Supah Mario Bridges his Hip-Hop Roots with the Spirit of Jazz in New Project ‘DEMO TAPE’

The Grammy-nominated producer strives to show the world how cool jazz really is.

Photography by Ellen Lee

Becoming one of the most sought-after hip-hop producers takes more than knowing the right people or being in the right rooms. Supah Mario’s success came from spending countless hours honing and perfecting his craft. But now, after years of producing rap songs for heavy hitters like GloRilla, Drake, and Young Thug, the Atlanta-based beatmaker is pivoting to a genre a little less mainstream: jazz.

“I was almost tricked into making this,” he laughs. “I was actually feening and yearning to make this.”

His latest project, DEMO TAPE, pays homage to his roots and consists of 11 tracks in which Mario plays live drums alongside a circle of Atlanta musicians. The pivot came from Mario wanting to take a break from rap and explore his creativity on a higher level.

Originally, Mario considered creating an R&B project because most of the ideas started as R&B foundations, but when artists didn’t pick them up, he took this as a sign to take a different route.

Photography by Ellen Lee

“What if I just started taking these ideas a little bit further, adding jazz chords to them and featuring saxophone players, trumpets, and just turn this into a whole jazz idea?” he asked himself at the time. “Since no one else was really thinking about doing that this year, I figured, why not? Now is the best time.”

As far as influences go, Mario grew up idolizing jazz drummers like Dennis Chambers, Dave Weckl, and Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy, among other artists who create jazz and folk fusion.

As a church kid, Mario grew up listening to gospel and was introduced to hard rock and jazz at a young age. As a drummer himself, his dream was to play in a band. But his path eventually led him to focus on production in hip-hop.

Despite some reservations, Mario was ready to make the pivot from hip-hop to jazz.

Photography by Ellen Lee

“I like to disrupt,” he says. “Whenever I don’t feel at home, I know it's time to pivot. For a while, I wasn’t feeling comfortable doing rap. I almost felt like I was being pushed out to a degree. I definitely felt a little bit of nerves when I was working on it, but at the same time, I was excited, because I knew I was pushing back against something that I kind of wanted to change anyway.”

After the release of his new project, Mario wants his fans to know that they can make what they want to make, and you don’t necessarily need everything to be liked by everyone. He also wants fans to know jazz is cool.

“The goal here is to bring jazz back to a certain popularity within the culture that I am already rooted in, so people can realize that rap, hip-hop, was birthed from jazz.”