By Chinwe Ugoezi
The year was 2002. A 15-year-old Mario Barrett came into the scene with his debut single “Just a Friend,” a soulful ear-grabbing adolescent twist on Biz Markie’s late-1980s hit. During the cornrow phase of the early-2000s, the Baltimore-born singer released “Braid My Hair,” and in 2004 his hit single “Let Me Love You” showed us that not only were his vocals smooth, his music was timeless.
Mario continued to progress and proved his triple threat status with acting roles in Step Up (2006) and Freedom Writers (2007). He displayed his versatility, pleasantly surprising us with hip-hop infused tracks like “Break Up” and “Somebody Else” featuring Nicki Minaj.
The R&B star who is gearing up to release his fifth studio album, Cosmos 17, chatted with UPTOWN about his lengthy departure from the spotlight, how he’s evolved as an artist, starting his own record label, and more.
UPTOWN: Your last studio album was eight years ago. Let us know what you’ve been doing while you were out of the scene.
Mario: I recorded a whole album with RCA before I left them about a year and a half ago. It never came out due to them having different perspectives musically on where I was going. The single I put out with Nicki Minaj, “Somebody Else,” was actually the last record on that label. I was gonna put a whole album out with that, but it didn’t work out so I decided to leave RCA to start my own label and take the independent route. I’m inspired again to get back out there and share with my fans.
U: I heard your new single “Let Me Help You,” which I really like. What inspired you to record the song?
M: I felt like the song and the perspective of the song is very familiar to my fans, even though the album that I’m making is kind of a different direction. That particular song I felt like was a good entry way to take my fans on a date again before we start making love. That’s pretty much what that single is used for. I’m definitely excited about it.
U: I know last year the album was called Paradise Cove. What made you change it to Cosmos 17?
M: I changed the title from Paradise Cove to Cosmos 17 because the vibe was different, more futuristic, and more along the lines of where I was mentally and creatively.
When I was recording Paradise Cove I was traveling a lot and I was not in one place recording and that title just came to my mind. When most people think of Paradise Cove, they probably think about an island, or like linen and button downs, or something sexy. My perspective of Paradise Cove was different of what people would get from it, so I had to change the title because it didn’t really represent what the songs would be about.
U: How many songs have you recorded?
M: For this project? I can easily say I recorded — just for this project — over 150 songs easy.
U: That’s crazy, you have like compilation albums worth of material.
M: Easy. And it’s funny because I was talking to Congress at Grammy’s On The Hill, which is an annual advocacy event that Congress does to talk about music policies, copywriting, and licensing. We were talking about how artists don’t really get paid as much as they should and trying to push these laws through. We talked about how artists wouldn’t mind releasing a lot of music if the laws were together. They would know they would be paid for the music they dropped. It’s funny that you asked that because that was the topic.
U: How do you feel like you’ve evolved since we last heard you?
M: I feel like I’ve evolved tremendously as a writer, as a thinker outside of music, even as a producer. I’ve evolved into a person who looks at the world outside of the box and not inside of the box. I think that has a lot to do with my departure away from the game. I just felt like everything was becoming so synthetic. You almost had to sell your soul to have success. I didn’t feel like it was time for me to reinvent the wheel when it came to my music yet. I think now people are ready for something fresh and a new perspective in R&B, and that’s what I’m gonna do on this project.
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[Image: Hao Zeng]
U: I know you have a new label you created, New Citizen. What does that mean to you?
M: It definitely has compound meanings. New Citizen represents your personal growth, it represents the coming, the upgrade of your old self. It represents creative expression, and understanding that us as creatives on any level is a God-given gift. With what’s going on in the world right now, I feel like it’s time to become New Citizens with our own personal universe. Take that how you will, but I feel like that’s where it came from for me. I see New Citizen bigger than just music. I think that as people see how I’ve grown as a young man now, as a creative, they will see his perspective is beyond just music and beyond just the norm of what’s happening in music right now. So that’s what New Citizen represents. Even the type of artists that I’m looking to sign are free-thinkers, very eclectic, very creative. If I could open up a school for free-thinkers I would be the Xavier of the music industry.
U: You’ve been in the game literally half your life at this point. What’s one of the biggest lessons you learned in your 20s?
M: One of the biggest lessons that I can think of today is life is really about experience and using your experiences as reference and always being present in the moment. The gift is in the moment. I think that we future trip so much about success or money or relationships or this or that, but life is really about being in the moment and being authentic and experiencing whatever it is you need to experience. If it’s pain, experience the pain. If it’s pleasure, ah man, stay in it, be in it all the way. If it’s love give your all to it. There’s a gift in the present moment that I feel like is the ultimate future in the long run.
U: So for this project, do you have any featured artists or is it just you?
M: Definitely working on having features. We are like 95 percent finished with the project so now I’m working on creating a sound that’s fresh and new. I got a few main producers that I’m working with. One of them is Pham from Poland. Another one is Ryan McDermott. Once I get the body of work done, then I’ll work on the features last. Being an independent artist it’s a little bit different in the features game because there’s so much politics. I’m not really a politics guy. I wanna make music that my fans love and make a project that puts me in my own lane.
U: What new artists are on your radar right now?
M: There’s this artist name 6lack, some people call him Black. I love his music, I bought his album called Free 6lack. It’s hard, I love his perspective and production. I really like artists that do their own thing. I like some of the hip-hop out too, Lil Uzi Vert, Travis Scott. There’s an artist named H.E.R. she has great R&B. I search the internet and it’s exciting to see all the new artists doing their thing. I got an intro to my album that I would love Kendrick Lamar to get on. He’s the only person I can really hear on it. Maybe it’s something we could put together later. He’s an artist I would love to work with. Kid Cudi, Big Sean, and Jhene Aiko. These are some things I’m trying to put together.
U: Are you going to get more into directing? I saw that you kinda dabbled into that with your “I Need More” video. It was a dope concept.
M: Both videos were concepts me and the director that I work with put together and we shot it. I think naturally I’m just a creative individual. It’s something I would love to do even for other artists. Yea, that’s something I’m going to get into more, as well as acting. When it comes to television, [I] definitely got a lot of offers to do reality shows but I’m not really in that space. As far as film, if it’s a good project I’m open to it.
U: Can we expect any tours from you this year?
M: Yeah, for sure. I tour worldwide. Right now I have an Asian tour set up for possibly June. I think I’m gonna tour in the U.S. towards the end of the year, once the album comes out and people are familiar with the music. Maybe towards the end of the year around the holidays. I’ll still be doing spot dates, and and radio shows, and promo shows. I wanna tour when I have new music. I think my fans deserve to hear fresh new shit that they can rock to. The next single that I’m deciding on is probably one of the most prolific singles I’ve ever done in my career, in terms of production and sonically. It’s definitely a movie and it’s special.
Keep up with Mario and his music by following him on Instagram and Twitter.
[Image: Hao Zeng]