Totally Stockholm 1
Almost a mythical figure, acclaimed Stockholm art
ist Mapei returns with new album Sensory Overload. She tells us about tough times at the start of her career, her mother passing away, and manifesting your own happiness. Words: Malkolm Landréus Photo: Niko Noir Anyone who has followed Mapei’s career path knows it’s been unpredictable, and in many ways hard to summarise. Among hip-hop fans she’s known as one of the very best, and the general public know her from international breakthrough Video Vixens in 2007 and the memorable comeback Don’t Wait in 2013. The explanation for the stop-start career can be found in a sprawling background, a searching soul and her open and genuine personality. With a love of early noughties rap like 50 Cent, Dipset and Missy Elliot, Jacqueline Cummings moved from Stockholm to New York as an 18-year old to find “the ultimate stimulation”. Back in her native US she went to a community college, studied theatre and met long-time friend John Chan – “we realised that if we ever married I would be Jackie Chan, haha”. Living in Bushwick and surrounded by artistic and creative people she began absorbing everything around her, from the weird to the inspiring. “I was living with someone who was hanging herself up from hooks in the ceiling, I don’t know what it’s called, suspensions something. Pain as pleasure. I went from being the R&B chick with a fitted hat to embracing all the artistic things I saw,” she explains. Eventually she found her way back to Stockholm and she began working with childhood friend, Stockholm rapper and producer Marcus Price. In the studio she was freestyling over Marcus’ productions and among the things they created was her first breakthrough Video Vixens. A breakthrough that developed into something bittersweet. “I loved the attention and I loved to perform. I opened my heart on stage. But I didn’t have any other songs so I was freestyling all the time and we were always drunk. Then I went on tour with Timbuktu and there was like 40 people around me all the time. I could wake up in the morning and someone would ask, ‘what’s going on tonight?’ and I was like ‘who are you?’ It turned into hype and I didn’t have the time to make any songs and my voice was always raspy. People stole my style and people were asking about my music and everyone assumed I would make it and wanted to come along for the ride on the carousel.” Mapei watched on as other artists flew past her and made careers, partly due to their more privileged background. She became depressed but moved to Los Angeles and her creativity bounced back. She networked with people like Diplo, and got her next breakthrough with Don’t Wait. At the same time, she began to smoke weed, had another depressive episode and started taking medication that made her all the more jaded. “I don’t really know what weed does but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who’s sensitive, haha. So I went from sunny LA to thinking the world’s fucked up.” Somewhere around here Mapei’s music began developing from hip-hop into pop, something that still confuses some of her fans. Especially since she was called the best Scandinavian rapper of all time by Timbuktu. I ask if she’s surprised by the impression she made on the Swedish rap scene. “Yes, but that’s from people who love hip-hop. They are collectors and fans who know what I can do so they all go ‘aren’t you going to rap anymore?’. I try to be open and do what I feel like. But I’d like to do a rap album, just to take some responsibility you know. I feel I need to give that back to the rap scene, it feels like I would let the family down by not doing it. And I would let myself down, because I know that every time I hear Kendrick Lamar or Rae Sremmurd I want to do it too. It fuels my competitive instincts.” Does it stress you? Yes, that’s true. I get stressed by having my senses open, and seeing myself in everything. If someone else had released Sensory Overload I would think “I want to do that!” So I just try to mix the styles I want to do to stay real and true to myself, that’s like my new motto. I know you have said you feel more free when singing versus rapping. Yeah, cos there is a certain attitude when it comes to rapping that I’ve never embraced. There are so many rules that I try to break free from and be open. I feel like it has been an identity thing for you as well. Yeah, because there are so many people that have put me in that box, that I’m supposed to be the rapper girl. And I get it, and it’s great to rap but I don’t want to… I want to do it well and take my time. Have you been searching a lot for your identity? I’m thinking about the moves you have made to the States, your broad musical influences and the different people you have been hanging out with? I still don’t know how I look, you know? Am I beautiful or do I look like Mini Me? I’m a chameleon, but I am myself and I can socialise with anyone. I come from such unique parents that wanted to be with people. My dad was an activist and went on rallies in Washington with 100,000 people and spoke to everyone. So I’m used to communicating, although I can also be a bit introverted at times. I’ve seen all sorts of people in my life, and then I moved here and had to become integrated into a new culture, where I’m still trying to find myself. It’s so segregated and so many various groupings, both online like at Facebook as well as in the real world, so I still don’t know how I look in the eyes of others but I know how I feel and what I feel comfortable with. She describes the years between last album Hey Hey and now as calm. For the first time she has been living a normal everyday life. Well, at least up until recently, when yet another relationship came apart at the same time as her mother passed away. “She lives through me. She’s here. We are so alike and she has given me so many blessings since she passed away. I cannot feel depressed when she, during her last seconds looked at me and told me not to. She said ‘you have spent so many years depressed, be strong and don’t let those bad stylists style you,’ haha. She had humour all through to the very end and really wanted to live. I made a song for her recently called I’m Gonna Live For You and I think it’s her words that come from me. I really believe in spiritualism, even more so after this.” In a musical climate living in symbiosis with social media and being driven forward at breakneck speed with easily digestible music, Mapei’s new album on the other hand provides something different. There are lots of things going on, both sound and contentwise. It’s a voyage between the American south, Caribbean islands and the cold streets of Stockholm. It’s positive and invigorating, but carries a lot of melancholy at the same time – just like what the process of finding oneself usually contains. “I view this as going back to the beginning, or full circle, while Hey Hey symbolises easier times, the music that was around at that time and even if I knew my core I couldn’t express it.” Tell me about yours and Magnus Lidehäll’s collaboration and quest in finding this complex sound? I think he emanates from the same heartbeat as me. We can listen to Ludacris one second and some hipster music from LA the next. Every time I come up with something good he laughs which spurs me on, otherwise he’s quiet. You want to impress him every time you are there, and I think he wants to impress me. It creates a competitive chemistry and you want to do the best you can. In conjunction with the album a short film solely made by female artists will be released. The purpose being to shine a light on what Mapei thinks the world is lacking. “The message is just self love and selfempowerment and to combine worlds and pair people that usually don’t mix. For example, we shot at a traditional Swedish open-air dance floor where there’s usually mostly old ladies but now there were young people, queer people, immigrants dancing cheek-tocheek.” “I have one video with Mwuana and a Swedish greaser where we drive around listening to Sensory Overload, you know, it’s just surreal! And everything is made by women – eight videos and five interludes. It’s all very visual and about love and disappointment. Let-down by society and the social climate where everyone is just watching each other from a distance rather than talking to each other. So we filmed it all with one of those Alexa cameras and made a masterpiece.” Before we wrap up Mapei lets me hear her song I’m Gonna Live For You, an incredible song with powerful bass, a grand atmosphere and incredibly strong vocals. It’s clear to me that she’s moved into a new phase of her career and she’s perhaps in the form of her life. This time she promises she’s finally here to stay. “I’m not going to go away! I’m gonna be a machine and create a lot of music. I’m 35, I cannot disappear for another four years and come back at 40 trying to twerk, haha.” Sensory Overload is released on 8 November 15