BY JACOB "34" KOERTGE • JULY 11, 2018

For the latest in their Tiny Desk series, NPR recruits DMV artist Mumu Fresh who, despite her name, is already a seasoned veteran when it comes to the local cubicle concert. In February, Mumu teamed up with August Greene, the super-group featuring Common, Karriem Riggins, and Robert Glasper, in a remarkable performance that has racked up over one million views and counting.

Now featured front and center with a four-count set, Mumu Fresh, backed by fellow Vintage Babies member DJ Dummy (J. Cole, Common, Smoothe Da Hustler) and her band, embarks on a spiritual, intellectual, and culturally bound performance that focuses on the complexity and connection to her history, her acceptance of self, and the power in her humanity and womanhood. Her first single performed, “Ink Pata,” most encompasses all of these qualities in her musicality, as she flows effortlessly between both song and Spoken Word to deliver a powerful message of past and present, paying homage to her Native American and African ancestry.

Mumu Fresh follows with “Miracle.” She eloquently and passionately weaves a delicate, vulnerable song about the desire to have “your moment” and the necessity to be prepared for it before it can present itself to you. Mumu expands, “[This song] really comes from the notion of this idea that we always feel like we’re waiting on something, you know, we’re waiting for something great to happen to us, waiting for our moment, waiting for this and that. But what if your miracle was waiting on you to be prepared, you know? The teacher arrives when the student is ready.”

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