New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Mura Masa has today dropped brand new single 'bbycakes' with Lil Uzi Vert,
PinkPantheress and Shygirl. Premiering as
Radio 1's Hottest Record in The World, 'bbycakes' further introduces the dazzling world of Mura Masa's third studio album, which he teased in surprise style just before Christmas with '2gether'. Also nominated for his fourth Grammy Award this year, catch Mura Masa on tour with a global run of dates announced thus far below, whilst his NTS residency continues this month airing exclusive new music...
Playful, escapist and soon-to-be inescapable, 'bbycakes' is the sound of Mura Masa taking his audience into a new era. Featuring collaborators Shygirl,
PinkPantheress (Alex produced her smash hit 'Just For Me') and colliding the
3 Of A Kind garage classic with the US rap world of Lil Uzi Vert, 'bbycakes' is Mura Masa screwing with the familiar and looking towards the future of pop.
Beneath its hyperreal surface, 'bbycakes' signals a deeper period of experimentation for Mura Masa - in part, by going back to his roots. This was the first track Alex spontaneously started work on after his European tour in support of second album 'R.Y.C' was curtailed by lockdown. Whilst that project's world of imagined memories, raw emotional exploration and nostalgia-as-a-crutch might seem timely, Mura Masa went in the opposite direction: connecting the dots between his genre-shaping, Soundcloud origin story, and electronic music as it exploded on platforms like Tiktok to create songs that might soundtrack life ahead. The 'bbycakes' sample also struck a chord because it timestamps an early 00s period of excitement about the future, before "pre-technology cynicism". Mura Masa sees it as "[a time] where all these new ideas were exciting and we were like 'we're living in the future'. And now we actually are and it's really boring." 'bbycakes' - and Mura Masa's upcoming third album - further explores these themes of what the future could have been, taking its guests (and the listener) out of their comfort zone and back into the excitement of the unknown.
Mura Masa is a platinum-selling, Grammy-Award-winning (and 4 x nominated) artist, producer and curator who resists simple categorisation. His debut, self-titled album was released in 2017 to widespread acclaim, featuring some of the world's biggest artists collaborating with a then-Guernsey-based teen on his own, thrilling take on what modern pop music should sound like. Having surpassed 2 billion streams, been nominated for an Ivor and headlined shows from
Alexandra Palace and Warehouse Project to festivals around the world, 2020's follow up, 'R.Y.C', was another bold reinvention in sound and style from Mura Masa. Featuring the likes of slowthai, Tirzah and Georgia, Alex won his first NME Award just as the pandemic struck, before collaborating with the likes of Clairo,
Erika de Casier and 'bbycakes' guest
PinkPantheress as he began work on new music. A young artist determined to make a difference - Alex also launched his 3T training scheme in 2020, designed to provide training and opportunity for black women in the touring and live sector - Mura Masa's mission is to reflect a period of pop culture he is, by this stage, without doubt also helping to define.
Mura Masa Tour Dates
30 Apr 22 - Warm Up Festival, Benidorm
27 May 22 - Core Festival, Brussels
03 Jun 22 - Love Saves The Day, Bristol
04 Jun 22 - AVA Festival, Belfast
09 Jun 22 - NOS Primavera Sound, Porto
12 Jun 22 - Best Kept Secret Festival, The Netherlands
09 Jul 22 - Mad Cool Festival, Madrid
20 Jul 22 - Metro City, Perth
22 Jul 22 - The Forum Theatre, Melbourne
23 Jul 22 - Enmore Theatre, Sydney
Praise for 'R.Y.C'
"A bruising scrapbook for Britain's maligned and confused…it's a whole lot of fun, too" NME *****
"Mura Masa has built his career so far on a special kind of alchemy, coaxing the best out of - and melding together - a dizzying array of collaborators without ever losing the thread of his own distinct musical identity." Mixmag
"You wouldn't have blamed him for playing it safe…curveball after curveball" The Times ****
"Nothing is beyond possibility in the world of Mura Masa" Wonderland
"Mura Masa has set the bar for decades ahead" Dork *****
"Astonishingly talented" GQ.
