Mahalia is back — and she brought Rico Nasty along with her. The British singer has teamed up with the Maryland rapper for her new single “Jealous,” which is accompanied by a music video. Watch it below.
Over a bouncy production, helmed by Cadenza and Harry Edwards, Mahalia unapologetically confronts her naysayers. “Hmm, I’m going crazy / Think you know me but you never made me Hmm, cannot play me / I’ve been bad from when I was a baby,” she sings on the catchy chorus.
Nasty comes in on the third verse with, “I got ’em jealous, I can’t help it, no, it’s not my fault / You could do better, so do better, go and prove me wrong.”
Mahalia shared the story behind creating her new track via a press statement. “I made ‘Jealous’ on a sunny day at the end of summer last year. I was sat in the studio with Cadenza and Miraa May getting some stuff off my chest from the past few weeks,” she explained.
“‘Jealous’ was born pretty fast after chatting. It was a weird time… I was dealing with friends being super unsupportive about decisions I was making and I was struggling with navigating that. I’m really proud and excited about what came out in this song and I hope people love it in the same way we did when we wrote it. Rico Nasty is a badass and one of my favorite artists so getting her to feature was a huge moment for me!”
The supporting visual for “Jealous” was directed by Melody Maker and was inspired by the cult classic film, Belly. “Working with Mahalia to create ‘Jealous’ encompassed so many exciting and rewarding challenges for me,” Maker said. “I aimed to visually reference Belly, a film that had always stuck with me from my youth, with strong washes of color and powerful contrasting production design.”
“Jealous” is Mahalia’s first single of 2021 and follows her “BRB (Remix)” with Pink Sweat$. The solo version of the song appeared on her Isolation Tapes EP, which dropped last summer. In 2019, she released her debut album, Love and Compromise, which was among Rated R&B’s Best R&B Albums list of that year.
Check out “Jealous” by Mahalia featuring Rico Nasty below.