MARCH 2010 ONLINE EDITORIALS

Mavrik - So City

album cover

By Erik Myers

This Milwaukee native hadn’t been kicking around Fort Collins for too long before crossing paths with local producer Derek Vincent Smith – years before the mastermind’s Pretty Lights project took off. Smith produced Mavrik’s promo EP Haulin and helped the rapper land an opening slot for the Ying Yang Twins’ Aggie show in 2007.
The elusive rapper has been chillin’ in town ever since, constructing albums with Keyman Entertainment. His third record with them, the seventeen-track So City, is stocked with hooks and a whole lot of swagger.
The chintzy club-bred beats aren’t impressive on their own, but Mavrik’s versatile flow keeps them in the background where they belong. But the production on the title track “So City” is a true exception: A low-riding synth line sets Mavrik up perfectly as he rhymes about the life of the hustler, a favorite subject.
The aforementioned versatility of Mavrik is clearly his strongest suit. He shifts gears throughout “Ukno,” hoisting together sweltering R&B ebullience with his tight hungry vocal rhythm. One doesn’t even mind when the auto-tune chorus pops up.
The anger comes out on “What’s It Gonna Be,” where Q and Mavrik trade off a fierce back-and-forth: “Ain’t nothing gonna stop me, unless a nigga drop me, so I’ma keep hauling till ya haters come and get me.”
Though his tracks here rarely rise past similar tales, his vocals add a raw fresh edge to the same old same old.
myspace.com/mav6000