Month 101: June

Last month, the weather here in North Carolina wasn't just hot, it was oppressively, record-settingly hot. Previously recorded daily highs were either met or exceeded in Raleigh, Cape Hatteras and Lumberton across the 23rd and 24th, and that's just the ones I found in the the three minutes of research I did for the purpose of writing this intro. There may well have been more.

Now, reader, I know what you're thinking — He's not going to stoop so low as to bring up the hotness of the weather solely for the purpose of a transition into the proverbial "heat" that rappers released during that month. There's simply no way. Indeed, such a thing would mark a new low point for Super Empty the blog/magazine/viral content factory, as we've known it. And yet, that's exactly what I'm going to do — in fact, as of this moment, it's already been done.

And with that, I relinquish whatever remaining writing bonafides I still had, and turn in my credentials for the hip-hop blogging circuit in perpetuity. It was a hell of a ride. But on my way out, I want to say just one last corny, unrepentant thing: it really was a month of unseasonable heat in the world of NC hip-hop, soul and R&B.

Heartfelt singles from new standard-bearers and indie stalwarts, a surfeit of full projects from breakout stars and exciting new alt-rap auteurs, even a cross-country collab album with a West Coast, blog era legend. It's all in the writeups and links below, as well as the Month 101 playlist on Apple Music, from which any number of deeper rabbit holes can subsequently be explored. You won't hear me from behind the walls of rap writer purgatory, but trust — I'm playing them all right there alongside you.

MAVI & Smino - "Potluck"

The second entry in an episodic drip of summer singles from MAVI — preceded by May's "Landgrab" with Earl Sweatshirt, and presumably followed by a teased Niontay song next week — "Potluck" finds the gifted Charlottean once again flexing both his mastery of language and the Rolodex it's afforded him, this time with STL neo-soul rapper Smino. To hear him sorting through the trappings and complications that come with wider recognition ("Helicopter, New-York, for the skyline of course/ Getting chased by some hoes I ain't thought I'd afford/ Getting fame that I thought I'd avoid") is to be reminded that it was only a few years ago he was walking around NYC, still relatively unknown, taking meetings and performing in the city for the first time. Over its breezy two-and-a-half minutes, though, the blithe tone of "Potluck" conveys an artist fully acclimated to the way his conditions have changed, even if many of life's perpetual challenges still remain. As with previous releases, what makes the 25-year-old so magnetic is not just his story, but how comfortable he sounds telling it.