{"id":2505691,"date":"2026-07-17T06:48:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T06:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2505691"},"modified":"2026-07-17T06:48:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T06:48:12","slug":"masego-fix-your-face-interview-l-a-fires-brazil-new-album","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/masego-fix-your-face-interview-l-a-fires-brazil-new-album\/","title":{"rendered":"Masego \u2018Fix Your Face\u2019 Interview: L.A. Fires, Brazil &#038; New Album"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tIt\u2019s a gorgeous day in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Clinton Hill when I go to Sisters to meet Masego for lunch.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tAs the Grammy-nominated musical polymath stands to greet me, I notice his particularly sporty attire: white tee, grey sweats, and an unassuming hat covering his now-bald head. Not only is he recovering from yesterday\u2019s pickup game \u2013 he gave some finance bros the business \u2014 but Uncle Sego (which is still his X handle) is also looking kind of cut. With a new look to match his somber, seductive, soul-baring new album, Masego has clearly primed himself for a new era.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s like basketball \u2014 I\u2019m focused on the next play,\u201d he tells me. \u201cI\u2019m trying to understand how people are today. I don\u2019t want to be that guy who thinks they know everything because I\u2019ve been in the game for a while. I always see my <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/t\/music\/\" id=\"auto-tag_music\" data-tag=\"music\">music<\/a> as life music; when you listen to me, you\u2019re doing some life s\u2014t. So, I wanted to answer for myself: What am I going to do with these songs? I really would drop the album today if I could.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t<em>Fix Your Face<\/em>, Masego\u2019s third studio album, instead arrives tomorrow (July 17) via EQT Recordings and Capitol Records. It\u2019s his first studio album since his 2023 self-titled LP \u2014 and his first formal collection of new music since losing his home in the January 2025 Southern California wildfires. \u201cMind you, I was in Brazil at the time, and I\u2019m watching my house burn on TV,\u201d he remembers. \u201cIt was [very surreal], and I was in disbelief\u2026 then I started to do my I don\u2019t care; I\u2019m tough thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tBefore the fires, Masego lived in Los Angeles for a decade, during some of the most pivotal moments of his life and career. In that time, \u201cTadow,\u201d his slow-burning, FKJ-assisted 2017 smash, brought him from Kingston-born, Virginia-bred college dropout to go-to R&amp;B collaborator, trusted by everyone from Kaytranada to Kehlani. Masego didn\u2019t just create memories in L.A.; he formed part of his identity there \u2014 and the things that grounded those more ethereal parts of himself in the physical world were now gone forever.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tHe wasn\u2019t bothered by losing his jewelry as much as he felt distraught in the wake of the destruction of his photo album \u2014 he names film photography as a hobby \u2014 as well as his vinyl collection, guitars, and his grandfather\u2019s cufflinks. \u201cI had to do the <em>Who am I?<\/em> thing all over again; I\u2019m too grown for that!\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m blessed that I was able to be on a plane a lot, going place to place, so I could process logically first before I could be present and cry. I don\u2019t know what I would do if I was there. I was mad at God for a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tNow residing in NYC and spending his days soaking up the omnipresence of Jamaican culture in neighborhoods like Crown Heights, Masego is in the mood for a challenge. After all, that\u2019s kind of how <em>Fix Your Face<\/em> came to be. Last year, his longtime friend and now-manager Kojo from friends&amp;family provoked him, teasing, \u201cDid you just not know how to get better? Is that why you quit? You over there in Brazil playing house.\u201d He poked the bear in a way that only a dear friend could. Masego had indeed taken an extended detour in Brazil, but he didn\u2019t necessarily \u201cquit.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<p>\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"jeg_video_container jeg_video_content\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Masego - Breathe (Audio)\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xrzjGJ2LvmQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThree things brought Masego to Brazil: \u201cTadow\u201d being certified Diamond in the country, growing up around Jamaicans who often rooted for their Brazilian brothers, and a slew of DMs claiming his voice sounds similar to samba legend Jorge Ben Jor\u2019s. Within a few months of moving there, Masego met dope DJs and Black art curators, learned some Portuguese, and even opened a Jamaican restaurant. He also fell in love with how the communal nature of global soccer culture can turn singers out of people who wouldn\u2019t dare utter a single note by their lonesome. Masego brought those cultural observations back to his conversations with Kojo, who then put the R&amp;B maestro\u2019s songwriting approach under a microscope.