A Conversation with MaZz: The Up and Coming Kent Vocalist On The Rise
The 19-year-old singer-songwriter talks about her new EP, career beginnings and much more.
MaZz (born Marianne Ngassa) is a rising musical sensation hailing from Kent, England. Partnered with her collective escape plan/esc they have left their mark on the UK hip-hop scene in a short span of time.
We caught up with MaZz to discuss her latest project, Isolation.
The Culture Crypt: Where does your creative journey start?
MaZz: "My inspiration to start doing music that has to go to my friend and producer vbw. She inspired me to start creating music by working with me, as she produced songs we started writing together. phil who is also in the group esc with me, also helped me to start doing music. He produced my first single “Sure”. After I released “Sure”, I followed it up with my first EP, M State.1.”
What artists have influenced you the most musically?
“If we’re talking about my musical inspirations that would have to be artists like Amy Winehouse, Erykah Badu, Jorja Smith, Lily Allen and many more. I am always inspired by the artists that work alongside me in the underground scene as well. I have always been very musical and used to do musical theatre. It wasn’t until about two years ago that I thought about writing and performing my own music.“
How did you get involved with your collective escape plan?
"I was asked to join a collective called escape plan (esc) about a year and a half ago now. This has had a massive impact on my work rate and inspired me to work even harder at music. It's allowed me to collaborate with all of the members; Cmillano, kwes e, phil, Xero, Lauzza and 4M.”
What would you recommend fans and new listeners to check out?
In terms of my releases that I would like to draw people to listen to, my most recent release is Isolation. Isolation is something I’m very proud of and was all produced by vbw and written in isolation. A favourite of mine is an EP that I made in collaboration with phil called Overcast. He produced it all it has some of my favourite songs on there like “dissociate.” and “wuu2?”, they’re all great though.”
Stream MaZz and phil’s Overcast below.
