"Feisty little brown girl / Raised in Brixton town girl / Supposed to be some ghetto chick / Making all this urban music . . . " And just like that, from the opening lines, MPHO (pronounced Mmm'po) gets me everytime with her single Box N Locks. The South African singer, raised in Britain rides a sunny synth riff borrowed from a 1980's Martha and the Muffins track Echo Beach in her quest to break out of other people's assumptions about what kind of music this "feisty little brown girl" should be making. Instead of an R&B vibe, MPHO's song - a biting indictment of industry expectations - sounds like a dancey summer breeze but has the edge of a rebellious teen especially on the chorus "Sorry but I didn't know / That I fit in the box / And all the locks are supposed to be unbreakable." If you believe that apology, you're not paying attention to the sass which - coupled with that haunting riff - makes this a track I find myself playing over and over again. A perfect summer song.
Also, as a bonus, I suggest checking MPHO's cover for Kate Bush's Running Up That Hill (the original being one of my all time favorite songs, the cover by Placebo being a worthy cover, but MPHO refashions it as a moving ballad).
You need to become a music journalist like now.
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