Mavi drops new track “Doves”

Wyeth Collins

Mavi has shared the second single from his forthcoming sophomore LP. Laughing so Hard, It Hurts is due out October 14, and today’s track, “Doves,” is the record’s second offering, arriving two behind its lead single, “Baking Soda.”

On the new song, the North Carolina-born emcee and current Howard University neuroscience major gets cerebral, his mind-bending flow completely at ease over a Dylvinci beat that feels both tranquil and anxious, due to the dissidence between its rushed drum line and its relaxed, aqueous synths. “High as fuck, its close to consistent, my mental / I been drinkin’ under the table, I thought you quit fool,” he raps early on, in dialogue with himself. “I don’t think you know ‘bout reverence and ridicule / I don’t think you know bout theft as founding principle.”

Mavi dropped his stunning debut LP, Let the Sun Talk, in 2019 and spoke to The FADER’s Brandon Callender about its theme of Black liberation. Last year, he followed it up with the End of the Earth EP, and he’s since dropped a string of standalone singles.

Listen to “Doves” and check out the album art and tracklist for Laughing so Hard, It Hurts below.