Our *Wordlie of The Year*, mwami, had quite the spectrum of sauce last year. Full slate, satiating palette, the year that was. In lyrical terms, that is, for that’s what we’ve elected to concern ourselves with. (Just wanted an excuse to use the word “elected” that way like we’re in JRRT’s middle earth😄. Alright, enough of breaking the 4th wall!)
The team back here based our decision to hand him the virtual gong on a few pretty strong factors. For one, he satisfied the main criterion of possessing a sophisticated layeredness in his evident appreciation and deployment of words throughout his output last year. Whether on numbers crafted between then & now or on those merely re-included for a tighter debut album’s sake, bro didn’t miss. On the point of the latter, “olivine” is one such bop.
Main man packed a wide yet interrelated spread of themes in his craft. Foremost of these—and there’s no non-sus way to say this—is the intense, percolating sensuality he punctuates his lyrical motifs with. Some instances more plain, and others more of implied, but always refined and never conceptually tacky. He’s honed that side of him of verbalizing his delight in the senses in the coolest way few can. He also often incorporates themes of a fleeting youth, art scene-driven hedonism, existential introspection, and even subtle digs at prejudice on some sparse occasions, into his music. And he does all this with a certain worldly culturedness.
As for versatility, it’s not as if he covers that wide of an array of subjects wordplay-wise. He isn’t, for instance, Bob Dylan-esquely elastic in applying himself and his wording to the world (if we may be bold as to invoke that unequaled genius in breaking this down). In other words, it’s highly unlikely mwami’s gonna drop some angsty hovering-over-humanity antiwar anthem at any point. That’d be rather random! But you can count on his next joint containing material that metaphorizes his inner state into a sonically grand, quirky electro tune, that in its own way is larger than life and evokes sentiments beyond what the subgenre conventionally houses. And that’s a kind of versatility within itself.
We have an idea about exemplifying this more aptly, but it’d hit home more if we tied it to a release in real time. For that reason, we’ll wait until his next output to sneak it in. For now, receive our gem-emblazoned flowers, bro, keep acing it!
