Papa Mbye’s latest EP came out of a trip to Senegal and The Gambia, the latter of which is the country where he was born. While there for a family member’s funeral, he experienced a layer of grief common to the immigrant experience. A certain sadness for roads not traveled and paths not taken. He went to his origins looking for answers, but came back with more questions. If he never moved, would he still be making art? Was trying to be an artist as an immigrant in America wasting a precious opportunity? 

“I ended up flipping around that confusion and guilt into a conviction that I should be telling these stories, I wanted to make something for young immigrants who have all this baggage they’re trying to work through.”

After Papa returned to Minneapolis, he channeled that dissonance into an experimental sound that never settles in one box long enough to call any one genre home. Named after the address of his uncle’s house in Senegal, PARCELLES 16 is grandiose in its sonic ambition, intricately threading bits of hip hop, alt-rock, soul, electronic and new age African music. Yet it’s grounded in Papa’s raw and introspective songwriting, which is sweet to the ears but tugs on the heartstrings.

“One of my biggest fears was putting myself out there and being vulnerable, so on this I decided to lean into that fear and strip everything down to only what’s necessary.”