It’s been a couple of years since Mahalia liberated her sophomore studio LP LOVE AND COMPROMISE, which saw 13 tracks and additional features from Burna Boy, Terrace Martin, Hamzaa, Lucky Daye, and Ella Mai. She did hold us over during last year’s quarantine months with Isolation Tapes, which came with three unreleased cuts for fans to enjoy. More recently, the Leicestershire talent delivered a couple of new singles, “Jealous” with Rico Nasty and “Whenever You’re Ready,” giving us hope that a new body of work is arriving sooner than later.
Last week, she adds to that with “Roadside,” a collaboration alongside West London star AJ Tracey that sees Mahalia singing about a special someone that betrayed her in their relationship:
“That you left me, left me, left me on the roadside, when you kept me waitin’ on you all night, I never knew you’d be a heartbreaker, I’m done with your fake love, you left me, left without a goodbye, but I really thought you was a good guy, I should’ve known you was a heartbreaker, I’m done with your fake love…”
Directed by Pip + Lib, the accompanying visual for “Roadside” begins with a ne’er-do-well sending deceitful texts to another woman while in a car with his girl. Things then switch to Mahalia and her food stand business where said girl works — things quickly turn bad for the cheater when he’s tied up by the collaborators, who then take bats to his Mercedes-Benz.
Back in April, AJ Tracey released his own second album Flu Game, which saw notable contributions from NAV, Digga D, T-Pain, Kehlani, SahBabii, Millie Go Lightly, MoStack, and Mabel. The project was a commercial success, landing Tracey at the top of UK’s Independent Albums and R&B Albums charts. Flu Game also peaked at number two on the country’s Official Albums chart.