Full disclosure: Papa Mbye bought me a chicken sandwich at Mortimer’s.
In my defense—and in defense of the integrity of Picked to Click—he picked up the tab without my knowing. And yes, this was before he knew that he’d won, or even that we were bringing the poll back. Guess he’s just a generous guy.
A humble one too, and not in a false, show-offy way.
“I started making music and learning how to make music at the same time,” he tells me between bites of a club sandwich, a multicolored knit hat atop his head. “I saw all these crazy musicians, I was like, ‘Damn, I don't know how to do this shit.’ But then I felt affirmed because they respected what I did.”
The 25-year-old’s latest project, PARCELLES 16, balances some irreconcilable musical contrasts. It’s experimental and melodic, smooth and craggy, DIY and difficult. Marked by Mbye’s self-taught guitar work, it recalls at times the instrumental murkiness yet emotional clarity of D’Angelo, at others the fluidity of West African guitar pop. Rarely does a track finish where it began.
This project was more than two years in the making, and Mbye sums up the delay in two words: imposter syndrome.
Just four years ago, Mbye’s energies went into visual arts. He designed flyers for shows he was throwing with Bob Kabeya of Miloe and Julian Green, who now runs The Current’s Carbon Sound. But then Mbye started goofing in the studio with producer Zak Khan and Christian Johnson, aka Bloomington rapper FruitPunchLoverBoy.
And then… he wasn’t goofing. He got an Albleton and began creating his own sound. The well-received 2021 EP, MANG FI soon had him headlining the First Avenue Mainroom. Sounds fun, right?
“I was discouraged,” Mbye says. “All of a sudden everybody likes you and I’m like, ‘I'm not that fucking good. I don't know what I'm doing.' But then I realized not knowing what I'm doing is probably the best part about my music. It gives you these unexpected results—something new, you know?”
Getting out of the country helped Mbye refocus. He made “weird ambient music” for a few months in Italy.
“I needed to prove to myself that I could survive in another country without anybody’s help,” he says. “I’m kind of clumsy and I'm kind of disorganized. So I thought, ‘If I come back alive, I'll be good.’”
He next visited his family in Senegal, where Mbye was born, and where he someday hopes to return—or at least put on a big show. (“They think I’m famous,” he jokes about the relatives who learned about his music on social media.) PARCELLES 16 is named for his uncle’s address in Dakar. The placid tone of the closing track, “SENEGAMBIA,” brings it all back home.
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