Rapsody: God, Grammys & Gold Hoops

FanDuel is now available everywhere in the U.S. So you can get in on the sports action no matter where you are. Including these places. Make this your most rewarding season ever with FanDuel. Age and location restrictions apply. Product availability varies by market. See FanDuel.com for eligibility. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. Did you know for the last 500 years they've been shrinking Africa on world maps? Whether it's penis envy or map making, white people always mad about how big we are. The U.N. just passed a resolution to correct the map and unsurprisingly the United States voted against it. They also voted against a resolution to designate slavery as the gravest crime against humanity. It's almost as if they know that if they admit the value of black people they'd have to pay for enslaving us. Which brings me to this bullshit about overpopulation. You got Bill Gates trying to sterilize us. We don't trust that Epstein ass n***a. They tell us. The problem is that we keep having children we can't feed. Instead of the problem being that Europe keeps stealing our food. That's like f***ing a n***a wife and making them pay you child support. F***ing you the father! There's a massive amount of space in Africa. Nigeria, Sudan, and Congo alone are bigger than the whole European Union. You can fit the U.S., China, India, and Mexico inside of Africa. Here comes that penis envy again. Africa has 65% of the world's uncultivated farmland. Half of the world's diamonds. 40% of the gold. How can we be poor? That's the trick though. Rob you and make you think you broke. My guest on the Vic Mensa show this week is my family, Rhapsody. One of the greatest living MCs. Her new album, God Got an Afro and Gold Hoops, was inspired by a trip to the continent. Pick the orange from the tree. Peel the layers back on the world. Strange fruit. They still swing your bodies in A to L. You know it's solid when they got Don Lemon inside a cell. Divided by black and white like Karl Lagerfeld. For the dollar bills. Forced to produce for corporate suits. Blood on that orange like O.J. Simpson juice. Presidents assemble troops for a slice. To the pie, one dips deep, you see the bombs. Joining the Vic Mensa show is my loved one, the homegirl, Rhapsody. Hey, what's up my brother? Yeah, it's love. Absolutely. Fresh. What is your concept of God? I love that question. My concept of God is an energy, a source. I see God in all things. It's shapeless, genderless. Formless, a creator. Yeah, you know, in Islam, Allah is technically a non-gendered being. Absolutely. That was one of the things that really attracted me to Islam when I first started studying it about five years ago now, maybe coming on six years ago. And the idea of Allah is this non-gendered being because it's an entity too great. It's too great to be fit into a gender or something conventional, a human form. You know what I mean? Beyond comprehension. Exactly. And I love that because I think I've pushed back against the Western idea of God and felt throughout life, much resentment oftentimes towards it because I felt that a white bearded white man in the sky, just didn't line up with like my idea of divine presence, you know what I'm saying? Now, when I think about God got an afro and gold hoops, though, it does connect me to the idea of of God as a woman. But God as a being beyond comprehension can also be a man and a woman. But I think if anything, God would be a woman to me. If anything, you know, but. To create life. So exactly. But the title is so much deeper than that, right? It's interesting you say that because one of the inspirations for this album was Sister Soldiers, No Disrespect. And I called her because I wanted her to do the interludes. And we had a great conversation. I love how she challenges me. And, you know, she practices Islam as well. She's Muslim. She was like, I can't be a part of it because I don't play with God like that. Right. And I didn't take any offense to it. I understood the context because we're in the same world. Like she said, rap, I challenge you. Don't mix. Don't mix the truth with a lie. Right. She said, even if it's satire. And I respected that. But for me, it wasn't about necessarily giving God a gender. It was about anybody seeing God in themselves because he is genderless, because he is faceless, raceless, all the things. And we do live in a westernized society where we've been painted this picture of Jesus or God. You know, as white, bearded hair, blue eyes, whatever you have it. So it was me, like reclaiming, like, no, like God, we see God in black people, too. You know, don't forget our even our spirituality of Africa, Yoruba, whatever spirituality practice. But you should see God in yourselves and all people. So it was me saying, you know, God can have an afro and gold hoops, too. You know, and that was more of it to even create the conversation and to have a space for allowing everybody into this world of how they connect with God. Man, one of the most insidious tricks that colonialism ever played has been to convince us to hate our own gods. When you can convince someone that their God is, in fact, the devil, you have absolute control of them because you can tell them, no, you must follow my God. My God says you will belong in servitude. Your God is the devil. So what you thought to be divine is actually very evil. I've been thinking about that, like, as it relates to misogyny in general. I saw this manosphere dickhead talking about how, like, vaginas are disgusting. And I was like, man, you really just hate yourself. And you must never ain't getting where life comes from, like where life comes from. But I started going into it and I'm thinking, hey, the mitochondrial Eve. Yeah. The unbroken matrilineal DNA transfer from an ancient African woman into every person living today. So really, misogyny is just self-hatred because every single person contains the mitochondrial Eve. So if you hate women and you hate yourself, you add in misogynoir and it's just an expansion. Like really, white supremacy is really just self-hate because at the end of the day, you got that mitochondrial Eve. I believe in you, whether you want to admit it or not. That black ass mitochondrial Eve, you know what I'm saying? It is the motherland for a reason, you know? So talk about the motherland. You've recorded a lot of this in in Africa. You have a South African group on the on the first record. And in the album title, it was inspired by some time you spent in Ghana. It was. We didn't. I didn't want to jump into recording in Johannesburg. I wanted to be inspired. I wanted to to to feel the continent, you know, in a different way. I had been twice before, 10 years before I went last summer. But I didn't really get to insert myself in the culture and really learn and feel things. So I went to Ghana first. I spent six days. We didn't do any partying. You know, we didn't we didn't you know, we didn't we didn't do the nightlife. Congratulations on that. Yeah, it was. They loved it. It was on my agenda. But I was in the hotel and I met this this tour guide by the name of Hector, we called him the mayor. He was like, you don't need to do any of that. I'm going to take you here. I was like, are we out? And the first morning we left, we had a five, six hour ride to the Ashanti region. And it was five, six in the morning. The sun was coming up. It was beautiful. Like I was not even really present because I was so that blue hour, that morning blue hour in Ghana is like, you know, none fucking other at this type of time of year, it was it was so, you know, I'm setting the scene and I'm I just want to hear good music. But what I'm hearing is like this Westernized Elvis in a choir shirt type gospel music. And I'm yeah, it just it took me out of it. And I'm just like, where am I? Like, you know, I'm in Ghana. I'm in the