m just grateful for this opportunity to break out of my shell again. Thank y’all for that.
Of course man, same from us.