Toronto rapper Haviah Mighty has announced her new album, Crying Crystals, out on July 14th. As the latest preview of the record, she’s shared a collaboration with her sister Omega Mighty called “Zoom Zoom.”
Spanning 13 tracks, Crying Crystals features appearances from a diverse roster of rappers including Chicago mainstay Jean Deaux, New Zealander JessB, and Montreal native Zach Zoya, the latter of whom guests on a pair of songs. Thus far, Mighty has also teased the album with “Huh,” “Room Service,” and “Honey Bun.”
As Mighty tells Consequence, “Zoom Zoom” was inspired by a 2023 Toronto summer and trying out new sonics. “The amapiano sound has a grip on the city because of its amalgamation of dance and Afro sounds fused together,” she explains. “I wanted to explore producing in that world.”
Meanwhile, the track’s story ties directly to two previous singles from the album. After “bargaining for a past love to give me another shot and hold on a little bit more for me” on “Room Service” and “vowing to be done with everyone and the idea of looking for ‘another one'” on “Honey Bun,” Haviah experiences “the relapse before the begging and hopefulness” on “Zoom Zoom.”
She continues, “‘‘Zoom Zoom’ is a reflection of the regret of truly letting someone go. It’s a rapid change of the mind, with ‘Zoom Zoom’ being a metaphor for rushing back to the one you love. In my first verse, I paint the picture. I’m single and lonely, but confident — ‘Hard shell, porcupine, a cactus’ — yet still — ‘I been thinking ‘bout you lately/ All this time I’m trying to break free.'”
“In my second verse, I start to explain what I’m willing to change, and what I’m willing to do: ‘Give me one more chance… if you need a little money… take you from Belize to the West Indies,'” Haviah adds, before breaking down her sister’s contribution: “Omega Mighty slides through for the final verse, describing the chaos and uncertainty of it all. Some of her final lines make the dilemma crystal clear — ‘Super glue mi can leff it’ — meaning she can’t let it go.”
Stream “Zoom Zoom” below, followed by the Crying Crystals artwork and tracklist.
Mighty broke boundaries with her last studio album, 2019’s 13th Floor, by becoming the first hip-hop artist and the first Black woman to win the coveted Polaris Music Prize. With her most recent full-length, the 2021 mixtape Stock Exchange, she became the first woman to win a JUNO award in the Best Rap Album/EP of the Year category.
Crying Crystals Artwork:
Crying Crystals Tracklist:
01. Snowfall (feat. Zach Zoya)
02. Lil Baby (feat. Zach Zoya)
03. Stress Free
04. Huh
05. Sensational (feat. JessB)
06. Boundaries
07. Main Character
08. Honey Bun
09. Zoom Zoom (feat. Omega Mighty)
10. Room Service
11. All the Time
12. Manifest It (feat. Jean Deaux)
13. Outro
