In a musical realm like hip-hop, the rate of creation helps ensure that new music is always available – that rappers and producers from any corner of the world can release something fresh, interesting, and occasionally even influential at any moment. It happens often. What doesn’t happen often is stumbling across something that feels eternally new, bold, and ultimately necessary to the construction of hip-hop creativity for the future, yet is classic in its core qualities. For anyone stumbling across MVP Mhad’s single “Brave” for the first time, there’s a sense of eternal novelty in its sound, blurred with its creator’s lyrical aesthetic, which asks that it remain paramount and keystone, not just to modern hip-hop, but to all of the genre in that it ticks all the substantial stylistic boxes.
The Chicago rapper and vocalist has been carving out his unendingly individualistic tendencies on his releases. We can witness it by the snappy wordplay, the rap-sung transcendentalism, the raw vocals, and rawer subject matter, which was continually on its way to being something truly special and game changing. When “Brave” rolled around, MVP Mhad had refined his sound, and in the process, redefined what modern new wave hip-hop could be. It will blow everyone’s mind.
“Brave” is a dissection of hip-hop itself, and a reconstruction of its pieces towards the most creatively bold of futures. There isn’t a bar here that doesn’t appeal to the collaboration between classic hip-hop and the new wave of melodic rap, showcasing MVP Mhad as one of the most stylistically transcendent modern artists of the underground music world.
There is not a verse throughout that does not make other rappers teem with jealousy on just how easy it is for MVP Mhad to sound so very different. He pieces together flow and wordplay more dynamically, thoughtfully, and hard-hitting than anyone else. And he does it all while telling a story, brimming with sonic texture and raw experimentalism pulled from his personal journey.
“Brave” is a paramount exploration of the possibilities when an artist willing and able to take the risks, takes them so convincingly. MVP Mhad is an ever-evolving artist, which ultimately rules out any cloning of his previous songs. There are formulas and trends, but MVP Mhad is not formulaic, nor is his sound bound to be barred by the borders of a short-lived movement. Instead, the rapper and songwriter is endlessly enigmatic, and coolly charismatic.
MVP Mhad sounds on “Brave” are tied together with the thread of bass-forward production and a keen sense of penmanship. It is an explorative, dynamic display of where lyrically inclined hip-hop meets the energy of a mainstay banger. The delivery of his raps ignite a sense of awakened energy. MVP Mhad’s insatiable appetite for busting through the rivets of the subwoofer with his vocal prowess is a mighty compelling thing.
“Brave” is the kind of thought-provoking and self-empowering poeticism that most rappers working over such production do not have the talents to muster. Most impressively, MVP Mhad has so many more dimensions than simply knowing how to navigate a banging anthem.
OFFICIAL LINKS: APPLE MUSIC
