Imagine sitting in the arena of your favorite hometown team and suddenly your voice is pumped through the loudspeakers for all to cheer.
Not the voice of you screaming along with other fans cheering your team.
No. It’s your voice on a track that gets the crowd pumped up and players are rapping along with.
That’s what rapper Mayzin experienced as he sat in the Chase Center in San Francisco and cheered on his hometown Golden State Warriors.
The Oakland native is the first-ever musician to sign a recording contract with a sports team, the Golden State Warriors’ entertainment division Golden State Entertainment (GSE), and his song “Season,” was the team’s anthem for the 2022-23 season.
But hearing his voice wasn’t the biggest surprise when he went to watch the Warriors that day.
“The biggest thing was when I saw my face on the Chase Center,” Mayzin told me during our interview.
It’s a major milestone for the 28-year-old artist who started in the industry over 14 years ago, yet he didn’t even tell his mother he was rapping until 2015.
What’s even more ironic is that his mother was in the industry before him as the San Diego native was a backup singer for Oakland legend MC Hammer.
Music was obviously in his blood, but the talent didn’t manifest immediately. Instead, Mayzin’s athletic talents were at the forefront of his life early on.
He was a three-sport athlete competing in football, basketball and track, the latter two of which he excelled in. Mayzin was a talented triple-jumper until he suffered an ankle injury during the finals of the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Championships that ultimately resulted in his college scholarship being rescinded.
Disappointed but not giving up, he turned his attention to basketball and played semi-pro ball overseas in Italy for a few years before joining the Air Force, where he served for six years.
Seeing the world is an incredible experience for someone so young. But internally, his musical roots kept calling. They were always present but just took a little extra time to blossom.
As a young teen, Mayzin wrote his first song. It was a moment that signaled to him that music would always be in his future.
“When I wrote my first song at the age of 13 or 14, I knew then that I could do it,” said Mayzin while discussing a signature moment in his music career.
So with his mother’s musical talents, the support of his father, brother and sister, and inspirations like Bay Area artists Raphael Saadiq and Hammer, Mayzin dove headfirst into music.
Notice, I didn’t say hip-hop, rap or soul. That’s because Mayzin’s music is influenced by various sounds including hip-hop, R&B and even indie alternative.
The young artist isn’t defined by a single genre, and that’s exactly how he prefers it.
“If I had to classify my sound, I wouldn’t,” he said. “It’s rooted in hip-hop and R&B, but I’m genre-less.”
That’s evident when you listen to tracks such as “Wagwan” and “Hot Coffee” on his new EP Things Left Unsaid, which dropped on Friday.
The journey to the EP’s release was a long one, one that involved time, frustration, hard work, sacrifice and a lot of reflection. But it was well worth it because he channeled those experiences into an impressive project that reflects his life.
“The last year was very personal,” he said. “It was a journey through music and my relationship with it.”
That journey has taken him from the Bay Area and Italy to South Dakota and now Las Vegas, where he currently resides.
And while he lives in a different state, he never stops representing for his hometown.
“I created my own lane [in music] for the Bay Area,” he said.
Mayzin’s journey wasn’t an easy one, but it’s replete with uniqueness and experiences many can’t claim to have. But it’s led him to the point where he’s not only creating great music, but he’s being recognized for his original sound.
Not bad for a Bay Area kid whose face was seen in his hometown alongside Steph Curry.
