Yung Mavu's "Black Magic" Harry Potter Rap is Lighting Up the Charts

As Harry Potter has aged, the most persistent critique against it has been the series’ inability to shake its overarching whiteness. Sure, there are characters like Dean Thomas, Lee Jordan, and the Patil twins — but until Harry Potter and the Cursed Child made room for a Black Hermione, the main cast predominantly looked like the kinds of people who populate English lanes like Privet Drive.

But the Antwerp-based rapper Noah Mavuela, better known as Yung Mavu, is changing that with a Harry Potter video called “Black Magic.” To date, it has racked up over one million views. Decked out in a Gryffindor scarf, a wand, and shades, Mavu dances in a subway tunnel to a remix of the Harry Potter theme song. All the while, he raps lyrics that combine events of the Harry Potter books with a more Black narrative — one the series has been missing.

Of course, J.K. Rowling herself has retroactively added more multiculturalism into the series, first giving Cursed Child’s Black Hermione her blessing as not going against canon, and then specifying that every kind of religion is represented in Hogwarts except Wiccans. Critics have said that Rowling’s retcons are too little too late, but it’s nice to see fans like Yung Mavu taking things into their own hands to whip up a little Black Magic.