motherland. I'm not here in American gospel. Yeah. Westernized, particularly white. Not even any real like soul that our church has in it. So I asked him to turn the radio and he turned and it was another one. I asked him, you know, I said, can you turn it again? Another one. I said. I said, why is this all that plays on the radio at this hour? He's like, this is what everybody listens to. And my friend Gretzky was with me. He was like, well, you know, my plane ride is a bunch of white Christians and they're coming to, you know, the open churches out here and it just it brought me back into even in the motherland, you know, on the radio, you can't even hear your own spiritual music, you know what I'm saying? And how much Western religion has been indoctrinated in in the continent. So by the time I got to Joburg, it just sat with me, you know, even in America, like you say, like, you know, Jesus is painted everywhere. This white guy with beard and, you know, Dena made this beat and I was just like, man. god i got an afro like that's that's the first thing that came to my head so i just i was just around the house singing it and that's where we we started at it was just that simple you know um music for me is just a real snapshot of where i am and my albums and everything was calling me home to africa you know i'll be on instagram and any style that i like clothing wise african you know nigerian so i was like i gotta go home and that's the story i told of everything that i learned everything that i was awoke awoken to um inspired by like you know man there's so many colonial symbols that are so prevalent in ghanaian culture that pissed me the fuck off like in court they wear these dumb ass wigs that look like thomas jefferson and like george washington and shit um , you know i'm saying you you go around to gas stations and corner stores it's bleaching cream so often just right in arms reach of a child right you know i lost my auntie to uh bleaching that was the song we did together yeah she bleached her skin for a long time and ultimately got skin cancer and it just like it tears me apart it breaks my heart to see my people so mentally enslaved as bob marley said emancipate yourself from mental slavery number ourselves can free our minds because oftentimes like the visible chains right have long been discarded and much more uh long-lasting mental chains remain but that's why i feel like it's on us to shine the light you know what i mean to to speak about it and find a fun way to like find a fun way to make it resonate with people which was why i loved when you brought in chelsea um who did the big shout out yo chelsea's from chicago man i know i did a shoot with her like super gifted maybe like four years ago i see she's really having i had heard she was having a moment and then i saw it in your video and i'm like oh let's go she's having she's brilliant i'm like oh let's go she's having she's brilliant i mean that was brilliant that was diamond my home my stylist um you know we were getting fits for that and she was like she sent me the the real she said we got to use these and i had seen it i was like absolutely so i just i slid in chelsea's dm i was like hey that's the best way though you know yeah i like i like to have one-on-one that's an alignment though between you and her and like the fact that she's in fashion and presenting a a new creative idea of black womanhood and beauty and i think that lines up with what you do like from the idea of beautiful to eve to god got an afro and gold hoops that um you're very intentional about presenting black women as the standard for beauty and i wanted to ask you like about your ideology behind that i grew up around strong women in a village of 13 children and there's five women and i've always watched them be the leaders of you know our family um they always were presentable whenever they left the house you know they had to look a certain way dressed a certain way they loved on each other they complimented each other um you know they looked after each other's children like all i knew was beautiful black strong intelligent women didn't matter what the family was going through they're on the phone they're huddled up they're figuring it out they're sacrificing for each other and that's the depiction of women that i you know that's how when i see black women that's what i see you know and i have this great affinity especially for older black women i was a huge fan of cicely tyson tony morrison maya angelo nikki giovanni like you know these are the women and stories that i was exposed to growing up in my home so that's what i that's what i know and that's the story that's the only story that i can give because that's my truth that's the truth that i see in us and our people and especially as a black woman going through this world and i've been through the colorism you know i've seen uh the hyper sexualization of us and our art um as very one-sided story of who we are especially in hip-hop and it was just all ways for me to bring harmony and to bring another truth that i know of who we are and you know that's what it that's what it was for me in every album that's why it's easy for me to celebrate and speak the names of so many women yeah i love you know like it's no ego it's i told somebody recently i realized when i got in this business i was always looking for village i always wanted a family in this music industry that reminded me of the family that i grew up in and it was never ego it was always about doing things together so it was always about me celebrating all women you know because they are a reflection of me i'm a reflection of them you know and james baldwin has that conversation with nikki giovanni yeah if i love you i can't lie to you of course you can lie to me and you will if you love me and you're going off with maddie someplace you're lying to me because what the hell do i care about the truth i care if you're there that i feel is one of the most quintessential moments of black thought and i know you also had a conversation with nikki giovanni i did a short one what did you learn from her i feel like she taught me so much in her conversation with james baldwin just like the idea of she was like basically you go outside and you smile for massa every day at work whether it's a fake smile or whatever the fuck it is like but you come home to me with a frown like lie to me too like at the end of the day that's a bare minimum request like don't don't give put on a fake smile for everybody else and you ain't even got the energy to give me that you know uh and i thought that was like so it it impacted me it impacted the way that i think about how i deal with my own family and being like you know at to be intentional about my smile how i how i utilize my smile you know yeah and like what was your conversation with nikki giovanni like like that's crazy um we did a interview i want to say it was for essence um what i learned most about her was just how unapologetic she was and that she was big on the bridge especially between the elders and the youth like her love for tupac having a tatted thug life on her arm she got thug life on you know that no no i didn't know that you did not know i'm not even really in tune with like late life nikki giovanni like i know she's got a crazy new documentary like movies she made as an elder i don't even know in my mind she's that young nikki giovanni god nikki got thug life tatted on her arm like oh she's cool you know one of my favorite poems is a uh essay she wrote it's a letter to tupac in her book so you know nikki was very just raw and at the time and she was just going to tell it to you straight i don't care who you are you're going you're going to get it how i'm going to get this work you're going to get this work loaded it taught me to be fearless like in your art in your speech to always speak truth um you know from the short conversations