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cA lot of artists say that \u2018the world just ain\u2019t caught up to them yet\u2019 \u2014 but maybe you can get better at communicating with the world,\u201d he notes in between bites of fruit. \u201cAt the end of our conversation, I decided to study vulnerability. I wanted to challenge myself to see how open I could be and how little bravado I could use. Being in the game, people don\u2019t really know me \u2014 and that\u2019s on purpose. I\u2019m really good at putting a little Gemini distance from myself, so I wanted to let the world into my emotions a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe songs that came out of those initial sessions quickly grew into 150 tracks \u2014 and Masego &amp; Co. knew that they had entered album mode. To ground the album-making process, Masego moved the whole operation to Jamaica for the first two weeks. Sessions continued in New York and Los Angeles, with a return to Jamaica serving as the backdrop for finishing touches. \u201cI\u2019m trying to tell people: If these records succeed, you have to leave me alone,\u201d he half-jokes. \u201cI\u2019m gonna be in Jamaica; I\u2019m gonna make these records, and y\u2019all can\u2019t make me come back! This nose can still smell the fires from New York!\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tKnown for his freestyle-centric approach \u2014 \u201cTadow\u201d was completely improvised \u2014 Masego, for the first time, wrote down music. In another first, Uncle Sego is finally \u201ctelling his story in a linear sense.\u201d Album opener \u201cSounds Like\u2026\u201d finds him relaying how he physically changed his surroundings in his adolescence and thus seized control of his destiny.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tAs the story goes, as a young Masego was filming his father, his knees buckled, and he passed out, hitting his head on the concrete. That life-altering injury didn\u2019t just leave him with mere flashes of memories of the fateful day; it also coincided with basketball tryouts. Once he was out of the hospital, a few practice shots in the courtyard confirmed that basketball just wasn\u2019t going to happen.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<p>\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"jeg_video_container jeg_video_content\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Masego - Recommend (Official Video)\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/A8eyJMLrT_g?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tTo comfort himself, Masego listened to jazz giants like Herbie Hancock (the video for Faces single \u201cRecommend\u201d pays homage to the Chicago legend\u2019s 1976 \u201cHang Up Your Hang Ups\u201d visual) and Miles Davis, eventually replacing the basketball posters on his walls with the vinyl he was listening to. With that change of scenery, he officially embarked on his still-unfurling musical path.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cI respect writers,\u201d he says. \u201cWriting is the thing I could never get. At a show, I\u2019m gonna make anybody scream, rock and chant. But there\u2019s a difference at the rap shows \u2014 when it\u2019s all the cell phone lights up, and they\u2019re singing the verse. I wouldn\u2019t tell nobody that I wanted that for my shows, but I did. I know my hooks are gonna smash, but I need you to know that I\u2019m trying to tell you something.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tMasego names the hip-hop-infused \u201cDotted Line,\u201d on which he was \u201ctrying to channel Jay Electronica,\u201d as the song he\u2019s most proud of from a writing standpoint, but \u201cBreathe\u201d proved the most emotionally intense to craft. A billowing, gospel- and soul-informed rumination on grief and the battle of living with it in a world that demands constant productivity, \u201cBreathe\u201d had Masego \u201cfuture-annoyed\u2026 because I knew how people were going to treat this song.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cMusic can be therapy, so I wrote that song for me,\u201d he continues quietly. \u201cI didn\u2019t care what would happen to it; I just wanted to get it off. And then we all decided to market the hell out of it, which is nasty work. It\u2019s like performing pain. It made me understand Summer Walker: I don\u2019t want to sit here and sing this real song; this is my life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tIn addition to arriving as his first full-length project with a co-producer \u2014 Jordan Elgie took the reins alongside Masego this time around \u2014 <em>Fix Your Face<\/em> also boasts guest appearances by Leon Thomas (\u201cQVC\u201d), Keyshia Cole (\u201cSomeone\u201d), Musiq Soulchild (\u201cOverthinking\u201d), Buju Banton (\u201cHello\u201d), Lekan (\u201cGone\u201d) and Foggieraw (\u201cI Know You\u201d).