Rapsody has been considered one of the best emcees in hip-hop since breaking into the music world during the early 2010s, with her bars having been consistent and A1 all along the way. It’s one of the only things almost all hip-hop fans can agree on.
But when it comes to the content of the Snow Hill, North Carolina artist’s music, often it’s selfless and/or an objective critique of how humans can perceive themselves and the world surrounding them. Take her 2012 debut album, The Idea of Beautiful. Much of the project was centered around a concept of perception and the often dangerous biases that relegate what is beauty among humans. During an interview around the time of the album’s release, Rapsody essentially conflated the many interpretations of what beauty is, explaining that “the most beautiful thing is people get to be themselves and they don’t have to hide anything.”
On 2017’s Laila’s Wisdom, Rap reached back into her societally introspective bag with songs like the Kendrick Lamar-featured “Power,” where she critiqued power’s meaning and how it’s deployed. The selflessness above that has been a running theme in her music can also be tracked between songs like 2011’s “Thank H.E.R.,” which shows her appreciation for being included among hip-hop’s linage while the Eve track “Hatshepsut” runs as an ode to Queen Latifah (who’s featured on the song) and other female emcees whom she places on a throne similar to the wife of the Egyptian pharaoh the title’s inspired by.
All of this is to say that, in many ways, Rapsody’s new album is a departure from the already strong discography she’s assimilated over her nearly 15-year career in hip-hop, where she largely assumed observer. Playing much of the project (with a not-yet-publicly-revealed title) for BET earlier this week, one can already hear how much more internally its vision looks. She also describes the effort as her most personal to date.
What will be Rap’s fourth solo studio album is technically void of the usual suspects one would find in the liner notes of those past projects as well. The LP is self-executive produced, and while it may be influenced by some advice and guidance of folks like Terrace Martin, 9th Wonder and the Soul Council, it doesn’t feature their production. Rather, it’s her yearning for self–discovery–something her fans should be excited about.
“It was a little nerve-wracking for me because it was like, Can I do this? Am I gonna make the right decisions for myself?” she told BET during an interview. “But I learned that that was a little bit of me worrying about the wrong things, about the fans and what they’ll think when instead of just doing what I felt was good and telling the story that I wanted to tell, and that’s what art is.”
Evident of this newer personal focus is the forthcoming LP’s first single, “Asteroids,” where she declares during the opening bars, “First name Marlanna, last name Evans / Underappreciated, but I’m still the most respected / My insecurity is the fear of being rejected / When you this raw they listen with an erection.” Yeah, she’s talking her s**t now and more forcefully than ever – however, that didn’t come without some reflection surrounding her career over the four-year hiatus she’s been on since Eve.
“It was a time where I was like, do people really even care? Am I going to reach this level of success that I thought you needed to be at?” she explains. “And I’m just like, Yeah, that’s ego. Don’t worry about that. Just do it because you love it. That was a real thought like I think it’s time for me to hang up the jersey, but nah, we still going.”
Over the past four years, much has happened in Rapsody’s life. Like many musicians, the coronavirus pandemic set many of her plans back significantly. She also had to heal from different relationships she’s had that have been rollercoasters in their own right. For her, healing had to take place before music could be recorded – and even then, it was a long process to find the right thoughts and message to describe that trauma.
“Once I got into the healing part, I said I have to honor this time and journey and I don’t have to rush my process,” Rapsody says of the LP, which she reveals she recorded 360 songs for. “One thing I always wanted to make sure of is that I make music so hopefully my fans will wait for me to just to go through my process.”
That process included a different cast of producers and features while bringing the finished product to those like 9th and the Soul Council for their thoughts. “Sometimes as artists we can get so in love with the art we don’t know how to separate ourselves from it,” she adds. “So I need people around me that I trust their ear to help kind of guide me.”
For Rapsody, her forthcoming album, which is currently slated for a February 2024 release, is an opportunity to reflect on how she got here and allow herself to be more vulnerable than she has been. It’s a whole new enterprise that will give her fans perhaps the best look at the artist within and the trials and tribulations she’s experienced that they can relate to.
“It was a hard journey, but I’m so grateful for it because I’m so much more confident. I’m so proud of what I created, and how it feels and everything,” she says. “You can’t grow unless you’re uncomfortable, and I was very uncomfortable, but it allowed me to do a lot of growing so it was a good time.
“I’m grateful I took the time to believe in myself and go after something I loved, and I’m thankful for the village of people that helped me along the journey,” Rapsody continues. “Now to be here in this season and to have impact and to be an example and to make it easier for the next ones to come up after me, just thank God. It’s just a moment for me to just be grateful because this culture has done so much for me in my life.”