that's that's what i got from her you know be intentional about your art you know what i'm saying um so i wish i had more chance to talk with her but that conversation with her and james like i always look at things i try to from a 360 perspective right and she made such beautiful poignant parts but it also made me like look at james too like for sure so for black men like where do they have a space where they just can be real you get what i'm saying like where can they go and not smile and be upset that the world is the way it is and how do we honor both yeah you know what i mean like there's so much work to do like that's why i love no disrespect my sister soldiers so much because it's really it's a book about her childhood from like four or five years old until she graduates college but it's about the relationship between black and african men and women and she tells the book through all these different relationships and what i got most from it one of my favorite quotes she was like i love my people i'm not afraid of my people i know my people i'm not afraid of them and you know she really just put into perspective how much deprogramming we have to do and when you think about it it can feel so hopeless like ridiculously hopeless when you think about you know just our community uh drugs incarceration um profiling uh jail uh welfare how they separate the men from the women and then you know she talks about in the book that there's this welfare house it's like a big hotel they made into a welfare house and how many families without fathers and their kids and they're exposed to uh poverty and then you know everything that comes with that uh being raped watching murder seeing drugs and these kids they have all of this on them and she's like this is just one building in one city yeah and in brooklyn there may be 30 of these buildings but then think about new york and then think about la and then think about detroit and it becomes so hopeless it's like damn we got so much work to do but we know like how powerful our art is and our voices and just sparking the seed it necessitates it necessitates the narrative warfare from our end i think a lot about what i do is narrative warfare you know because i know that we're under attack you know fred chairman fred hampton says politics is just war without bloodshed come on and when we spit and i feel like this is our way of engaging in revolutionary combat in a lot of in a lot of ways you know what i'm saying because it's a it's a political attack right upon us even to poison our minds to the point that sometimes when i'm in chicago i come out the house you know my eyes are like a hawk yeah you know and i see another black man and if he's looking a certain way got a style kind of like me uh in my mind it's like i'll kill this right now right not because i not because i hate myself i don't think i do but because like i've been trained to fear myself you know and i have to like have this internal mental battle with myself be like he's tying his shoe you know he's just he's just existing you know what i mean but i think i'm also colored by the traumas of like i saw somebody get killed on that corner exactly you know what i mean like i remember like i just kind of like walked over his body you know and like so when i'm on that corner like always in the back of my mind it's like you could get killed here exactly you know and alert and it's in and it's got me in a certain way and it makes me think about what you say we're like where do black men go to cry yeah for me the shower i get too emotional because it's like you don't want it to be seen yeah by your family you know shedding a tear and you feel that you're supposed to be strong and you've been convinced that vulnerability is weak so you're in the shower you're sticking your head out the bathroom window you know and and you grow and you realize that it was a damn lie yeah you know that having vulnerability is far stronger than having some false machismo masculinity you know yeah and it does so much more for you but i don't know it feels like a lifelong um i'm glad you could cry my brother hey man yeah man that's powerful i don't know where where i heard it or read it or saw it but it was like a guy saying you know i don't know where i heard it or read it or saw it but it was like a god saying hey man that's powerful i don't know where i where i heard it or read it or saw it but it was like a guy saying what's what's the basketball player uh beasley mike beasley he says i cry in the rain and that's what he said michael beasley is a poet ain't he michael beasley is a poet he said so much i cry in the rain so nobody don't see it like he is a poet he said so much he's so brilliant he's amazingly brilliant i've been thinking about that interview so deeply because i've been like yo like how to be that real right and that raw and without fear it's so fearless when you become aware of the power of vulnerability you start to realize like yo the more vulnerable i could be it's like that's that's fearlessness you know freedom too and one of one of my favorite um one of my favorite songs of yours of recent years from please don't cry is stand tall when the album came out man i felt like i listened to that song on repeat a lot because it was forgive me when i fall short trying to stand stand and stand tall it felt like it excused me for uh my mistakes you know i mean for my like shortcomings and like everything i up you know and it gave language to like a feeling i feel you know because oftentimes i think i've attempted it i've attempted at something righteous and maybe gone about it in a way that fell a bit short yeah you know what i mean what if we could democratize communication text now is doing just that with wireless it's a phone service delivered through an app that gives you free and unlimited talking texts on nationwide 5g for zero dollars a month with no carrier locking you in if you want data on top of that they got monthly and weekly plans that you control stop getting taxed for your phone service man download text now today and start your service in minutes fan duel is now available everywhere in the u.s so you can get in on the sports action no matter where you are including these places make this your most rewarding season ever with fan duel agent location restrictions apply product availability varies by market see fanduel.com for eligibility gambling problem call 1-800 gambler you question from that song you question a lot how people are constantly concerned with sexuality do you feel like that's a trivial question like as you muse upon in that song like do you feel like that's a misguided focus i don't think so it's it's something i wanted to understand and process to even set me free with nobody else you understand what i'm saying saying like you know i had to ask myself why are people so concerned with it why are they so judgmental about what a certain type of sexuality looks like and why does it bother me and i think the last question is the most important sometimes you have to ask it in order to have an understanding too for yourself so i don't think it's trivial at all um i think with understanding comes freedom you know when you understand the world we understand society we understand everything that's at play uh that puts these questions even on a platform like i don't have to make it mine i can leave it you know what i'm saying like i understand where it is and where it sits but i don't have to make it mine i don't have to make it my problem it's just like okay you know what i'm saying so that's what it is for me um because that hour when was about showing that we all are human and we all are going through human experiences and that's okay like nobody's perfect here um no day is perfect um you know except ice cubes day except ice cubes like today i didn't even have to use my ak like the bar is in hell for you to