Blending soul, jazz, hip-hop and R&B, MMYYKK and the Blackbeat Theory recently performed a dynamic, dexterous set of three original songs at The Current’s studio.

Each talented member of the band plays in various projects throughout the Twin Cities. MMYYKK’s collaborative compositions standout with their poignant message of love, designed to heal, grow and connect. 

Edited for clarity and length

It's Diane here, host of The Local Show, and with me is MMYYKK. 

Peace and love. Good to be here. 

Wow. And y'all just crushed it with your band. I was sitting in the control room jamming like crazy. Peace and love – that is such a theme in your music and your vibe all around. Can you expound a little bit more on that?

Love is the message. I feel like we would all be better off if we lead with love, in just our daily interactions. Even with people you don't know. It's just, you want to give, you want to put out good energy, and then it will just recirculate … If that's what you want to receive, you gotta put it out. I just want to amplify those vibes, cuz I just feel like there's just a lot of negativity and hate in the world. A little too much. And also, I'm a child of Stevie Wonder. So, I take that inspiration from him, "love's in need of love today."

Being a musician, too. It's a good platform to spread love on, because musicians have that power in that way.

The power of music, it's like the great uniter. I don't think, sometimes, we really think about how powerful vibrations are. Everything vibrates. Nothing is completely still, even us. When you touch solid objects, it's all vibrating. And so everything has resonant frequencies. And when you put those vibrations in that energy out there, it is received.

There's so many different studies that people have done in terms of the effects of sound and vibration on the body and even plants. I've seen some crazy (studies) where they had a glass of water, and someone was speaking only good things to it, and it stayed fresh. But then they started speaking angry things and hateful words to it, and it got all cloudy. It was crazy. It's real, you know? What we put out is definitely important.

And it comes into your music so beautifully. You're one of my favorite artists, and you put out an amazing EP, Science, this past year. I think Science was the perfect title for it, because it seems like you have your craft down to a science. It's so smooth and rich. And the lyrics, they deliver a message with poignancy and heart. Tell me about the work that you put into your music, and the creativity that comes along with it.

I'm just like a synth and music nerd. I just have always loved just nerding out and creating sounds. When I got my first synth, it kind of turned into a meditative process of just sitting and listening to waveforms and shaping waveforms ... this feels so good to be doing, I want to do this in space with people, in community. But in terms of "science," it's kind of like a colloquialism that I kind of came up with some friends. It's kind of like when you're doing something that's technical, but you're doing it in a way that's dope ... a friend of mine just reminded me like, "Yo, science — it's like what you're doing.” 

But definitely, just like spending time working with the homies, like Jalyn Spencer who plays bass in the band. He comes through and we just be making vibes and just throwing things at the wall, seeing what works. Sometimes he'll bring ideas to the table. And we'll just kind of shift things up. Omar (Abdulkarim), the horn player, he's usually the first person that I call when I have an idea. He'll come in and help me flesh out the horn parts and stuff.

While I do write most of my stuff, it feels better to make music communally. So, I usually try to involve other homies and bandmates pretty early on in the process. I'll write something or lay ideas down on my phone, even just like scat-beatboxing on the phone. But I'm pretty quickly bringing those ideas to the group.

That was one of the things I noticed with your live in-studio is that y'all have so much energy and dexterity. You harness a sound, but you're all really talented.

I definitely love playing with the guys. And I learn so much when I play with them, too. LA (Buckner), the drummer, he's just a wizard, next level. He's been playing for so long and with so many greats. I pick up game from him every time we play. Jalyn too. They're kind of ahead of me in terms of the theory and whatnot. I play by ear, mostly. So, I'm kind of just catching up to them in certain ways. And trying to keep up.

You moved here from California, to Minneapolis. What drew you to Minneapolis?

I always get that question … Why would you go from Cali, the sunshine, to the snow? I was in a place where I needed some change. I was kind of getting into trouble. I wasn't really focused. And I was like, I want to do music. But most of the friends that I had, and people I knew who were trying to do the LA thing, were struggling. They went to LA Recording School or whatever, but then they were just kind of out there. If you're like a small fish in LA, you're gonna get eaten up. So I was like, where can I go to study music that's like a softer landing. 

And so I just did a Google search, and then IPR popped up. I was like, Okay, it's in-studio production and recording. And I was like, okay, let me see what that's talking about. And I just kind of took a leap. Didn't know nobody out here. And I just made the leap. But luckily, I landed in a situation that was good. I met one of my good friends to this day, Elliot LeMons. We had a rap group called MidWest Konnect when I first came out here. I was producing and he was rapping. I'm super grateful for that experience, too. Because I was a little nervous about coming out here, if I was gonna be able to find people I could connect with. And so I was grateful to be able to connect with him and to have that experience. And things kind of just grew from there. I graduated from IPR, in 2012, maybe 2011. And then was doing producing and then kind of just on the scene in that way, mostly producing music for other artists. And that's how I met Greg Grease and got linked up with, formerly Zuluzuluu, Astralblak. I was kind of just mingling in the community and producing for folks. And I did video work, too, for Greg …And I started networking with Lady Midnight and Sarah White, and all these other artists. And then it kind of just grew from there.

Is Astralblak still a thing?

Yeah, we're still connected. We're not making music right now. Greg recently became a father. And Elliot, also our band member who plays guitar, he lives in California; and he also recently became a dad. And so we're kind of giving them some time to feel that out. Life happens. But we're all still connected. We're good friends. I was actually at Greg's place working on something with him yesterday. So he's got some new music that's gonna be coming out ... I'll just say that I heard some tracks and they were fire. 

Afropunk Festival is coming up (Sunday, June 19). Tell me about what that means to you, especially on a celebration like Juneteenth.

I'm excited to be in community, to be on that platform, and perform in that way. It's good to be acknowledged by a platform of that magnitude. But it's also important for me to really stay grounded and connect with community in the space as well. That's kind of how I'm looking at it. It's a great space to just connect with other artists and see what people are doing. But also to talk about what's next for us in community here in Minneapolis. What do we want to see? How do we build it? And so that's what I'm kind of what I'm looking forward to the most. I'm definitely excited about playing. Yeah, but I'm also excited about the community building that's going to happen. 

Is there change that you want to see in Minneapolis?

There's a lot of things, honestly. How much time you got? But, really, I want to see some Black-owned venues, music venues, honestly. Because that's something that I feel like is definitely lacking here. Spaces where we can experience like Black music on multiple, dynamic levels.