development she sometimes inherited, but other times self-initiated under her years at Asylum/Atlantic. “I’m so much more present now, I had to reconnect with everything and I just wanted to do this concept, really toying with my ‘partner’s’ ex dynamic and storytelling.” ‘In The Club’ places Mahalia on new ground, a footing she was placed into by her partner also. Interpolating the 50 Cent’s ‘In Da Club’, and half-singing, half-rapping, Mahalia’s fuller and extended runs demonstrate her robust offering in 2022 whilst eloquently conveying her rap alter-ego. “I’m really proud of that song,” she notes. Mahalia additionally leans into other sides of R&B’s expansive ecosystem, this time infusing a smokey version of neo-soul, on ‘Letter To Your N(ex)t’ the EP’s closer. Heavily conversational in her approach, Mahalia toys with her tone here, making the song feel as close to a direct response to someone as possible. ‘Letter To Your N(ex)t’ centres the woman, and across a minimalist piano, Mahalia’s tranquil, pure and passionate execution are showcased to listeners with ease. Armed again with the likes of JD Reid, Max Pope and Benjamin Hart — who formed a quintessential part of Letter To Your Ex — Mahalia is in the final stages of completing her sophomore album determined to again spark more conversations. Aptly titled IRL, Mahalia is particularly incessant on doubling down on vulnerability, internal reflection, and a desire to feel, in the realms of love specifically as demonstrated on her last project. “I feel like there’s even more personality on IRL. I want people to see me how I see myself.” On the album's title track, she embodies a serene approach to realism atop a crisp meld of dainty guitar riffs and revitalised piano-led soundscapes. “Don’t get me wrong now this was never easy, I remember when I was 13 with a big dream,” Mahalia chants. Ruminating on her insecurities about moving to London, embracing music wholeheartedly and sacrificing her childhood, she’s empowering not only herself, but other musicians. “I’m moving into womanhood now, and that means being more vulnerable, learning, reflecting. Embracing those fears and desires and what they really meant,” she says of the title-track. “This is me being confident in myself, but also in those that may have ignored me on the way up, or those times that didn’t quite work out. I’m here now and only growing.” Mahalia continues to double down on both her confidence and enumeration with self-love at this juncture on ‘In My Bag’, which again, prioritises talking to herself and her needs and wants. “Please don’t interrupt,” she says before boosting her own ego. The need for reassurance comes from doubt that crept in across the pandemic on both Mahalia’s stature as one of the leading renaissance women in R&B, both globally and on domestic soil. “I was speaking to my therapist actually, I was being honest for the first time in a long while,” she admits. “There’s always a worry that you will not be credible or popular anymore, and I think that’s a worry on a lot of artists' minds.” Stemming from her years of being what she notes as an ‘outsider’ in school, this doubt has followed her in music. The break across the pandemic gave way to these doubts again as Mahalia battled through the recording process of her second-LP. Channelling these emotions into bonafide empowerment anthems, she fights back acknowledging her abilities and prowess across her 10-year formalised career. “You could be making moves, instead of talking ‘bout it,” she sings-raps across the song's chorus. Closely inspired by Lupe Fiasco’s approach to rap — she acknowledges his seamless ‘swings’ in flow — as well as the neo-soul intentional, proclamation-focused archetypes led