have a good day the only thing that needs to happen is you don't need to use an ak god damn fucking like profound exactly a lot of folks felt that no that was so profound in a real macabre like dark way it was like i didn't have to spray somebody everybody got to live and go home i came in my way one of my favorite uh records in hip-hop history hip-hop is so many things to us you know it's our encyclopedia it's our history but books it's our cnn you know it's our bible it's our webster's dictionary and at the same time it's a staple of woman-hating yeah in so many ways through so many decades when you were falling in love with hip-hop and as someone that is deeply in love with hip-hop how do you reconcile that ninth uh such an amazing scholar you know that's who i came up under and we used to have this conversation a lot and he gave me a beautiful perspective that i hold and he was like uh hip-hop is just some microcosm of the society we live in we like to point the finger at hip-hop yeah but hip-hop is putting the mirror to everything else let's not act like it's not prevalent in politics in film like you know what jay-z say like scarface the rapper did more than scarface the movie for me so you know um for me it's understanding capitalism and when they get a hold of our culture how intentional they can be with uh what messages are pushed to the forefront you know um you read about that um secret meeting where there was all the record label executives in the 90s and they were like we're only going to harvest you know self-destructive music um yeah i've heard about that uh i've i've heard and read the harvard report you know about that nah so the harvard report is uh a report um where these kids in harvard for a big record executive were sent out to study the chitlin circuit and how we kept the money and the music within our communities and it was they wanted a piece of what we had the money so it's like how do we infiltrate that and part of it is you know you had to do away with mom and pop stores um uh independent radio gone and if you go through the list all of these things happened You know what I'm saying? So it was a concentrated effort to like, how do we implement trait this powerful music that's happening and how do we get money from it and now it's become this prison the pipeline thing like you know so those are the things that that i focus on like everything else that they've thrown at us this is another thing and sadly we fall victim to it you know um so it's like you know how do we educate each other so we understand what's going on and reverse it it could be done it could be reversed you know y'all seen that that he got that line about um people speak about hip-hop as if it's some giant in the mountains disconnected from the people like right it's people doing bad hip-hop gonna be doing bad if people all right people gonna be all right that's fear of man yeah yeah that that's like the most just eloquent depiction of how hip-hop is made to be this boogeyman the scapegoat right for all of america's evils you know i mean when truly it is it is a mirror you know what i'm saying it's truly a mirror they bringing it to your door like you know i i can't necessarily hate on a brother who's expressing what his day-to-day life looks like in his music that's what you gotta think about when you think about chief keith coming up exactly that's what he lived chop like you know literally this is their true experience you know i mean as a kid from the same city same side of town different walk of life so many of the people in my life right were on that exact side of the coin or maybe mortal enemies to them and i would see like you know i remember 15 16 it's just like constant shootouts you know i mean people just being murdered living in real war you know and like that's how cnn like actual war and they were like this this is my life experience every day we didn't we didn't build these guns they came on a freight train it stopped on 95th street and it intentionally was sent through the hood was given he'll sprinkle a little crack on it take the gun take the crack let's see what you come up with exactly exactly um yeah it's the problem comes to when we glorify it you know and it's it's how do we hip-hop does that yeah you know like how are we honest about it you know and and say our truth but at the same time how do how do we keep from glorifying it like this is what this is the cool thing to do you know this is just my truth but it's not necessarily something that we should want for each other so you know and i think that just comes into like having these conversations you know i'm saying like i don't think it's by accident you know this that a teen summit or a different world is replaced with the love and the love of god and the love of god and love and hip-hop you know as the number one show first time i went to africa the very first time you know you get your passport they say welcome home yeah that's what i'm waiting for my welcome home and she goes let me ask you a question i'm like yeah she's like are the women in america the same as the ones on love and hip-hop i was like damn you know out of all the images like this is that you know i'm saying narrative real live narrative warfare yeah so how do we create harmony where you know like i think i do see that amongst women in hip-hop in many ways harmony that is yeah that like coming back that women in hip-hop seem to be very intentional about supporting each other you know saying at the same token it feels like sometimes the idea of female mcs is like part of the relationship between the two of you is like being partitioned from male mcs yeah and you know when i think about what you do i feel like you're just nicer than 99 percent of niggas in general red blue male female asexual alien if they had alien rappers you'd be nicer than most of them too four legs a tail from the cosmos you know um but do you ever feel boxed in by the label of female mc like it was really big thing too in the beginning of my career like i was very anti don't call me a female mc don't call me fmc um for that very reason because i felt like it was used to separate us as other you know as y'all go play in the sandbox together you know let the men handle it you know let us be the big dogs um and i never wanted to be boxed in by that way you know this this isn't like sports you know this isn't like sports you know where we're physically different you know like you're just built physically to do certain things that i necessarily can't do at the same level all the time um you know you have your anomalies of women but when it comes to this mental game right baby we're on the same playing field you know it's like you just said like when you write it's like a conversation with yourself um language art like the skill the intelligence that comes with it the creativity um so it was always about just being an mc you know i don't need to put a gender in front of it you either dope or you not that was the only bar that i measured myself against um you know so when i would hear like female mc fmc you one of the best female rappers where i'm at with everybody else because i'm bigger than that you know i'm doper than that i work too hard for you to just put me over here i ain't got to be your number one but baby like we're not doing that you know um so you know it was just a way for me to give back to the culture like a queen latifah mc light a lauren lauren is is top five let's not get it twisted yeah i mean lauren could very very well just be top one she could too you know i'm saying like by any metric like by any metric that's not a thing at all you know so that's what it was um and two like defining what female look like in hip-hop you know like female mc like what the fuck is that like what i mean what are we talking about having babies only like or whatever you know everybody can have babies you know