Fresh, infectious beats meet commercial hip-hop hooks and run amock. Moza ’Frique just dropped his latest EP 2 Minds of Mambo and it’s the sort of fleeting, rhythm-driven offering which will leave you with at least one of the tunes stuck in your head.
The Johannesburg-hailing crossover artist teamed up with Twas B, Briana Marin, and PrimeTheGifted to feature on three of the six tracks which make up the multi-faceted album – drawing collaborative textures from South Africa, Zimbabwe and the USA respectively.
While for the most part the EP channels a mellow hip-hop tangent – see the commercial, radio-friendly strains of “Chooza” (which navigates the classic tale of maintaining hope in the face of adversity) and “Lento” – he also dips his toes into reggae-esque Afro-pop sound in “Same Song”.
“Hangova” channels a low-fi kwaito-esque sound, sultry, cruising vocals backing it up. Things get a little darker in his love-song of a Briana Marin collab “Come Thru” as heady beats drop around R&B vocalism – while “Judo” wraps things up as a synth-heavy trap conclusion, bringing it right back around.
