What You Expect Sits Down With MOSA
Boston, Massachusetts is known musically for giving us groups such as New Edition, Aerosmith, and New Kids On The Block, among others. However, there has been a noticeable lack of hip-hop coming out of the city as of late.
An artist determined to change that is MOSA (or Heartbreak MOSA). The Bostonian MC was discovered, and later signed to Jas Prince and his Young Empire Music Group. MOSA sat down to talk about being signed to Jas Prince, releasing his project Heartbreak University, working with Mike Dean, and more.
How are you?
I’m good man, we just dropped a project Heartbreak University, shoutout to you for having me on here man.
So your project Heartbreak University is out now, how has the reception been?
It’s been really good. There’s been a lot of love from vets in the game, to new people in the game, really from everybody. Parent, friends, kids, everybody has really been liking it, it means a lot to me.
The album features production from Mike Dean, who has produced for Kanye, Tupac, Jay-Z, The Weeknd, and other great artists, how did that collaboration come & how was it like working with such a production legend?
Man, so we were in the studio, and we were just listening to the album, probably around June. It came to the last song “Stranger Things”, and Jas (Prince) talked about getting Mike Dean to mix & master that one specific song. We sent it to him, and we called him the same night, and he said he wanted to do the whole thing, so I was like even better. I gave him the project, and got on the phone with him and he gave me some words.
What was that conversation like, was there any advice he gave you?
Just some reassurance as to what we’re bringing to the table. He was just letting me know how different the sound is. He said it reminded him of a certain artist I didn’t want to bring up (laughs), but it didn’t because of how it was coming in differently, so I was like dope. It was really eye opening to me, and motivating working with him. Even him working on everyone else’s stuff. I was at the bottom of the list, so I had to wait some time, but it was worth it.
Now you are signed to Jas Prince’s Young Empire Music Group imprint. How’d that come about?
My manager Adrian Blackman, he found me on Instagram like 2017/2018, reached out to me, and we linked up early 2019. I flew out to Houston he introduced me to Jas, that’s his first cousin, they grew up together. That’s how I got plugged up with Jas. I lived in LA for a couple months in Jas’ guest house. He didn’t really know me too well. As time went on he got to know me better, I was just playing music for him, I was in the studio everyday. He saw how I was working everyday, and the time came and he wanted to sign me. That was the whole reason why I was out there, I was trying to get signed to him. It was a special thing for all of us. Jas has taught me a lot of things. The whole Rap-A-Lot, YMG, A-Team, they taught me just how to move as a young man nowadays. They just wanna see me progress, and I just wanna see them progress, so it’s just a lot of love.
To people who don’t know you, how would you describe your music, and this album?
I like rapping a lot, I’m a real rapper, that’s how I started off. I love R&B, that’s how I present myself, like an R&B artist. I feel like the music I make is very relatable. It’s always a good feeling at the end of the day listening to it, regardless of what type of song it is, whether it’s a sad song or a turnt up song. You’re gonna listen to the record, and you’re going to feel good about it, you’re gonna feel good about yourself.
What influences your songwriting?
When I listen to an artist, and I’m really invested into an artist, it has to be about character as well. You gotta mean what you say, move how you say you move. Anything that’s going to motivate me, is going to be a positive push. Even if something negative is motivating me, I still use it as an influential tool for me to write the music out.
Do you have any visuals on the way?
We’re shooting a visual for “Drip on the Floor”, we’re definitely going to get four or five visuals out for this project.
What are your goals for this year, and what’s next for you?
We’re talking about putting the deluxe out to Heartbreak University, but we might just make it a whole other project. We’ve just been stacking up a lot of music. I would just say keep doing what we’re doing. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it, we just gotta work harder & smarter.
You can connect with MOSA @heartbreakmosa on Instagram, and stream Heartbreak University out now on all streaming platforms.
