After walking to the End of the Earth in introverted thought with last year’s breakthrough EP, MAVI’s “Baking Soda” – the first single from the rising Carolina rapper and neuroscience student’s forthcoming sophomore follow-up, Laughing So Hard It Hurts – is perhaps the sound of his rhyme and prose formally stepping off this world. Blown out bass drum effects and laser shots boom around the underlying woozy soul production by Monte Booker and Amarah, and it occupies a heady space that comes with being at a crossroads in your life. “I was up on my bread, so I bet some more / It got stacked and snatched rounded the checkerboard / I’m a king, but got less in this metaphor / Nothing but my knowledge left to flex.” Even from a view of Earth, MAVI still stays grounded.

Directed by: Brick

MAVI’s Laughing so Hard, it Hurts will be self-released October 14th.