Kwamé – Ms Mary Mack

KWAME returns to the forefront of the music industry as he releases, “MS MARY MACK“, the first single to be released from his anticipated project, “THE DIFFERENT KIDS.”

“MS MARY MACK” is written, performed and produced by Kwame’. “Ms Mary Mack is a song with heavy flow and slick wordplay. The song hook utilizes “Classic hood nursery rhymes / Double Dutch call outs”. The music is inspired by Juke Joint vibes over hard hip-hop drums,” mentions Kwamé .

Ms Mary Mack visuals were directed by Kwame’ and Jonathan Jacobs. Inspired by KWAMÉ’s classic video, “The Rhythm,” where Kwamé in all-white performs for a packed speakeasy-style club. Fast fwd in time, Kwamé seems to return to an empty Kit Kat Club. Still dressed in white with polka dot accents, Kwamé continues his music journey even if the crowd isn’t there anymore. Or is this right before the crowd shows up?

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It started as a lark. Kwamé was on the phone with DJ Tat Money and pulled up theme song to Diff’rent Strokes. As Kwamé isolated the different sounds, he realized he wanted to rap to the instrumentation. A trailblazer who has produced LL Cool J, Mary J. Blige, Christina Aguilera, Vivian Green, Will Smith and Missy Elliott, among others, Kwamé got the urge to rhyme again. It led to “Stroke Dif’Rent.”

“The way I felt making that song was the first time I felt absolutely free and clear since The Boy Genius,” Kwamé says referring to his landmark 1989 album. “I was just creating for creation’s sake. I looked up and I had a full record. When I put it out, it was the first time I had no reservations with letting people hear a song that I made.”

Kwamé got an abundance of positive feedback to the energetic, feel-good “Stroke Dif’Rent.” In fact, it was similar to the reaction he’d gotten when he posted an IG video of what would become “No Way Go Away,” an upbeat ode to reveling in positive energy. “It put a battery in my back,” Kwamé says. “It was cool having validation from people based on me as an artist as opposed to, ‘Check out this thing that I just produced.’”

Buoyed by that momentum, Kwamé returns with The Different Kids, a powerful, high-energy, and layered self-produced project that showcases several facets of the multi-hyphenate’s artistic personality. “The album title explains how I always felt as a person,” he explains. “I didn’t necessarily align with mainstream life. I’ve always felt different. Putting the Kids part of the title as plural, it’s a double thing. It speaks to the people who used to get into my music. I would refer to them as The Different Kids.”

Throughout The Different Kids, Kwamé blends witty braggadocio and captivating storytelling with precise, dexterous flows. He also weaves social commentary into his rewind-worthy rhymes. The intro to “The Kwame Show,” for instance, sounds as if it could be the theme song from a classic television sitcom. The song then flips into a kinetic beat with Kwamé rapping with a controlled poise about everything from his ageless appearance to the evolution of Black family structure.

On “Hello Anybody,” Kwamé wonders if he’s the only one who sees the shortcomings of modern society while also addressing his own contradictions. “Adulthood” takes a realistic look at marriage, about how men and women can drift apart over the years. “I wanted to address things that are important to me, but not make it preachy,” Kwamé says. “That’s the vibe of the whole album. I feel like I drop gems interwoven with the lyrics in different ways.”

Elsewhere, “Ms Mary Mack” showcases Kwamé flowing effortlessly over a spare, bouncy drum-driven beat, while he has guest vocalist Lady Tigra from L’Trimm speak to his community in a tongue-in-cheek manner on “Ole Skool Rapper.” Then, on “KWAME 2 KWAME” he imagines having a conversation with a younger version of himself. It all adds up to The Different Kids, an artistic tour de force from one of hip-hop’s best rapper-producers.

“I decided I was only going to rap over beats I wanted to rap over,” Kwamé says. “I’m not going to allow what’s ‘in style’ or ‘out of style,’ dictate what I do. I try to be as absolutely creative as I can possibly be without anybody telling me, ‘No. You can’t do that,’ but myself. That thought process is the soul of the album.”