Kwame Mulzz mixed and mastered “2 Girls (Mary and Joana)” from a hospital bed on a pair of ordinary headphones, recovering from surgery. The track opens his first all-blues album, a hard turn from the hip-life, highlife and Afro-trap he releases between Kumasi and Ghent on his Asafo Muzik imprint.

Lyrically, the song plays on a deliberate ambiguity, balancing a literal tale of romantic rivalry against a personification of cannabis. Mulzz details this tension through the characters of Mary and Joana, contrasting the plant’s calming properties with its intense, volatile effects. With a gravelly vocal rasp modelled on traditional delta blues shouts, he sings them as “Two rivers runnin’ through my soul”, and the chorus turns on whether he has to choose between the two at all or “just learn how to sail”.

A live studio ensemble supports the arrangement, pairing the electric guitar of Kasper Van de Ponseele and Matis Cooreman‘s harmonica with a rhythm section consisting of bassist Kwame Afriyie and drummer Romain Garcera. Nana Bonsu introduces a djembe that drives a West African rhythmic structure, adding a cross-rhythm against the standard delta-blues pattern.

Stream “2 Girls (Mary and Joana)” HERE