what i'm we talking about there was only one time where i was like i understand the empowerment in it i was at a black girls rock event which beverly bond used to do and um at that event this was the first time that uh i got to perform alongside both mc light and lauren hill um mumu fresh was there shout out to mumu that's my girl crazy talented and it was at that event just seeing all these amazingly talented gifted women and all these women here celebrating where you're like okay i understand the other side of how empowering it is because we are underrepresented the camaraderie exactly and the representation that is lacking we're like yeah like that is a female mc and female to us means i'm just a woman but i'm still dusting your ass like sure in that space i got it so you know i've been balancing like depending on the space you in it's like it's like when you say uh certain words they can have different context on the inflection you put on it you know so i feel that that's that's where i sit with you know female mc now i just think i'm so dead i say it again man it feels good to expose these fools seeing straight through the bs they thought was gonna slide hear that wireless company because we can shave you loud text now cuts the clownery nationwide 5g instant activation and a data plan that moves how you do pay what you want or not at all show these carriers we ain't paying for stupid because we're way too smart to pay dumb some of the women in hip-hop are just the hardest rappers like the hardest nervous talk about it lauren yeah you and no name and my sister aja monet and tiara whack little sims yes and uh it's some mcs from chicago named mother nature my homegirl john doe just like transcendent female mcs neptune 21 neptune xii yes yo i had neptune on this uh i did a showcase in south by southwest which is low-key i think like one of the first times i met you or saw you rock was when we did something south by southwest eons ago and uh and i had neptune come out there like fly out and rock on the showcase i mean she was like the heart of the show and she was like the heart of the show and she was like the heart artist artist there you know i mean it was like a mixture of many many genres and different races and genders but like neptune was probably like the toughest artist you know what i'm saying without a doubt super talented and gifted she's she's actually has a a piece on the interlude on my new album really yeah yeah yeah let's go you snap she that makes sense to me though and what i love about neptune too is that she's a self-contained movement like she has a non-profit organization. She got a whole clique of black women that are in all her videos. and like a community it does something for the listener to be like oh a bunch of people believe in this you know saying like it's a movement yeah they're all showing up and it's bigger than music you know like eating people and philly that's that's that's that's her movement um yo you do have a bar though about sometimes i feel why lauren left or something like that you got a bar about why lauren left yeah man i think about lauren and i don't know why i just don't even think about her as having left i know she only ever did one studio album and a live album as a solo artist but i just think that one album those two albums to me are better than people's 80 albums and mixtapes one of them by themselves could be and she gave me 100 it's enough for me like on a deserted island just me and wilson you know saying on some castaway shit miseducation i'm good i'm good but she gave you another one oh my god unplugged yeah y'all can't handle the truth in the courtroom of lies i knew you was gonna spit that one come on oh my god the plaintiff and then like she's black like i still can't i almost really still can't wrap my head around pieces of that album like how she did the fingerprint picking guitar and wrapped at the same time right it's like it blows my mind what do you think about why lauren left though um i mean from i could say from what i've read you know she just had to do it her way and not not from an ego type of way but uh uh people controlling you and you know putting the pressure on you to do a certain thing like i think that was her way to rebel in a way or do things that felt good to her you know one of the best records yeah come on um like i would love to speak to her you know if she wanted to share and get a deeper understanding but that's from my understanding so far um you know she talks about she got into it because she loved the culture and she had something to say and when you make something that impactful you know and that's successful to them oh yeah told me stories about when they were opening for her on that tour they say lauren hill come into every show on a helicopter you feel me they like we wanted to say what up it's like that's the homie but it's hard to dap a up when they in a helicopter and you were on in a tour bus yes so it's like you got something that commercially successful and what comes with it when people see like oh you a money maker and she got a different type of love for it she like i don't i'll let all this go and you know what she said to protect my love for it and protect myself that's what i why i think lauren left part of the reason i cannot confirm nor deny but that's my understanding and what she says in that album too is after the song rebel she says it's funny that this comes after it because when i did that she said it's funny that this comes after it because when i did that you know what she says and here's what i found it's just like the water come on i felt this way come on just like the water that's my favorite just my favorite song on that album and possibly lauren's song one of my favorite songs of all time just like water adam visit theory is one of mine yeah that's another one just the title alone the poetry of that title oh man yo you you had a crazy process on your last album that inspired me a lot i remember calling you about it yeah and then you gave me game on it that you had a set of images yeah that guided some of the emotions that you felt you wanted to convey and that you put these images up around your space and you used them as like constellations to lead you towards the north star yeah it was it was my way to to lead me but also to speak to my team right so they could understand what i was thinking visually what i saw things that i felt and i learned this from alicia keys it's my very first writing session i ever did and i walked in her studio and she was getting her nails done so i was just walking around the space and she had all these different photos up and she came out um and i was looking at one i think it was a deconstructed bus and she's like what do you see and we just had a conversation about it and we went through it and she was like you know this is what i do and i was so inspired by that so on this one i went to pinterest and it would be poems it would be words it would be photos i think i told you for a diary of a mad me and s1 i went to texas to work with s1 and he let me put him up in the studio um and um i picked up one it was fingers that had honey on them and it was dripping and then there was one of a dog it was half man half dog and the dog was like i like mad as right and i said you know this is how i feel when niggas cheat on me you know what i'm saying i said but this picture of the honey is i don't know what it's pulling from me but i'm i said just make what do you hear like beat wise for the honey he took the drums and put them in reverse to make it feel like they were sticky and i was like that's that's so brilliant and then the aggression came from the photo of the dog and it would allow me to tell my story of like exactly like i'm mad as hell like i feel like this dog like there's one side you got this this face and it's stoic but in the inside i want to like choke you