You Made A Big Mistake

You Made A Big Mistake

The pandemic was a prolonged period of reflection and introspection for many artists, where the days and weeks seemed to meld into one big blur. But LAVI$H can pinpoint his life-changing epiphany to a specific night: November 19, 2020. Until that point, the Zambia-born, Winnipeg-bred performer was a self-described “Auto-Tune rapper” trying to parlay his regional success in the Prairies into next-level stardom in his new home base of Toronto. And on that fateful late-autumn evening, LAVI$H realized his future lay in the past. “Me and my producer Trizz were watching Verzuz on Instagram,” he explains to Apple Music, “and it was the Jeezy/Gucci Mane episode. Their music still translates today—people still appreciate it, even though it's from so long ago. And that really defined the idea of longevity and sustainability and timelessness for me. So from there, we were just like, ‘Why don't we try making music that will last a very long time?’” So while the music heard on this EP technically isn’t the first that LAVI$H has released, for him, it’s his proper debut—the moment where this would-be MC embraces his real destiny as an R&B raconteur. True to his timeless intent, the seven songs here savvily weave through different eras, encompassing ’60s-soul slow dances (“Always You”), ’90s-neo-soul seducers (“World in My Hands”), and modern OVO vibes (“We Make Sense”) that betray the tutelage of Drake’s right-hand man, Chubbs. But these stripped-down productions also showcase a fearless theatricality that sees LAVI$H push to the extremes of his vocal range, with spotlight-seizing ballads like “Seventeen” and “Piano Man” suggesting an R&B Freddie Mercury. With this EP, LAVI$H hasn’t just abandoned Auto-Tune, he seems to be actively rebelling against it, forsaking smoothed-out perfection in favor of raw charisma. Here’s his track-by-track guide to finding his new voice. “World in My Hands” “I have a really good woman, and she's always showing me off to her friends, because I'm the artist, and I'm this and that...so I was like, why don't I give her a song for both of us, where we can both boast and brag about us, but also put it in a space where it could translate and be relatable to anybody else.” “Big Mistake” “Coming up as a Black minority rapper in Winnipeg, Manitoba—a city where there's a white majority—was tough. I wrote this song because I've been through a lot in Winnipeg, and it still affects me to this day. So I wanted to write a song where the lyrics embody a woman, but the song is really about the city. So when you listen to the song, I'm talking about the city, but people won't know that unless I tell them.” “Always You” “Trizz is the mastermind behind my sound, really. He put me onto the olden-days type of records, like ‘Me and Mrs. Jones’ by Billy Paul, and Otis Redding. But the song that really did it for me was 'Unchained Melody' by The Righteous Brothers. I've always wanted to make a song where it sounds like doo-wop, but a newer version with the production on another level. So this song was kind of our way to that space.” “We Make Sense” “I was with somebody before, and then I'd see them out with somebody else [after we broke up], and they're doing the same things we did, and saying the same 'I love you's. And it's just crazy to me, because that was once us, and now you're doing this whole same thing with somebody else. That's life, but it still baffles me!” “Seventeen” “This is about one of my exes I had when I was younger. I write love songs, I'm sorry! It's a heartbreak song, but it's also sort of a remembrance of the memories, because things happened with her life and now she's in jail for 10 years. So it's a ‘I hope she hears this in jail’ type of song. I made this right after watching Bohemian Rhapsody—that one scene where he does the song onstage [at Live Aid]. I wanted to recreate the feeling that I felt watching that movie in my bedroom on the TV.” “Piano Man” “‘Piano Man’ is a dedication to my actual piano man—my keys player, Alec Switzman. We came up together in Toronto. He's amazing. We party, we go out, but at the end of the night, when it's time to work, those people we were partying with only ever want to come out for the celebration part of the night, and the one person who’s always there for me is Alec. He's there for the parties, but he’s always there for the work, too. I’m letting the world know that Alec is not just one of my producers, this is somebody that I'm truly thankful for—this guy helped build and mold the artist I am today.” “Our Chapter” “This is just a random story I wanted to write. It's also paying homage to Otis Redding and Sam Cooke, and that raspy kind of voice. We're trying to create that space that they lived in, but do it our way.”

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