At the end of September, Mahalia and AJ Tracey released their collaboration track “Roadside.” The track quickly rose to be well-loved, and now Mahalia has returned once again to show it more love and deliver an acoustic version of the song. In the stripped down version, Mahalia lets her vocals shine as she sings about heartbreak:
Damn, I’m really hurtin’, boy, you got me hurtin’/ I feel it in my chest, yeah, I feel it in my chest and it’s burnin’, got me thinkin’, “Is it really worth it?” No/ What did I do to make you do me like that? So confused, feel like a fool, no
I never knew it would be you to leave me in the blue but I guess it’s too, too bad/ What a shame, I never saw you like that, didn’t see it comin’, but it happened real fast/
It’s been a couple of years since Mahalia liberated her sophomore studio LP LOVE AND COMPROMISE, which saw 13 tracks and additional features from Burna Boy, Terrace Martin, Hamzaa, Lucky Daye, and Ella Mai. She shared Isolation Tapes last year, which came with three unreleased cuts for fans to enjoy. More recently, the Leicestershire talent delivered a couple of new singles, “Jealous” with Rico Nasty and “Whenever You’re Ready,” giving us hope that a new body of work is arriving sooner than later.
In a conversation from earlier this year, Mahalia shared a bit of her perspective on her artistry. “I approach music with the expectation of making greatness,” she said. “Once someone told me that they came into the studio every day with the mindset of ‘I want to make excellence today,’ and that stuck with me. I love the feeling of creating excellence, no matter where I am or what the expectations are.”
Be sure to press play on Mahalia’s brand new acoustic performance of “Roadside” down below.