MariBased1 has been on our radar for a while now, and the inner-city Seattle rapper’s latest track, ‘Mystery Girl’, seems set to continue in the success trend as his other releases, ‘Bouncin’, and ‘Score’n’.
With a style he’s coined as “The Northern Flow”, MariBased1’s music is echo-drenched and laid back, unlike any other. ‘Mystery Girl’ features his now signature chilled flow, planted firmly on top of a piano-and-synth bounce. He subtly switches up, with phrasings that catch you unawares. Unlike ‘Score’n’, and ‘Bouncin’, ‘Mystery Girl’ is less of a bragging song, and instead sets its focus on telling the story of a strong, resilient, independent young woman. He shares his utter awe of her, and with each verse you feel his vocal energy grow, as he catalogues her struggles, and her triumphs.
Directed by Rob Fitzgerald, the music video for ‘Mystery Girl’ is set up as a dual narrative, with a before-and-after Cinderella story. We see the life the Mystery Girl has left behind, as well as that which she’s build up for herself since then. Most of the clip is set in her high riser apartment, which overlooks Seattle, and in all these scenes, she leaves you in no confusion as to her success, as she lays back with a glass of whine in her hand, silhouetted against the night sky.
Her mind however cannot help but wander back to the earlier days, and we see scenes of her arguing with her boyfriend, played by Seattle Hip hop artist and head of BJ&J Entertainment, Mista Benjamin. She looks at herself in the mirror and realises she’s better than that, and walks out the door, finally, this time for good. History will never repeat itself, so far as she’s concerned.
There’s a nice visual callback at the end of the clip to Michael Jackson’s video for ‘Billie Jean’, itself a song about another mysterious woman.
You can find MariBased1 on Twitter. Watch the video for ‘Mystery Girl’ below.
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