A multi-faceted artist, intellectual, and activist, MAVI first arrived on the scene in 2019 with the release of his debut album Let The Sun Talk, making a name for himself for his evocative lyricism and wavy instrumentals. He followed that effort up with the inspired Laughing so Hard, it Hurts in 2022, a poetic outing that explored the cyclical nature of grief and joy. After a three-year hiatus, he made his long-awaited return with the aforementioned shadowbox in 2024. The album earned the #4 ranking on Rolling Stone's Best Hip-Hop Albums of 2024 list and saw MAVI perform on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert's Late Show Me Music series and Genius Open Mic with renditions of "the giver" (prod. Beach Noise), which has independently amassed 10 million streams in just eight months.