Rapper Turned Singer Mapei Compares Kendrick Lamar To Billie Holiday

Five years ago, Providence, Rhode Island native Mapei was an underground rapper living in Sweden fully immersed Stockholm's rap scene. She released The Cocoa Butter Diaries EP as a rapper in 2009, but lost the following couple of years to a creative funk that landed her on hiatus, traveling and looking for inspiration. Then in October 2013 she dropped “Don’t Wait,” showcasing her singing ability and catching everyone’s attention, including Adele's. Now with her latest album Hey Hey, which dropped in September, fans get to see just how Mapei has grown as an artist. Before she opened up for Lykke Li—who she once lived with—at Radio City Music Hall, Mapei sat down with XXL to discuss hip-hop and the underground scene in Sweden. —Emmanuel C.M.

XXL: Tell me about hip-hop in Sweden, I am curious about that.
Mapei: It’s very backpacker. They don’t like rap songs with choruses, they’ve always dissed them. I used to listen to like... I used to go to clubs with the African immigrants in Sweden—I’m Liberian—so we would just get together and go to, like, teenybopper clubs as 14-year-olds and we used to like Ma$e, Missy, Diddy, Lil Kim, and the backpack scene was totally against that. So there is like two sides. The very commercial, bling, back in the day Rocawear-wearing bad side, and there is a backpacker side. The backpacker side is bigger. They are very good rappers. They are very good storytellers when they talk about the depression and the climate of Sweden. What is going on in Sweden. And it is very sad right now. There is a political party that’s very racist, so people are also rapping about that a lot right now.

Who was big when you were growing up? Who was a rapper that was huge in Sweden.
His name is ADL, he did a remix with Biggie, I don’t remember what song but he was here a lot in New York trying to make it here. He was the best freestyle rapper. There is a rapper called Timbuktu that’s very big and he’s very political and says a lot. His flow is and delivery is crazy. They really want to compete with America, and be better at it. That’s the thing in Sweden—they love competing and escaping from the reality there.

What was your first show in Sweden and where?
My first show was in a small town. I had these two Euro techno artists, they were my managers, they were called Cool James and the Black Teacher. I was in a group called Essence and we would rap and sing. We went to a small town and performed. We were really only like 12 and they served us alcohol and we were just like getting drunk and all the girls were hitting on the guys of the group.

[Laughs] I read that you was a rapper five years ago, a full-out MC. What was the first rap song you made?
It was a song called “Come As You are.” I was like, [Rapping] “Home peoples using the scene, abusing the scene / But ain’t nobody using me because I’ll just steal on them / So they better have a shield on them.” That was when I was 12. I used to hang out with the dudes and they were like, “You sound American, can you rap?” Or, “You sound like Lauryn Hill  when you talk,” and stuff like that. So I just ended up rapping but I really liked to sing. I was shy because like I grew up with Mary J Blige, Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, and there in Sweden they listen to more traditional Swedish [music], like, it’s kind of folk-y. So I was kind of a weird person there.

I heard your tape Hey Hey and I liked the influx of R&B, soul and hip-hop on it. What mindstate were you in when you are making this album?
Well, I was in Sweden and it gets dark in the afternoon around 3 o’clock, and I was just like, “Let’s have fun.” So I brought out the wine every day and would dance to house tunes. And then I would just create the most lovely, most fun, uplifting music ever just for myself just to feel good and spread positive energy.

I was going to say, it was therapeutic.
Yeah, therapeutic. Yeah, definitely. I think I’m developing. Like, I have so many ideas now, I was just taking a chance. I was just like, “Let me just say a little more and see what people will think about that.” And I did the song “Don’t Wait” and people really liked that. So now I'm like in beast mode, very hungry to be a little bit more creative and more quirky and really show all my sides. I just know that I have it in me to create good music and big songs that everyone can like. So I just, like, I want to spread positive energy, just be like a rainbow child and, you know, what I can contribute with the world is mak[ing] music. So that’s my thing.

Are you a Nas fan?
Yeah, especially It Was Written. When I was young I used to just go to the pizzeria and look at the gangsters sitting around, people that owned the pizzeria, and just in my head I'd listen to “Affirmative Action” and be like, “Yeah, this is real.”

Is there someone you'd love to work with?
I mean, I love Kendrick Lamar. His ability to make melodies is just unreal. He has this spirit. He just sounds like Billie Holiday or something, you know what I’m saying? He sounds like an old spirit and I would just like to create with him, especially the project he just did with Flying Lotus, that “Never Going to Catch Me” song. I'm like, “Wow!” I sing that all day. I am like, “What the hell?” I have a song with Flying Lotus also, “Ideas.” Yeah. It’s on his Ideas+drafts+loops album.

I hear you’re a big Raury fan. What do you think of him?
I think he should be bigger. Like, he’s the new Bob Dylan and I love the skits he has on his album. It’s very honest. He sounds British sometimes, but he is really cool. He just has that Atlanta aesthetic—I don’t know, OutKast, Dungeon Family. Yeah.

Is there a goal you want to accomplish?
I want to make a new music, that’s what I want to do. And videos and be really creative and hands-on with everything. I would say I want to be hands-on, just be in like an apartment and write and create and move boards and just push myself a little bit.

How long did it take you to put the project together?
Like seven months.

The writing process was hard?
No. It was a lot of improvising on the beats and then writing simple melodies and it was very simple. Everything just came to me directly and I was just having fun eating food and dancing at the same time.

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