out you know what i'm saying like you know what i'm saying before you have your emotional maturity or intelligence um you know and and that's how we spoke with all those songs through photos it might be like coast of people dancing you know motion joy is color uh i was listening to grace jones i was listening to grace jones a lot of soul aquariums you know that's how i bring people into my world that's you know that's my rosetta stone you know before i let you go we've all had a moment where we needed a new number my number got leaked online my home girl needed one because she got blocked and she needed to let him know that was the wrong decision text now handles that and a lot more their phone service delivered through an app that gives you free and unlimited talking text on nationwide 5g covered by ads so you can save money data plans available when you need them no commitments no carrier locking you in download the text now app today and take control of your service grace jones with the damn art direction oh man when you said colors for for a moment i thought about colorism and i called a bar where you said when you were 12 you felt like you were too dark yeah i went through i went do you remember what made you feel like that you feel that way um you're doing like some meditation go back to that how does it make you feel i think that was on complexion right on yeah you said when i was 12 i felt like i was too dark yeah me and dot did not have to have a long conversation because i i lived it i already knew what it felt like you know that age it was late 80s early 90s it was you know all the beautiful women you saw on the tv shows i felt like were like lighter complexion or when you go get a barbie doll they don't have a lot of black ones you know um uh watching the boys talk to my sister and you know use the term like i love me a red bone you know it's those little things where you think like a child ain't really paying attention but we kids at that age are sponges they soak up everything and even like 20 years later 20 something years later i'm taking my niece at the time who's three to to get a barbie doll and it's the same thing she goes i don't want the black one i want the white one i said why you don't why you don't want the black one it's not pretty you know and i called my sister i was like this happened today like we gotta we gotta work on this now you know what i'm saying yeah you know and that's why the title of this album is so important it's you know these kids have to see themselves representation matters even beyonce putting out the sacred thing and talking about why jay locked his hair was so blue could see herself and beauty and her dad like he has hair like hers um you know i'm getting tagged where you know kids have these braids and bees and they're watching the video and i shake my bees and then they shake theirs like it's things like that where you know they get to have a a deeper curiosity or representation and sometimes we have you know not even past barbie dolls or what's defined beautiful for black women on tv but even in spirituality like i can see god in myself too you know what i'm saying so that doll test too that's like that doll classic yeah rorschach test yeah to see how americans have been poisoned and how black people have been taught to believe that the white barbie doll is more beautiful so you celebrate blackness in the video yeah for god got an afro i mean in your whole life it's a celebration yeah you know how we do right what was you trying to say with the video the video I didn't get to do exactly what I wanted you know we'd get to do 20% with the budget yeah that's where our creativity comes in but I was inspired by the Wiz for that video yeah oh the Wiz I watched a lot of the Wiz and the making of this album you know the colors the dancing Mike with the Michael Diana got an afro you know I'm saying so I wanted to feel like the Wiz I wanted to feel bright you know the kids when the count comes out and you know they're running around a playground doing flips doing hula hoops I wanted to feel joyful like that I wanted to feel bright I wanted to feel youthful I wanted to feel like a celebration of our culture pan Africanism I wanted to create a bridge between the two of us I wanted to create a bridge between the two of us I wanted to create a bridge between the two of us I wanted to create a bridge between the two of us I wanted to create a bridge back from black America to Africa you know Kwame Kwame Nkrumah I learned a lot about him when I went to Ghana super inspired W Du Bois and that whole movement boy spent so Du Bois and that whole movement boy spent so Du Bois and that whole movement boy spent so much time in Ghana a lot I went to the much time in Ghana a lot I went to the much time in Ghana a lot I went to the house he learned a lot of what he turned house he learned a lot of what he turned house he learned a lot of what he turned into pan Africanism through W through into pan Africanism through W through into pan Africanism through W through American the American black experience American the American black experience American the American black experience exactly I'm in America yeah so fell out exactly I'm in America yeah so fell out exactly I'm in America yeah so fell out to fell I got turned out by a black to fell I got turned out by a black to fell I got turned out by a black woman when he was here Miriam Akiva woman when he was here Miriam Akiva woman when he was here Miriam Akiva straight up she got exiled so that was straight up she got exiled so that was straight up she got exiled so that was the bar though Miriam fucked me up the bar though Miriam fucked me up the bar though Miriam fucked me up Kiba how I ride for the click cuz she Kiba how I ride for the click cuz she Kiba how I ride for the click cuz she close out yeah click go on took me like close out yeah click go on took me like close out yeah click go on took me like when that dawned on me I was like oh when that dawned on me I was like oh when that dawned on me I was like oh yeah wait that's why rap is really yeah wait that's why rap is really yeah wait that's why rap is really really nice I didn't even put I was really nice I didn't even put I was really nice I didn't even put I was thinking I was thinking uh I think thinking I was thinking uh I think thinking I was thinking uh I think Miriam Cabo it's like a abolitionist Miriam Cabo it's like a abolitionist Miriam Cabo it's like a abolitionist okay I didn't know about her but okay I didn't know about her but okay I didn't know about her but Miriam the key behind ride for the click Miriam the key behind ride for the click Miriam the key behind ride for the click close shot out to South Africa yeah like close shot out to South Africa yeah like close shot out to South Africa yeah like she looked like my aunt's she was from she looked like my aunt's she was from she looked like my aunt's she was from Africa and she had on these garments Africa and she had on these garments Africa and she had on these garments and she's I don't even know where that and she's I don't even know where that and she's I don't even know where that she starts singing the song and I'm just she starts singing the song and I'm just she starts singing the song and I'm just like I'm in trance like it's like came like I'm in trance like it's like came like I'm in trance like it's like came through the TV it's snatched my ass up through the TV it's snatched my ass up through the TV it's snatched my ass up like you know I had so much deeper pride like you know I had so much deeper pride like you know I had so much deeper pride for myself I ate that particular moment for myself I ate that particular moment for myself I ate that particular moment Miriam Akiva like I wouldn't have known Miriam Akiva like I wouldn't have known Miriam Akiva like I wouldn't have known her at that time