By Alyana Vera, and Riley McShane, Contributors.

Meet Maassai

After 2020, we could all use a lesson on adapting to change (looking at you late-in-the-game mask adopters). Luckily, Brooklyn rapper Maassai's first full-length project With The Shifts is chock full of motivational mantras on how to stay fluid in the face of change and affirmations of your own ability to get through hard times. In our latest interview, we chat with Maassai about Grace Jones, double entendres, and self-perseverance.

Alyana: You’ve said previously that you've purposefully taken your time in terms of releasing a full-length album. How long did you work on With The Shifts before you felt like it was ready for the world?

Maassai: I would say about a year of just gathering my thoughts and taking my time with writing. That was a big thing with this project, I was trying to be super intentional about what I said and how I said it.

Alyana: You've said before that prompts help generate new ideas for you, with unsounded points of view based off of a list of words of feelings that are difficult to describe. Did With The Shifts emerge from this same practice?

Maassai: I would say a similar kind of practice. I had an idea of what I wanted to create a project around, like the themes that I wanted it to be about. I wanted it to be about changing and shifting because that was what I was going through in my life at the time. I recognize that throughout my life, that's always been a part of my process. There’s been a lot of changes since I was young. So I was like, wow, this is something that resonates with me.

Riley: The first time I came across you was actually from seeing you feature on a number of different projects with artists like Pink Siifu. I was curious about how you approach collaborating with other people, especially for this project.

Maassai: I love that about collaborating with people in general because it gives you new ideas and new things to work on. For the rap features I definitely went to them with a specific intention, like this is what the song is about, it's my vision for the song. Then I would leave it up to them to interpret it in whatever way they want to.

Alyana: You’ve said that “Writing is one thing that I feel in a lot of ways is super separate from this whole concept of music;” do you have a background in writing or poetry?

Maassai: Yeah, I definitely started writing poetry when I was like nine. And then I started rapping like after that. But I've always been super in love with words and communicating. I'm not trying to be like an astrology geek right now but I'm a Gemini and I resonate with the concept of being a communicator and thinking about how to communicate with different types of people. Since I was younger I started with poetry then I got into rapping, then I branched out into other forms of writing like playwriting and screen and film writing.

I went to a theater high school so I did a lot of playwriting there. Obviously, that was a very long time ago. And all of it is like, trash. But I do plan on incorporating that into my practice at some point in the near future.

Alyana: There's actually a lyric on "next chapter" where you talk about how a teacher told you that you were smart. Was this an English or Music teacher?

Maassai: I would say that I got that affirmation from a lot of teachers growing up. I went to a junior high school that was supposedly like a Gifted and Talented school where you have to take a test to get in, and all of the students were supposed to be on their A-game. So being a scholar was a thing growing up for a long time. When I got older I started to feel like that's a heavy burden for a lot of children. I don't think people talk about the smart kids and the pressure that they feel, or the fact that you always feel like you have to prove something, or you have to have it all together as a kid. I think sometimes your parents or the people around you might mistake you for being more mature. Or smarter than you actually are. And that can lead to a lot of issues.

Riley: Did you ever act when you were at the theater school? Or were you mostly interested in playwriting?

Maassai: No, I did act, I went for performance. And then when I got to 11th grade, I was like, “Hmm, let me try the behind the scenes version of this.”

Riley: Had you been performing as a rapper at that point?

Maassai: Yeah, I was. So when I was in middle school, that's when I was like, “Okay, I’mma start writing raps.” And when I got to high school, I dropped my first mixtape. I was probably like 15, the stuff is ridiculous now. But yeah, I've been rapping for a little while now.

Riley: Why do you think it was important for you to talk about these ideas of self affirmation or perseverance on your first full length?

Maassai: I wanted With The Shifts to be motivational. I haven't heard really motivational music in a while. I feel like it's really necessary at this time specifically to have affirmations out there for people if they're going through something rough, so they know that they're going to be okay, because they always have been. That was important to me, especially writing a lot of this over quarantine and in the midst of so many other types of shifts happening in the world and most people's personal lives.

Riley: When you think of motivational music, what are some examples that you think of?

Maassai: I'm thinking of music that is able to have you confront pains as well as trying to get you through the pain.

Alyana: Do you practice telling yourself affirmations?

Maassai: I definitely do. I have been slacking on it as of recently, and this is like a reminder that I need to get back on it. But one affirmation that I use is actually the opener to “breathe through it” on my collaborative project with J Words through the H31R moniker. I think it's super important to just set an intention for your day. It makes you feel good, you feel clear and focused on what you have to do.

Riley: How did you approach working with Dapo Davinci for the cover art?

Maassai: It definitely was a collaborative process, making the album cover and it was a beautiful process. We worked on it for a while, just kind of going back and forth exchanging ideas. Dapo DaVinci is like an amazing artist and super conceptual with his process. It’s With The Shifts so Dapo was thinking of the shift symbol and it being like an arrow, so what we ended up using was the shift symbol.

Alyana: I saw that you participated in an event with black beyond. How does Afro-futurism figure into your musical work?

Maassai: I think Afro-futurism is a big part of my art practice. Just like imagining what our futures could be as Black people is a big part of activism, just being able to actually say, “What is it that we want? What is it that we want to see?” So we can think about how to go about reaching those goals. That's what I love about the Afro-futurism movement, just imagining what we could be. I grew up watching a lot of fantasy slash sci-fi films, that interesting bridge between them, and I was like “Damn, this is super cool.”

Alyana: Could you give some examples?

