If MAVI’s abstract jazz-rap debut flew under your radar back in 2019, fans of just about any subgenre of left-field hip-hop are almost certain to have encountered him since then either through his Shel Silverstein–indebted End of the Earth EP from last year or from his features on recent records from Earl Sweatshirt, The Alchemist, or Dreamer Isioma—not to mention his frequent collabs with Pink Siifu and/or Fly Anakin. Which is all to say that the arrival of the Charlotte-based rapper’s sophomore album Laughing So Hard, It Hurts earlier this month turned plenty of heads as it delivered on the implicit promise of dizzyingly wordy verses and rainy-day beats across its extensive 16 tracks.
While MAVI continues to carve out his own lane with a slight pivot from drumless beats to boom-bap influence, as well as hints of neo-soul rarely encountered on previous releases, his breathless, comfortable flow feels familiar from the opening seconds through the ramshackle production of early-album highlight “Baking Soda” and the emphatic closing pseudo title track. To get a sense of what influenced the rapper as the LP came together, MAVI shared a playlist of 20 tracks that fueled him through the writing process. “These songs inspired me and kept me afloat while making the album,” he explains, “and the playlist is comprised of a lot of artists I really respect and look up to in one way or another. It was a joy to make.”
Stream along below, and check out Laughing So Hard here.
