August 28, 2019

Rapsody’s New Album Honors the Generational Power of Black Women

Homages include Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey, and Sojourner Truth

Rapsody

Jose Gongora

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You know them by their first names: Oprah. Serena. Michelle. Sojourner. Influential black women who have shaped cultural moments and historical movements across generations. These icons—among others you’re sure to recognize—were the inspiration for Grammy-nominated rapper Rapsody’s latest studio album, Eve.

As Mother Jones Podcast host Jamilah King describes her, Rapsody is probably your favorite rapper’s favorite rapper. The North Carolina native has been one of the most prominent voices in hip-hop over the last decade. Her raps are melodic, full of witty puns and nods to her self-described “tomboy femininity” and Southern traditions. She’s been defying the stereotypes often applied to women rappers since she burst onto the scene in 2007. 

On this week’s episode of the Mother Jones Podcast, King sits down with Rapsody to discuss art, politics, representation, and what keeps her going in these turbulent political times. 

Listen to the latest episode of the Mother Jones Podcast below:

“There’s a way I can add to the movement because we can’t afford to be silent anymore,” said Rapsody. “Desperate times call for desperate measures, and it really pushes a culture forward, and I think hip-hop is at the forefront of that.”  

Rapsody’s third studio album, Eve, was released last Friday. While it isn’t explicitly a political anthem, its empowering messages are not hidden either.

“Representation and what we see in the media—they don’t show the balance and range that is black women all the time,” said Rapsody. “We’re all different and it’s okay to be different. This is what the world looks like, so that’s beautiful.” 

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

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Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

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