<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tAlways intentional, the <em>Fix Your Face<\/em> features are all natural selections. Keyshia Cole and Musiq Soulchild are \u201cthe people [he\u2019s] trying to tap into and be some version of one day\u201d; Leon Thomas and Lekan are fellow smooth-talking R&amp;B luminaries, and Jamaica\u2019s Buju Banton and the DMV\u2019s Foggieraw represent the two areas that helped raise Masego. Notably, \u201cQVC\u201d marks Masego and Thomas\u2019 second collaboration in two years, following \u201cLucid Dreams\u201d from the <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/music\/rb-hip-hop\/leon-thomas-cover-story-2025-rb-hip-hop-power-players-1236057900\/\"><em>Billboard<\/em> cover star\u2019s<\/a> Grammy-winning <em>Mutt<\/em> LP.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cI want musicians to win; he\u2019s nerdy with it, and I\u2019m rocking with the nerds,\u201d Masego quips. \u201cHe\u2019s a musician\u2019s musician. I made a lot of songs with Leon. I\u2019d do [a joint project with him], but I gotta get better at guitar first. I want to be around people [whom] I respect, and I respect Leon. His pen is cold and clever.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tMasego sourced the album\u2019s title from a one-off comment in a voice note he sent to his team, and, despite the obvious meticulousness with which he approached this record, <em>Fix Your Face<\/em> still feels effortless. Flirtatious party records like \u201cRecommend\u201d bleed beautifully into revelations of infidelity on \u201cSymone,\u201d and at 16 tracks, the expertly sequenced album never overstays its welcome. Daring in its musical scope and unflinchingly blunt in its explorations of grief, memory, love, faith and lust, <em>Fix Your Face<\/em> is the perfect album to debut a bald head with. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cMentally, for me to get myself in a new place, I gotta do an anime-level thing,\u201d explains Masego. \u201cWe have to understand the new arc. I gotta get some tattoos or change up my style. And it\u2019s not me putting on a costume; I just can\u2019t go back to the old things.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tAs he looks out on the rest of the year \u2014 which includes his forthcoming 40-date Fix Your Face Tour across North America, Europe and the U.K. \u2014 Masego is also trying his hand at film scoring. His work on the upcoming <em>Mfinda<\/em> movie will make him the first Black composer to score an anime theatrical film, a full-circle moment for the self-proclaimed \u201cBlack nerd,\u201d who\u2019s also working on a Jamaican anime called <em>Raggamutts<\/em>. With a new album, new tour and more expansive career opportunities on the horizon, Masego just might be entering a space where he no longer has to reflexively fix his face \u2014 and that\u2019s a mode of vulnerability he hopes all Black men have the joy and luxury of experiencing in their lifetimes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cIf you put a room of Black men together with the intention to not do the \u2018let me just act cool\u2019 thing, you can get somewhere,\u201d he muses. \u201c[Fixing my face] is something I\u2019ve had to do forever. And I think all of us have had to. Fortunately for me, the studio is super safe, so I can act [strangely] or in a way that doesn\u2019t seem as \u2018cool\u2019 or \u2018strong.\u2019 That\u2019s where we can mix the jokes with vulnerability.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/ubpass.co\/billboard\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\"><br \/><br \/><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.billboard.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s a gorgeous day in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Clinton Hill when I go to Sisters to meet Masego for lunch. As the Grammy-nominated musical polymath stands to greet me, I notice his particularly sporty attire: white tee, grey sweats, and an unassuming hat covering his now-bald head. Not only is he recovering from yesterday\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2505692,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[310971,21800,21932],"class_list":["post-2505691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-genre-rb","tag-music","tag-music-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Masego-\u2018Fix-Your-Face-Interview-LA-Fires-Brazil-New.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2505691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2505691"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2505691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2505693,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2505691\/revisions\/2505693"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2505692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2505691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2505691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2505691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}