Heat Up feat. Laìz

Producer and composer Mop Mop teams up with Brazilian hip hop energy and voice Laìz, on “Heat Up”, featuring Laiz’s old skool stylings and Portuguese rhymes riding on top of Mop Mop’s hand clap grooves and crunchy Outkast beats.
The song features Fanni Zahár on flute and Sebastian Gieck on bass and provides some sense of Mop Mop’s new musical direction; and Laìz’s continuing ability to thrive outside of the hip hop mainstream. It also features an instrumental version, giving further credence and clarity to Mop Mop’s ‘dope’ beats.

It’s exactly 20 years since Mop Mop’s “The 11th Pill” turned up on our turntables, a gorgeous slice of Italian made, jazz fusion that blossomed in the era when West London’s broken beat was in the ascendancy. Since Andrea Benini’s breakout, he has released regularly on Agogo Records yet his recent releases have been sparse. “In the past few years I just took time for me and people around me. I’ve moved back to Italy after sixteen years of Berlin. I went back to my hometown, Cesena to build my own production studios in a big factory with other artists”. Long players “Isle of Magic” (2013) and “Lunar Love” (2016) catapulted Mop Mop to wider audiences helped with ongoing DJ support from the likes of Gilles Peterson, Toshio Matsuura and Michael Ruetten.

Andrea first heard Laìz’s flow from her debut album “Ela Partiu” (2024), much inspired by Tim Maia and also on Agogo Records. He quickly requested a collaboration and in just a few weeks, Laìz packed her bags and landed in Cesena to record her vocal take. “The beats you hear in Heat Up are made by using some of my analog drum machines (I am a collector). I’ve used a very old Soviet drum synthesizer called Elsita which I’ve synchronized with a German drum machine called MFB Tanzbär and the Vermona DRM1. On top of that you can hear some organic Clap and the original Simmons Clap Trap from the early 80´s”.

Buckle up, this is a brand new trip for Mop Mop. Don’t expect any specific genre stops en route. As ever, it’s all about groove. And all the better for it.

——————————

Andrea Benini – drum beat , percussions , keyboards , effects
Sebastian Gieck – bass
Fanni Zahár – flute
Emanuele Para – additional keyboards
Laís de Mello Barbero – vocals

mixed by Andrea Benini and Emanuele Para at Cristalline Studio – Cesena, Italy. mastered by Kelly Hibbert