New Music Mondays: Rapsody Just Dropped A Black Hair Anthem

GRAMMY-winning lyricist Rapsody gears up for a new album this summer with a lead single that pays homage to our cultural hair story.

A person with an elaborate, sculptural black hairstyle wearing a large black robe and multiple bracelets, sitting against a beige background. — Trenton “Junior” Butler

For nearly 15 years, Rapsody has been developing a niche corner in the realm of female rap that completely separates her from contemporaries and successors alike. Trade in the glitz, glam and standard twerk anthems for activism, Black love and the backing of production by 9th Wonder to get a better understanding of where she’s coming from lyrically.

This August, the North Carolina native will once again hit us with another lyrical miracle by way of her upcoming album, God Gotta Afro & Gold Hoops. Based on what we’re hearing on its titular lead single, fans and newcomers alike will definitely see why Rapsody is such a respected voice in hip-hop today.

With “God Gotta Afro,” assisted by a catchy chorus from South Africa’s Karabo Ya Morena Gospel Choir, the message of self-love is clear from the start. Her lyrical control is intense from bar to bar, finding intricate ways of vocalizing the Black joy of being created in His image. Clever lines that go from “dripping afro sheen” to “crested with the bling,” or “finger waves ‘Going in Circles’ like Isaac” with “Cocoa butter on my brown skin like my eyes is” are just some examples of how well she can play with metaphors. Producer and former D12 member Denaun Porter hooks things up with a head-knocker of a beat that borrows from the Soweto sound heard throughout the chorus.

Take a look below at an official quote she shared in releasing the song last week:

“The single, ‘God Gotta Afro,’ was a reminder for us to see God in our reflection, as we should all creation. It was inspired after an early morning journey in Ghana where radio station after station was playing traditional white American gospel songs. I was taken aback by how even in the motherland, I was hearing whitewashed and co-opted forms of gospel. I took that unsettling feeling to Johannesburg and one day while Mr. Porter was arranging drums, the words that poured from me was the reminder, in the most satirical way, that God gotta Afro too.”