MANGO X MATHMAN have set new standards for Irish hip hop, which every other act in that genre now has to reach for, and which they will be compared to, and there are few more exciting acts in the country right now.
The duo - DJ Mathman and rapper Mango - who mix contemporary rap, UK grime, 1990s-style house, have been called "an act with something to say and a whole lot of substance behind them," by Nialler9. Like Damien Dempsey, a key influence on the duo, and similar to their fellow Dubliners, Fontaines DC, Mango X Mathman's addresses the socio-economic issues of contemporary Ireland, and how the State is failing its younger citizens.
“We’re going to look back on this [era] as we look back on, like, Thatcherism or Reaganism," Mango told the Irish Examiner, adding that artists have a responsibility to use their platform and their medium to address such issues.
“We have never had so much more to say and so many ways to say it and so many avenues — and how the country is changing," he said. "The bigger audience or profile, whatever s***e you want to call it, I get with music, I think you owe yourself — and the people that I respect, who are bigger like that who are given the microphone — to use it right.”
Little wonder their debut album, Casual Work, released late last year, was hailed as "a powerful call to arms" by The Irish Times, while Nialler9 declared, "If someone’s making a time capsule any time soon, they should make sure to leave a copy of Casual Work in there because Mango X Mathman have built a chillingly accurate encapsulation of Ireland right now."
Mango X Mathman play the Róisín Dubh on Saturday February 8 at 8pm. Tickets are available from www.roisindubh.net; OMG@Zhivago, Shop Street; and the Róisín Dubh.