without that her at that time without that her at that time without that you are a major inspiration to me in you are a major inspiration to me in you are a major inspiration to me in your persistence so seeing you your persistence so seeing you your persistence so seeing you win that Grammy so many years into gain gain gain 40 years old 40 years old 40 years old has inspired and influenced me has inspired and influenced me has inspired and influenced me to say to say to say at no point in time at no point in time at no point in time will I relinquish will I relinquish will I relinquish my dream you know I mean because my my dream you know I mean because my my dream you know I mean because my perspective and my life experience and perspective and my life experience and perspective and my life experience and the sharpness of my pen and my wick it the sharpness of my pen and my wick it the sharpness of my pen and my wick it has nothing to do with the ideas of an has nothing to do with the ideas of an has nothing to do with the ideas of an expiring aging rapper that you know expiring aging rapper that you know expiring aging rapper that you know one may be force-fed by Society right even one may be force-fed by Society right even one may be force-fed by Society right even more potent for a woman because they more potent for a woman because they more potent for a woman because they treat women as if they have treat women as if they have treat women as if they have no value past the age of 35 this is no value past the age of 35 this is no value past the age of 35 this is like the they say online like the they say online like the they say online um man I uh I've read this thing um man I uh I've read this thing um man I uh I've read this thing recently though it was like recently though it was like recently though it was like the differentiating factor between the differentiating factor between the differentiating factor between successful artists and those that quit successful artists and those that quit successful artists and those that quit it's not necessarily Talent it's the it's not necessarily Talent it's the it's not necessarily Talent it's the nervous system and how much nervous system and how much nervous system and how much it can withstand it can withstand it can withstand feeling feeling feeling disappointment yeah and uh I want to ask disappointment yeah and uh I want to ask disappointment yeah and uh I want to ask you you you what kept you pushing to the point what kept you pushing to the point what kept you pushing to the point where you reached the heights of your where you reached the heights of your where you reached the heights of your success success success at a time when many of your at a time when many of your at a time when many of your contemporaries have probably quit contemporaries have probably quit contemporaries have probably quit a few things uh a few things uh a few things uh faith and belief faith and belief faith and belief like stubborn stubborn faith like like stubborn stubborn faith like like stubborn stubborn faith like people I have ideas I have thoughts I people I have ideas I have thoughts I have dreams all the time dreams all the time and people will tell you I will not take and people will tell you I will not take and people will tell you I will not take no for an answer I'm like no we can no for an answer I'm like no we can no for an answer I'm like no we can figure out how to do it um figure out how to do it um figure out how to do it um ninth one day guru taught me early on ninth one day guru taught me early on ninth one day guru taught me early on celebrate every single small win celebrate every single small win celebrate every single small win I don't care how small it is somebody I don't care how small it is somebody I don't care how small it is somebody tweet you you celebrate every small win tweet you you celebrate every small win tweet you you celebrate every small win because you're one step closer because you're one step closer because you're one step closer like you keep walking and you're like like you keep walking and you're like like you keep walking and you're like damn it still looks so far away but if damn it still looks so far away but if damn it still looks so far away but if you turn around you're so far from where you turn around you're so far from where you turn around you're so far from where you started you started you started and I believe that and I believe that and I believe that you it's got to meet me at some point you it's got to meet me at some point you it's got to meet me at some point it has to meet me it may take me longer it has to meet me it may take me longer it has to meet me it may take me longer in my path and my path it's my in my path and my path it's my in my path and my path it's my my timing is my timing so you know it my timing is my timing so you know it my timing is my timing so you know it was always was always was always put the blinders on you only look put the blinders on you only look put the blinders on you only look forward forward forward and and and you know you know you know that's always what I saw my family do that's always what I saw my family do that's always what I saw my family do I grew up playing basketball like I was I grew up playing basketball like I was I grew up playing basketball like I was used to being disappointed after a game used to being disappointed after a game used to being disappointed after a game but I knew there was always going to be but I knew there was always going to be but I knew there was always going to be another one another one another one it was always another game what's your it was always another game what's your it was always another game what's your boy Michael Beasley say tomorrow came boy Michael Beasley say tomorrow came boy Michael Beasley say tomorrow came and another tomorrow will come you know so and another tomorrow will come you know so and another tomorrow will come you know so it was it was those things it was you it was it was those things it was you it was it was those things it was you know the things that I was feeding know the things that I was feeding know the things that I was feeding myself to have a strong mind fall down myself to have a strong mind fall down myself to have a strong mind fall down seven get up eight like it the littlest seven get up eight like it the littlest seven get up eight like it the littlest thing is what what kept my eye on the thing is what what kept my eye on the thing is what what kept my eye on the prize like and just who we are as a prize like and just who we are as a prize like and just who we are as a people when I went to Ghana and and you people when I went to Ghana and and you people when I went to Ghana and and you know I visited the slaves castles and I know I visited the slaves castles and I know I visited the slaves castles and I I learned about the whole journey from I I learned about the whole journey from I I learned about the whole journey from the top of the mountain to everything the top of the mountain to everything the top of the mountain to everything they had in door being fed to animals they had in door being fed to animals they had in door being fed to animals dying dying in the river of the last dying dying in the river of the last dying dying in the river of the last bath return going to the castle like bath return going to the castle like bath return going to the castle like those that fought died died like so much those that fought died died like so much those that fought died died like so much death so much thing that said you know death so much thing that said you know death so much thing that said you know you would think that we would have never you would think that we would have never you would think that we would have never survived and still here we are it's in survived and still here we are it's in