It may not have made the cut for Complex‘s best albums of 2021 mid-year ranking, but Mach-Hommy’s Pray For Hati has received widespread critical acclaim since releasing earlier this summer, with Rolling Stone going as far as to call it “the best rap album since Young Thug’s Barter 6.” The Westside Gunn-executive produced album has even earned Mach-Hommy an insightful new interview with NPR, in which the enigmatic artist discusses the current political climate in Haiti.
For the unaware, Haiti’s President Jovenel Moïse was brutally gunned down during an assassination earlier this month, and further investigations have revealed that the Columbians arrested in connection to Moïse’s murder reportedly received training from the United States military.
When discussing the new wave of turmoil that has swept over Haiti this month, Mach-Hommy addresses the cyclical nature of political chaos in Haiti, and he also touches on the emotional impact that it has over the Haitian-American rapper and other people like him.
“What’s going on right now is kind of like the norm for us, especially abroad, where, most of us, we send more than our prayers back home,” the Griselda artist explained. “A lot of our psychological energy and makeup is kind of like split between two places because we have to be where we are. But we also – we can’t leave where we come from. So I wasn’t really shocked by the recent events. This kind of theme is a recurring theme with our nation and our history in the Western Hemisphere.”
“To me, it’s a broken record that’s on repeat,” Mach-Hommy continues. “So when I call my family, it’s the same conversation. A lot of people are extremely depressed more than anything at the recent events.”
Listen to Mach-Hommy’s full NPR interview below.
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