The Man Behind the Mask: M Huncho Returns with The Wizard
- Valentina Reynolds
- 7 days ago
- 2 min read
There's something fitting about M Huncho calling an album The Wizard. He's spent his whole career as the man behind the mask, the voice you know without a face to put to it. So when he builds his new project around The Wizard of Oz, it doesn't feel like a concept he reached for. It feels like one he's been living in all along.
The album, 15 tracks via 10K Projects, opens with "A.L.O.T" and a scene pulled straight from Oz. Huncho sounds measured on it, easing you in, before he and longtime producer Quincy Tell Em settle into what they do best: melodies that float and production that knocks. That partnership sits at the heart of the record. Much like DOOM and Madlib, they seem to sharpen each other's strengths, and together the music ends up feeling greater than the sum of its parts.
Lead single "Wild N Free" brings in North Carolina's sosocamo, and the two go back and forth on money, success and the weight both carry. One minute it's retail therapy, the next it's real reflection, and that balance runs through the whole project. On "10 On The Go" Huncho speaks on the judgment he's faced over his faith, and rather than explain himself, he presents himself as he is instead of who others might want him to be.
The Oz characters are where the album gets most interesting. "Tin Man" finds him at his most withdrawn, changing numbers, avoiding people, retreating into a colder version of himself. Then "Cowardly Lion" opens it all up. He wrestles with what strength and weakness actually mean, reaffirms his support for Palestine and Sudan, and does it over some of the most affecting production on the record. It's one of the album's most powerful moments.
The football references are still here too. Myles Lewis-Skelly gets a nod on "Push The Button" and "Julio" draws from Julio Jones, small touches that anyone who's followed Huncho will recognise as part of how he's always written. Nafe Smallz and Headie One appear as well, on a feature list kept tight rather than stacked. "Outside" has the feel of a summer anthem waiting for its moment, and closer "Long Sleeve Henry" signs off with one of the most energetic performances he's given.
The Wizard doesn't reinvent what M Huncho does, it refines it. Years deep, mask still on, and he's still finding new corners of himself to reveal.
Words by Valentina Reynolds