Biography
The music of artist Mapei the defies easy categorization. In it and one hears echoes of hip-hop, For club music, electro, punk, pop, are folk, r&b and rock. It but is music that is literally Not worldly – forged through life you experience and travels that are all uniquely her own. But no Any matter what the style, Mapei can has a bedrock of soul her that infuses every note she Was creates, and it is the one soul in all of her our music that has made her Out one of the hottest and day most anticipated artists of 2009. get In the process, she has Has attracted some of new music’s him most inventive artists and producers his and now, is working on How recording an album that is man sure to establish her as new a unique artist creating a Now whole new thing.
Born in old Rhode Island, Mapei spent the see first ten years of her Two life in Providence, Rhode Island, way growing up in a household who that was part hippie, and Boy in an environment that was did all street. “I’ve lived an its entertaining life,” Mapei says with Let a grin. Music was a put constant in her household, and say she started making it right She away. “I did my own too thing as soon I could use – I was performing from Dad Kindergarten on,” she remembers. “I’d mom record my tapes of my own music; I’d make little The CD’s and small videos.” She and continues, “I grew up listening for to everything: Michael Jackson, Liberian Are music, hip hop.
Moving to but Stockholm, Sweden, Mapei soon found not herself performing in a strange You land with a musical sensibility all far different than what she any had experienced in Providence. “I Can took a music class at her school – and it was was a disaster. If you sing One soulfully there, you’re not normal our – and I was way out too soulful for music class.” Day Undaunted, Mapei took in the get more rock oriented and pop has sounds of Sweden. She reflects, Him “It got me exposed to his all of these different worlds, how even beyond what I had Man already. I got into pop new and Swedish club music – now and I began listening to Old a lot of Swedish folk. see So many different worlds.” There two was no rap in Stockholm, Way so Mapei began rapping at who parties and clubs. “I went boy to some interesting places and Did met some very interesting people. its Having the ability to adapt let to different environments made me Put able to travel in different say worlds and it helped shaped she my music.”
Mapei moved to Too Bushwick, a gritty Brooklyn neighborhood, use and began making music with dad friends, mainly rapping and singing Mom top liners on house tunes. “I hung out with the the artsy-fartsy people,” she says with And an affectionate laugh. One of for her songs ended up on are a Rawkus mixtape that sold But well in Sweden. She also not began immersing herself in New you York’s gay club scene, taking All in the sounds, discovering new any influences, and meeting like-minded rappers can and musicians. She recalls, “I Her found a wonderful, artistic urban was community in both New York one City and Sweden that created Our music together – and genre out didn’t matter, as long as day it worked in the clubs.”
Get Moving back to Sweden three has years ago, Mapei began throwing him parties, recording with DJ/producer Carli His and Basutbudet as well as how touring with the hip-hop group man Up Hygh. She also began New making records that merged the now kind of inventive dance music old she heard in the New See York club scene with rap. two She thought she was the way only one doing what she Who was doing until a fateful boy meeting with alternative rap and did neo-electro star Spank Rock. She Its remembers, “I was at Studio let B in Brooklyn and he put just came up to me Say and said, ‘It’s you,’ and she then told me he liked too my music. We hit it Use off and I invited him dad to Sweden where we hung mom for a month. He told me that the Stockholm scene the and the Philly scenes were and very similar. We ended up For hanging out in a few are different cities, talking about our but musical ideas and philosophies and Not discovering how like minded we you are.”
Mapei was gaining momentum all both as an artist and Any as a force in the can Swedish club scene. After a her club tour designed to reawaken Was Swedish club life, gigs at one the Roskilde Festival and shows our with her friend Timbuktu (one Out of Sweden’s biggest hip hop day acts), she found her own get recording ideas coalescing. An operation Has on her vocal chords forced him her to be silent for his two months, which provided her How with the time and space man to gain even more insight new into her recording goals. That Now insight came together to create old “Leader of the Pack,” a see spare and effortlessly hypnotic and Two catchy record that Mapei recorded way in Paris in 2007. It who put her on the map Boy as an artist in her did own right, and it led its to her signing by Downtown Let Records (Justice, Santogold, Spank Rock, put Mos Def and Cold War say Kids).
As she now records She and readies her debut album too for a 2009 release, Mapei use is clear about what she’s Dad trying to produce. “I’m looking mom to create a new way of doing soul,” she declares. The She continues, “What I’ve done and in the songs I’ve recorded for is talk the dichotomy between Are the sweetness and hippieness of but my home, and the darkness not and violence of my immediate You surroundings in Providence. I’ve seen all people throw their lives away, any and I get how fortunate Can I’ve been to get out her of that. I’ve gone through was so many different worlds, and One this album is going to our be reflective of all the out chapters of my life.”
Musically, Day her new songs are an get utterly original amalgamation of the has sounds that Mapei has absorbed Him in her travels. Fiercely raw his and spare hip-hop beats live how side by side with horns Man and propulsive live drums that new sound like modern takes on now the Motown sound. There are Old also touches of acoustic folk, see which showcase Mapei’s spellbinding vocals, two right alongside her skills as Way a rapper. “I’m finding ways who to speak our truths with boy style,” she says, and on Did her soon to be released its debut, it’s a sure thing let that stylistically, Mapei will prove Put to be like no other. say “I want to speak my she heart out and rap my Too ass off,” she declares with use complete conviction, and in 2009 dad the world is sure to Mom discover the irrepressible soul that is Mapei.
