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MAZ

Hip-hop / Luxembourg (Luxembourg)
MAZ
  • Top 1OJun
MAZ

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Kid Cudi, Childish Gambino

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Dubrap

" Powerful and uncompromising emo rap "

Eyeliner, nail polish, and a crop-top pink hoodie/ Now at least when I’m fighting my demons, I’m doing it really good looking. Maz is an artist who is constantly balancing opposing forces: masculine and feminine, light and dark, playful and serious. He emerged from a small conservative town in Luxembourg, where he wrote unconventional poetry and listened to rap and metal while finding his queer identity. His new EP ‘Emo Season’ is a collection of songs that blend early 2000s emo rock with rap and powerful statements on what it means to be young and confused with the world and somehow othered. Among other themes, Maz explores his confidence in queer expression, coming-of-age insecurities such as body image, and falling in and out of love. Throughout the EPs seven tracks, he confronts his own vulnerability.

From his debut album, ‘Immortalisation’, in 2018, to the following year’s ‘Sleepwalker’, the ‘Upside Down’ EP and now ‘Emo Season’, Maz raps about the existential crisis that is adolescence (e.g. in the track ‘Hope’ he says I’ve been living with denial, to the point where I broke).

Thankfully, over time, rap’s tough-guy representation has slowed its dominance. Remember Jay Z’s tender ‘Song Cry’ in 2002? Or Kanye’s ‘Heartless’ in 2008? Kid Cudi’s 2009 ‘Soundtrack 2 My Life’ paved the way for Kendrick Lamar’s ‘u’. With Maz, the list grows. Maz also showcases a captivating live energy that earned him slots at iconic festivals such as Sziget and ESNS, and the award for the best live performance at the Luxembourg Music Awards in 2022, including live shows as a support act for Nicki Minaj, Juice WRLD, and Sofiane. Maz expresses a sharpened musical identity that’s, first and foremost, free.