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The Scene

The Spellbinding Alchemy of MAVI đŸȘ„

Spirit catching, puppet mastery, reanimation, and more at last weekend's BIG Culture and Arts Festival in Florida. PLUS: Our upcoming launch parties, and more events to have on your radar.

Anthony Seaman, Ryan Cocca

• 6 min read
The Spellbinding Alchemy of MAVI đŸȘ„
MAVI. Photo by Surf Mitchell for Super Empty.

Editor's Note: For this week's newsletter, we're making a rare out-of-state detour (sort of) with a dispatch from Gainesville, FL, where over the weekend Charlotte rapper MAVI performed as one of the bold-face names on the much-hyped BIG Culture and Arts Festival lineup. As far-flung reportage is generally beyond the scope of this humble weekly email, I wasn't planning on running anything about it — then I saw that Anthony Seaman, one of my favorite writers and hip-hop critics right now, was going to be on site for another assignment. I asked him for some thoughts on The Mayor's set if he could swing it, and as usual he made it look easy. If you like this vignette, there's a lot more where it came from at his blog and zine, The Linx. I highly recommend you subscribe. - RC

Mavi shrinks monolithic demons, whether it be the temptation of substances or the sorrow of a grandmother’s homegoing, down to the size of door nails. We as fans are limited to the final product of this alchemy; think “Doves” and its whispered bounce toward accepting fate, or “Miracle Baby,” which, despite its powerful bite, is just a man alone at the mountaintop. What really goes into making these records? This weekend at BIG Culture and Arts Festival, down in the quaint forest hideout of Gainesville, Florida, Mavi let roughly 1,500 people into his sanctum to see what it takes to conjure such magic.

Just minutes earlier, he was frolicking on stage, adlibbing for his pal Ovrkast., before hopping into a performance of their eponymous sparring session, “MAVKAST!" Yet the moment the baton was passed for Mavi to take over, any lighthearted cheer was hidden away to make room for a spirit invocation. It was only his opening record, yet once the Jay Versace produced “Book Of Job” was in its home stretch, Mavi was kneeling at center stage like it was a church’s altar, his voice already shredded to a husky hoarseness. It sounded painful for him to call for a water bottle on stage, much less release his life story to a sea of strangers, but it wasn’t him doing the talking. This was once bottled emotions finally flowing free, an exorcism paired with the summoning of James Brown’s spirit. To repeat his own words took a full body workout, sacrificing his voice box, and enough sweat to outshine his glimmering set of silver braces; imagine what effort it took to find the words in the first place.

Like a true showman, he rallied through his self-inflicted gruffness for performances of “Self Love,” “Triple Nickle,” and “Potluck”, controlling every section of the crowd with strings latched to our sternums. The old demons were brought out to play, just as small as advertised, but their size made infecting us so much easier. Singing in unison with the Sonia Ross sample was our lone common symptom, lifting us to the high Mavi had been sitting at all night.

Yet the ultimate spell wasn’t the alchemy, spirit catching, or puppet mastery, but reanimation. With a smile loaded on his face, on stage surrounded by Ovrkast., Pink Siifu, zayALLCAPS, and AntoneNow, the familiar slurred belting of “I get no kick from champagne / Mere alcohol doesn't thrill me at all / So tell me why shouldn't it be true? / I get a kick out of brewwwww” blared from the speakers, awakening the spirit of a fallen icon. MF DOOM’s “One Beer", a golden hit from the late great supervillain, united the folks across the festival grounds. BIG Fest was glued together by rap’s underground, a scene thriving with the spell book DOOM left behind. It was only right for the scene's chosen star to close out the night alongside the father of it all.

Anthony Seaman is a writer from South Florida covering hip-hop music, culture, and media figures. He's the founder of the independent cross generational hip-hop blog The Linx, and a contributor at Passion Of The Weiss.

đŸ•ș PARTY TIME, EXCELLENT

More than a decade after first launching online, we came out with a physical magazine last week. The inaugural subscriber copies are shipped, the stockists around the state are stocked, and all that's left of our Issue 1 release checklist is to get together and celebrate. Super Empty No. 1 is a capsule of NC music and culture history that wouldn't be possible without the dozens of writers, photographers, musicians, and other creatives who fill out its pages, and it's only right that we honor them all in the same shared space, connecting with friends new and old. If you're in or near Durham or Charlotte, we'd love to see you at one of the events below this Thursday (4/16) and next Tuesday (4/21), featuring free drinks, prints + mags for sale, and DJ sets from Big John and Jonny Kaine. If you're somewhere else and want to work together on an event for the magazine, hit us up and let's make it happen. Either way - see you soon!

The Super Empty Issue 1 Release Party: DRM
Come celebrate the first print edition of Super Empty with refreshments, good people, and tunes from the Triangle’s own FBE Big John.
Eventbrite
The Super Empty Issue 1 Release Party: CLT
Come celebrate the first print edition of Super Empty with refreshments, good people, and tunes from Charlotte’s own DJ Jonny Kaine.
Eventbrite

🎧 NEW MUSIC (AND VIDEOS) WEDNESDAY

Khalil Nasim, "closure"

The tornado of release week has admittedly had me a bit out of the loop, but there were at least a few items that didn't escape my attention: moving music videos from two of the most wise and self-reflective young artists in the state, MAVI and Khalil Nasim; and a brand new album from DJ/producer Brydecisive, called CADENCE. You can watch/stream them all below:

"CLOSURE" (New song & video) by Khalil Nasim & Buddy Minnelli


"Mender" (Video) - MAVI (dir. by Wyeth, CD by leroy)


CADENCE, by Brydecisive

CADENCE, by Brydecisive
7 track album
BrydecisiveBandcamp New & Notable Mar 6, 2026

📆 THE AGENDA

Foregoing the usual link roundup today to touch on the multitude of events worth your time on the NC horizon! They include:

That's all for this week, y'all. As a reminder, if you like what we're doing in NC and want to see it continue (and want to be mailed beautiful, print magazines twice a year for good measure), please subscribe at either $50/yr or $100/yr at our online store. Feeling incredibly grateful for so much support for this project the past week, and more committed to it than ever.

Peace,
Ryan