Debut studio album by the rapper from Charlotte, North Carolina Omavi Ammu Minder bka Mavi, whose name should be written in all caps in homage to one of the greatest in the history of the genre. Most listeners consider this to be one of the hip-hop albums of the year. The lyrics prove this thesis right, there are some of the best writings of the season. The young author, who recorded this material around the age of 19, juggles through personal, introspective, heavy, socio-conscious and political themes, writing coherent, deep and complex texts, proving that every line is thought out and is intelligent.
The music is handled by ten different producers: Tairiq, Dkarim, ntvrme, Duckie, Murky Waters, Nephew Hesh, Nate, Thebe Kgositsile, Ovrkast., Jippy, Nova Blu and DJ Blackpower. These guys are good at providing the youngster with the best possible set, building rhythms that are soft, slow, modern, bland, tasteless. Nothing about these beats sticks out, they are all average. Mavi recites his lyrics with a questionable delivery style, choosing to mumble like any other mumble rapper of the moment and facilitating the loss of attention in the listener, because the kid mumbles things in a soporific style over boring rhythms, even if he's saying things that deserve to be listened to, for once.
The positive thing is that Mavi creates a well-made comfort zone, although from a musical point of view his project does not stand out in any way from any other released in the same period and perhaps it should be remembered once again that this is not a spoken word album. "Eye / I and I / Nation" is one of the best choices of his debut, thanks to the continuous change of rhythm (Dkarim, ntvrme and Duckie follow one another behind the keyboards) more than for the author's sleepy rapping. "Self Love" is a rare high point of the tape, thanks to a splendid soul loop and a pleasant beat created by Nephew Hesh that supports Mavi's loose playing. “Sense” should also be among the highlights, Earl Sweatshirt under his first name loops a soul sample supported by a nice bassline and minimal drums, the beat deserves to go on for six minutes, nevertheless Mavi decides that just one is enough.
This type of choice brings us to one of the weak points of the project, the artist's poor sense of proportion. Half the album doesn't reach one hundred and twenty seconds, which is a curious choice, also because given the quality of the lyrics you don't expect the tracks to last as long as the "drive-by raps" typical of the major exponents of the gangsta subgenre, where the writing is all similar and one of the few tricks to make the pieces work so that they stand out from those of the competitors is the hit and run, the "heist rap", the kind of track that runs at a fast pace like a scene from "Goodfellas", in which the boys Ray Liotta and Joe Pesci take the key from their accomplice, they enter the airport and leave with half a million dollars in a briefcase.
Many artists have built careers around these types of tracks, but personally I think it cannot be the ideal length for a type of song like this. In the second part of the album, more or less all the songs sound the same and there is little to note, even though there are no bad songs. This young emcee from Charlotte with great raw potential makes a monotonous effort that isn't telling me anything for half an hour, in the future he'll make it, for now it shows how mumble rap isn't over and can be the new economical low-consumption vehicle of conscious rap. Listening not essential.
Rating: 6/10.
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