Maassai: The same films that I watch I also like kind of hate on, but I'm honestly a hater for a lot of things that are mainstream. I would say like The Hunger Games, Divergent, this is what I feel like first gave me the inspiration. But there are so many better sci-fi films that are imagining what the future could be like, like Black Mirror for example. But yeah, always thinking about that in a Black context. Like what would that mean for us? What would the deal be with Black people?

Alyana: On “Grace Jones”, you often rap about being stuck in a cage or status quo. How do other people's expectations affect your creative process?

Maassai: If anything, because I'm not gonna go in and say it doesn't affect my process, because it does. But I think, for the most part, it affects it in a positive way, in a way that's just like: okay, it pushes me to grow, and challenge myself more to be better. And so that's cool. That's a little bit of ego. I feel like it's good in terms of a practice of any kind, just being able to get better. I think sometimes obviously it can feel like pressure, or it can feel like maybe you need to dumb yourself down. Will people understand you? But when it comes to those things, I try to quiet those voices because it's like, look: I am who I am. And this is what you want to get.

Alyana: On “Grace Jones” you rap about the icon herself, who challenged every box she was put into, whether in terms of gender or even musically. Do you see yourself as a part of this lineage of genre-defying Black women?

Maassai: Definitely, shout out to Grace Jones, I love Grace Jones, she’s a big inspiration and influence on me. Her ability to be who she is without, giving a shit about what anybody else has to say, I think that's so fye. Evoking her within the song I say “Redefine the model like u grace jones.” That's exactly what she did, she redefined what it meant to be a model not only literally but also just in terms of her being in the world and deciding to be who she is authentically, but also pushing the mold of what's conventional and pushing the mold of what's the norm. And so the big idea on that song is just pushing boundaries to create a positive shift.

Alyana: Yeah, I like that. I definitely noticed the double entendre that you used with “model”. I know that you taught a little workshop on double entendres some time ago. 

Riley: A really fantastic literary device. 

Maassai: Yeah, I love that device. 

Riley: I was curious, in the same interview that Alyana mentioned earlier, you talked about feeling a sense of responsibility as opposed to pressure in having a message to send with your music. Now that the project has come out and it’s being received, have any of your ideas about that responsibility changed? Has this platform grown or risen or changed shape? 

Maassai: Yeah, it definitely hasn't changed. I still feel that responsibility. I hope I don't change that responsibility. I'm gonna give myself space to do whatever I want. But I definitely want to be putting things into the world that mean something. I want to be able to use my voice to create conversations, to open up conversations.

Riley:  I think I would say you've accomplished that.

Maassai: Yeah, thank you. In my opinion, for sure. 

Alyana: In that interview you also said that quarantine has “helped people learn what they like, without the influence of other people.” Do you think that same thing happened for you when you were writing With The Shifts?

Maassai: I think so. At that time period, when I was writing most of the projects, the first song that I wrote was “next chapter”, which is the first song. That was actually done before quarantine started, but a lot of the other stuff was written during quarantine. And I was just like, in a space with myself, just definitely channeled into the writing. I also was writing most of the lyrics for the H31R project at the same time, so I was just super in my own bag.

Alyana: You were on your own frequency.

Maassai: Yeah, exactly. 

Riley: My only other question is an obvious one. I'm just curious about what you have planned for 2021?

Maassai: I'm definitely dipping into some of the other disciplines and facets of art. Visuals for sure. Lots of that and performances on live streams. I really want to get back into it because I feel like before quarantine, I would have considered myself the “performing artist.” I had hardly any music out and there were certain songs that you wouldn't hear unless you came to the live show. So I definitely miss that experience of being able to convey it the moment. So I'm gonna try some things out like that.

Alyana: I'm glad that you brought up branching into visual art because I wanted to ask you about the teaser for With The Shifts that you posted on YouTube. It has “brand new story (interlude)” playing over it, and in the song someone is saying, “it's not for you.” A similar sentiment is later echoed on “the social climates” when you rap, “You ain't who I do it for.” Who is your intended audience on With The Shifts? Is it yourself?

Maassai: I think my intended audience is a lot of different people at the same time, maybe. I think for that song specifically, it mentioned white critics. The woman who is speaking, she's an elder in my community, and she is speaking about Toni Morrison. She’s talking about this white critic who is trying to criticize her work and she's just like, “This isn't even for you! So what gives you the right to critique me in this way?” And I took that as a general inspiration, not only when it comes to a piece of art that I'm creating, but just in general, like the idea of not allowing anyone to critique things that aren't intended for them.

Alyana: Are you thinking about specific critics? 

Maassai: I mean, I probably am thinking about specific critics. There have been a couple of people who have written things that I'm just like, “Okay, interesting.” Not even necessarily about me, but maybe about my peers and just kind of pushing the boundary of someone’s creative thoughts. I don't know, just judging people’s art is an interesting concept.

Alyana: On “the social climates” you say “Oh, the only definite is change / I know it's the only thing that stay the same.” How long did it take you to come to this realization and how has it changed how you view changes or “shifts”?

Maassai: Well, I actually grew up listening to a lot of India.Arie, and she has this song where she’s continuously saying, “the only thing constant in the world is change.” She's saying that throughout one of her albums. So I think that might have been the first time that I was like, “Oh, wow.” That was just kind of like a little shout out to her. But also, I think it definitely makes me view change as probably the only expectation that you should have, because it's definitely going to happen. We're changing all the time. We're getting older every second, more information every second, so it's inevitable. And not to be afraid of it.

Alyana: Is there anything that we didn't ask you that you want mentioned in the interview?

Maassai: The only thing that I would say is that all of the producers on my project [Laron, Contour, Nelson Bandela] as well as features [Akai Solo, Kumbaya]. They are all amazing artists of their own, and vocalists as well.They have just amazing music, so shout out to them.