survived and still here we are it's in my motherfucking DNA not to stop because my motherfucking DNA not to stop because my motherfucking DNA not to stop because I know who I am and I know my people I I know who I am and I know my people I I know who I am and I know my people I got grew up at a house my father was so got grew up at a house my father was so got grew up at a house my father was so proud to be black anywhere no he wear proud to be black anywhere no he wear proud to be black anywhere no he wear lotion like what I have never he said I lotion like what I have never he said I lotion like what I have never he said I was like why you don't wear lotion I was like why you don't wear lotion I was like why you don't wear lotion I want him to know I'm black I don't think want him to know I'm black I don't think want him to know I'm black I don't think they gonna miss it my brother the they gonna miss it my brother the they gonna miss it my brother the blackest thing you can do is you know blackest thing you can do is you know blackest thing you can do is you know like is is is those things and because I like is is is those things and because I like is is is those things and because I I knew the importance of what the I knew the importance of what the I knew the importance of what the difference was I had to be a difference was I had to be a difference was I had to be a representation I had to be the representation I had to be the representation I had to be the difference I knew what that did for me difference I knew what that did for me and it was it was just something that and it was it was just something that and it was it was just something that felt like it was my god-given duty I'm felt like it was my god-given duty I'm felt like it was my god-given duty I'm on assignment I can't I can't not do on assignment I can't I can't not do on assignment I can't I can't not do God's assignment nothing else calls me God's assignment nothing else calls me God's assignment nothing else calls me like this calling that's it you know and like this calling that's it you know and like this calling that's it you know and I had to let go what I thought validated me I had to let that go validated me I had to let that go validated me I had to let that go because growing up like you look and you because growing up like you look and you because growing up like you look and you think like the dopest of the dopest are think like the dopest of the dopest are think like the dopest of the dopest are out and they're getting rewarded and out and they're getting rewarded and out and they're getting rewarded and they're in these spaces and these limelights they're in these spaces and these limelights they're in these spaces and these limelights and then it changes the more money it and then it changes the more money it and then it changes the more money it makes the more it changes I had to makes the more it changes I had to makes the more it changes I had to understand like those are not our bars understand like those are not our bars understand like those are not our bars anymore impact is our bar so the first anymore impact is our bar so the first anymore impact is our bar so the first time I went to South Africa in 2012 I time I went to South Africa in 2012 I time I went to South Africa in 2012 I made up a little girl's four or five made up a little girl's four or five made up a little girl's four or five years old her mom like yo tell her what years old her mom like yo tell her what years old her mom like yo tell her what you want to tell her she was like I want you want to tell her she was like I want you want to tell her she was like I want to be like you when I grow up I'm in to be like you when I grow up I'm in to be like you when I grow up I'm in Johannesburg South Africa I'm 16 hours Johannesburg South Africa I'm 16 hours Johannesburg South Africa I'm 16 hours across the ocean and a little girl said across the ocean and a little girl said across the ocean and a little girl said that's your gift to the world you know that's your gift to the world you know that's your gift to the world you know rap I can't thank you enough man I can't rap I can't thank you enough man I can't rap I can't thank you enough man I can't thank you thank you thank you I gotta give you your flowers though like I gotta give you your flowers though like I gotta give you your flowers though like you've been praising me but you've been praising me but you've been praising me but I can't walk this walk alone I can't walk this walk alone I can't walk this walk alone you know like it's it takes a village you know like it's it takes a village you know like it's it takes a village it takes you like us having it takes you like us having it takes you like us having conversations you send in a text like conversations you send in a text like conversations you send in a text like you walking your walk like watching you you walking your walk like watching you you walking your walk like watching you in chance in Ghana for black star like in chance in Ghana for black star like in chance in Ghana for black star like watching your evolution like orange watching your evolution like orange watching your evolution like orange shoulder you know I've been I've been on shoulder you know I've been I've been on shoulder you know I've been I've been on you since forever but watching like your you since forever but watching like your you since forever but watching like your growth like how you use your platform growth like how you use your platform growth like how you use your platform your voice you've always been your voice you've always been your voice you've always been revolutionary in your music what's that revolutionary in your music what's that revolutionary in your music what's that on 16 shots like yeah like I'm a fan of on 16 shots like yeah like I'm a fan of on 16 shots like yeah like I'm a fan of my peers and my brothers too you know my peers and my brothers too you know my peers and my brothers too you know like you inspire me this is this is like you inspire me this is this is like you inspire me this is this is inspiring like thank you inspiring like thank you inspiring like thank you cheers cheers cheers amen who said God can't have amen who said God can't have amen who said God can't have an afro and gold hoops what kind of afro an afro and gold hoops what kind of afro an afro and gold hoops what kind of afro though like a Don King joint or like though like a Don King joint or like though like a Don King joint or like Angela Davis Angela Davis Angela Davis nah Gil Scott Roberta Flack John nah Gil Scott Roberta Flack John nah Gil Scott Roberta Flack John yeah so assuming God is a woman okay a yeah so assuming God is a woman okay a yeah so assuming God is a woman okay a black woman of course what kind of you black woman of course what kind of you black woman of course what kind of you think she'd be tired of them lying on think she'd be tired of them lying on think she'd be tired of them lying on her name anybody tell them to go get no her name anybody tell them to go get no her name anybody tell them to go get no delays and trying to prove she God tired delays and trying to prove she God tired delays and trying to prove she God tired of dusty ass trying to take away her of dusty ass trying to take away her of dusty ass trying to take away her voting rights right women's bodily voting rights right women's bodily voting rights right women's bodily autonomy sound like she tied a man to autonomy sound like she tied a man to autonomy sound like she tied a man to me I'm gonna fall in the Vic Mensa show is I'm gonna fall in the Vic Mensa show is I'm gonna fall in the Vic Mensa show is presented by text now presented by text now presented by text now fan duel is now available Available everywhere in the U.S. Gambling problem? 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