Mavi, a Charlotte, North Carolina-based rapper, performed at 7th Street Entry on March 21, using melodic raps and sincere lyricism to charm the Minneapolis audience.
Mavi played numerous songs from his latest album, “Laughing so Hard, it Hurts,” which he released in September 2022. The current leg of Mavi’s world tour featured opener Fly Anakin, who started the show with soulful beats and lyrically complex raps.
The Richmond, Virginia-based rapper and producer put forth a welcoming tone throughout his set by engaging with fans between songs and bringing people onstage to dance with him. Fly Anakin released his debut solo album, “Frank,” in March 2022 to critical acclaim.
Mavi’s set demonstrated artistic growth since the early releases in his career, while he was still a neuroscience student at Howard University. Mavi always delivers deliberate and virtuous lyricism, but on the album “Laughing so Hard, it Hurts,” the rapper introduced new melodic undertones to his music.
During his set at 7th St, Mavi rapped and performed with a self-assured passion that felt like the manifestation of an artist who is committed to constantly evolving. Mavi moved across the stage like a poet with an urgent message to convey to the audience.
His flow and style delve into dark areas of his psyche at times. Still, Mavi never lost the joy of performing and thanked the audience multiple times for giving him the “greatest job in the world.”
On songs like “Quiet on Set,” Mavi told stories of growing up in Charlotte and the troubles he went through along the way to become a musician. He rapped the lyrics, “We rolling, yeah. Golden, we needed motion. And so we stole. To my family, I’m beholden. Everybody else, I don’t owe shit.”
Mavi’s style of rapping accentuates the lyrical complexity of his songs by centering his rhythmic vocals. This style of vocal-centric rapping was displayed on songs like “Miracle Baby” and “Sense” during his set at 7th St.
“Miracle Baby” is a collaboration with legendary hip-hop producer The Alchemist. The song features Mavi rapping passionately over the ethereal beat of distant bass instrumentation and choral vocals.
The lyrical expertise of Mavi on “Miracle Baby” is evident with raps like, “I talk sometimes just knowing my phone the only one listening. Advertise the digit app when I spend a bag. Advertise the fitted mag when I’m finna crash. Half the time at the virulence I just sit and laugh. If we ain’t there to spark the revolution, all our Siris can.”
Throughout the entire set, Mavi deployed his lyrical raps on an entranced audience of hip-hop fans at the 7th St. Fittingly, the song “Sense” is a one minute meditation that ends with the lyrics, “Spinning outwards, lost, so she saying, ‘What kind of songs you make?’ I make the kind you gotta read, baby.”
