Maimouna Youssef (also known as Mumu Fresh) is a GRAMMY nominated singer, songwriter, MC, activist and well-known hip hop artist. She’s been called a “quadruple threat” by The Roots’ Black Thought and “groundbreaking” by Oscar-winning artist, Common. As a performer, Maimouna has shared the stage with many icons including The Roots, Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill, Ed Sheeran, D’Angelo, Bruno Mars, Nas and Dave Chappelle just to name a few. We spoke with the Hip Hop trail blazer at the 2019 Black Music Honors about her tribute to rap group Arrested Development.
For the youngin’s, Arrested Development is a hip hop group that formed in Atlanta in 1988. It was founded by rapper and producer Todd Thomas “Speech” and Timothy Barnwell “Headliner” as a positive, afro-centric alternative to the gangster rap popular in the late 1980s. Being raised in the era during the groups debut made performing this tribute a pleasure for Mumu Fresh “We’ve been rehearsing for a few days. The music, I’m familiar with already its music I grew up with so I’m just excited. It’s a lot of fun every time we performed it in rehearsal …were going to have a good time”
We also asked Mumu Fresh to give us some details of all the things she had going on in her career and she gladly assured us that she has nothing but positivity flowing threw, “I’m doing a tribute at Black Girls Rock, I have a new album coming out with Dj Jazzy Jeff and the Playlist Collective called the “Healing”, we just wrapped up a tour with Common…we did about 13 city’s, so yea, it’s all goodness happening right now.”
Be sure to tune into the Black Music Honors on Bounce TV October 20th, 2019 at 12PM EST. In the meantime check out our interview below with Mumu Fresh.
