Denver Rapper ENOLA MI Releases New Album

Maxwell Minné wants people to know that it’s fine to be alone.

“Being alone is a cool thing,” the Denver rapper says, “as long as you find positive ways to deal with it.”

Minné put that sentiment into the moniker under which he performs – ENOLA MI (the second word is pronounced “my”) – which spells out “I’m Alone” backwards. He’s previously used the name Maxw3ll Dolor and says he’s cycled through multiple aliases before finding one that fit. Minné adds that he’s a history buff and his name also evokes the Enola Gay, the B-29 used to drop the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima at the end of World War II.

Minné just released a three-track album, titled The Giant’s Causeway. The record takes its name from a rock formation in northern Ireland of the same name that is showcased prominently on the Led Zeppelin album Houses of the Holy. It was his favorite album growing up, and one of the reasons he got into music in the first place. The artwork from the record hung on his bedroom wall for several years.

“[The Giant’s Causeway] kind of represents my transition from that darker place to a place where I’m at now,” he says. “I’m able to write about it and express myself and connect with other people about the same topics that a lot of people don’t like to talk about.”

Minné says that he makes music to appeal to misfits. That’s how he’s always seen himself, even if he chose a profession that includes a good deal of shmoozing with other people.

“I’ve always been social,” he says, “but I’ve never enjoyed being social. I belong in my own realm, in my room making my own music. In my cave is where I belong. There is not a group or a type of people I hang out with.”

He’s experienced some darkness over the past few years, but he says he’s at a place now where he feels comfortable writing about it. The album, which he’s been crafting off and on for two years, concerns his life four years ago. Minné says he writes about addiction, alcoholism, anxiety, loneliness, depression, anger, instability and negative energy. By no metric is his music lighthearted, and he eschews the trappings of some hip-hop music that focuses more on material gain and general shallowness.

Minné isn’t just giving into darkness, however. He says his music carries a positive message beneath the harsh exterior.

“Everybody has their own thing,” he says. “That’s what this album is kind of about. It’s representing a transition. It’s like, ‘Okay, cool, this is what’s bothering you, and this is how you are coping with it negatively. Let’s turn it into something positive, and the causeway is the transition.'”

He says he went through a particularly bad bout with drugs and alcoholism a few years back. He is not completely sober now, and he still struggles with his relationship to various substances. But he’s trying to work past his demons, and that challenge is addressed on the album’s songs.

“The message is that it’s okay to be that way as long as you are moving toward something better,” he says. “A causeway is by definition a portion of land that allows people to travel over marshy waters.”

Minné worked with different producers on the album’s music, but the beats all possess the same inherent moodiness that ties them together sonically.

“A lot of it is very grungy,” he says. “A lot of it is very dark. But I have projects out there that are very soft. I kind of cover the spectrum with my music. But ENOLA MI is the idea of communicating with these people that don’t feel like they belong.”

Minné says he will primarily be viewed as a hip-hop artist, but he sees The Giant’s Causeway as opening a door to a more alternative sound as he moves forward creatively. He’s played music since he was a young kid and took on a variety of instruments before taking up a pen and writing rhymes as a sort of cheap therapy. Transitioning into other genres won’t be too hard. He just loves music.

Part of the shift, he says, springs from a distaste for the hip-hop industry in general and a desire to move away from it. He’s quick to say that he loves hip-hop, but a different sound is a better way to reach the people he wants to reach. He’s looking forward to the change.

“It’s a really shady industry,” he says. “It was a good starting point for me. I want to move away to this more alternative, grungy rock vibe. That’s where all this is headed.”

Check out The Giant’s Causeway on Spotify. More information on ENOLA MI is available on his Instagram page.