The thoughtful, insular North Carolina rapper MAVI released his debut album Let The Sun Talk in 2019. That same year, MAVI appeared on Earl Sweatshirt's "El Toro Combo Meal," a track from Earl's Feet Of Clay EP. Last year, MAVI released his Shadowbox EP, and now he's back with another single, his second collaboration with Earl Sweatshirt. It's the first time that another rapper has ever guested on a MAVI track.
The new MAVI single is called "Landgrab," and it's brief but vivid. Over a lively minute and 28 seconds, MAVI and Earl rap in classic tag team style, switching off lines mid-verse rather than each of them getting their own individual parts of the song. Hollywood Cole produced the track, and it's got a bright soul-sample style that's a little more linear than what I'm used to hearing from these two. In the Jesse Fox Hallen-directed video, MAVI and Earl hang out in a transparently artificial grasslands, with dramatic studio lighting. Check it out below.
Check out our 2021 feature on MAVI here.
