Mavi Drops A New Mixtape, ‘The Pilot,’ Featuring Earl Sweatshirt, Smino, And More

North Carolina rapper Mavi has been garnering some strong grassroots buzz over the past couple of years, thanks to well-received projects such as Let the Sun Talk, Laughing So Hard, it Hurts, and last year’s Shadowbox. Today, he extended this run with a new mixtape, titled The Pilot. In its press release, he reveals the title is inspired by television, not aviation — the pilot of the title refers to the first episode of a TV series, which is usually produced as a standalone proof of concept before the show is actually picked up for air. You could think of it as a test episode; many pilots are