''13th Floor'' is the debut album from Canadian hip hop artist
Haviah Mighty
Haviah Mighty (born December 17, 1992) is a Canadian rapper from Brampton, Ontario. She rose to prominence in 2016 as a member of the hip hop group the Sorority, before releasing several EPs on her own, most notably ''Flower City'', in 2017. He ...
. The album was released on May 10, 2019,
and was the winner of the
.
Background and release
On March 23, 2019, Mighty announced her debut studio album, ''13th Floor'', via social media and that the album would arrive in 2019.
CBC Music
CBC Music (formerly known as CBC FM, CBC Stereo and CBC Radio 2) is a Canadian FM radio network operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It used to concentrate on classical and jazz. In 2007 and 2008, the network transitioned towards a ...
and ''
Exclaim!
''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features in-depth coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly Exclaim! print magazine publishes 7 ...
'' ''described'' the album as one of the year's most anticipated Canadian releases.
The album's title derives from the phenomenon of high-rise buildings in many countries often not designating a
13th floor due to the superstition that the number 13 is bad luck.
[Brad Wheeler]
"‘It is time’: Haviah Mighty becomes first full-on hip-hop artist to win Polaris Music Prize"
''The Globe and Mail
''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...
'', September 17, 2019. According to Haviah Mighty, "the 13th floor is something that we remove from our reality because it is something that we don’t understand and therefore we dismiss it"; the title therefore represents naming and speaking about and acknowledging issues and narratives that have been dismissed or ignored.
The album was released on May 10, with a corresponding performance on CBC Music's First Play Live.
Reception
Max Mertens, writing for ''
Pitchfork
A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves.
The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...
'', called the album Mighty's "most cohesive and narratively ambitious project to date".
The album won the 2019 Polaris Music Prize, making Mighty the first hip-hop artist and first black woman to win the award.
Track listing
References
{{Authority control
2019 debut albums
Haviah Mighty albums
Polaris Music Prize-winning albums