Rapsody prays to a God with an afro and a library card. The Grammy Award-Winning rapper held a listening event at the Brooklyn Public Library for her album God Gotta Afro & Gold Hoops.
Rapsody engaged with community members at the event, allowing them to ask direct questions about her artistic choices. She discussed international influences and production choices. Each guest at the event received a booklet with Rapsody’s lyrics from the albums. It echoed the type of liner notes that would come with cassette tapes and CDs to provide insight into an artist’s perspectives prior to the age of streaming.
The event offered an in-person experience many don’t get to have with the rappers on their screens. She explained why she wanted to show up IRL for her supporters.
“We kind of live in the digital, and it’s so not real, it’s not real at all,” Rhapsody said of the algorithm-based universes we inhabit as she talked about the lyrics of her song “Please Don’t Cry.”
Rooted In Connection
“These types of connections, this is real to me,” she told the crowd. Her eyes met directly with audience members as she spoke. “When I do shows, when I travel, and I talk to people, that’s real to me.” She told her label that she was okay with doing “little digital things” to promote the project, as long as she got a chance to touch the people she created it for. “I want to do community things, I want to go back outside,” she added, her Simone I. Smith earrings shaking as she spoke. “I want to understand what’s real.”
Bars & Books is an ongoing community program at the Brooklyn Public Library. It is part book club and part cultural celebration.
Attendees listen to albums and dive deep into their meetings. Maiya the Don, founder of The Fine Print bookclub, held a listening event for her project Precious Cargo at the Dweck Center of the Central Library location in August.
Edwin B. Maxwell, Chief Librarian of Brooklyn Public Library, sat in conversation with Rapsody, helping to guide the conversation about her powerful bars. He expressed admiration for the artist. “Whether you write or whether your rap, whatever your vehicle is you’re giving a piece of your soul every time that you put something out,” he told her.
Alanna Lauter, a Program Manager at Brooklyn Public Library, helped guide the conversation from the crowd with questions as well.
Related: Maiya The Don Talks New Album ‘Precious Cargo,’ Confidence & Navigating The Industry
Rooted Through Reading
Rapsody clutched a copy of Sistah Souljah’s No Disrespect during part of the conversation. It touches on respectability politics, gender dynamics, and more important topics in the Black community. Another text that inspired her was “Invictus,” a poem by William Ernest Henley. Nelson Mandela quoted it during his fight for freedom during apartheid in South Africa.
She name-checks it on the track “Free Yo’ Mind.”
Related: Who Is Lady London? The Rapper And Scholar Redefining Hip-Hop
Rapsody and other rappers using their celebrity to connect rap listeners to books beyond The 48 Laws of Power could not be happening at a more crucial time. The American Journal of Medicine has declared America’s reading crisis to be a national health emergency. Mega-influencers are getting major news coverage for revealing they don’t read.
The children are proudly being left behind.
Rooted Through Commitment
Some critics attack Rapsody for being too deep or too Black. “I’ve heard it about myself,” she told Maxell. She’s not worried about that. “The places that I’ve heard it at, very low I.Q., very low vibrations,” she joked, sparking laughter through the building.
“My walk has always been long, I’m a still walk it, it’s all good,” she said at another point. One of her lyrics referenced shadowbanning, something that happens to content that isn’t celebrated by mainstream culture.
Rooted In Resistance
Rapsody’s work has always placed intelligence on a pedestal. That doesn’t mean she’s ignorant of pop culture.
She obtained inspiration from films too. The Black cult classic The Wiz played a role in the production direction she gave. “I wanted the texture of the sound of the album to feel like The Wiz looks to me,” she explained. She wanted to bring “the joy of dancing to her music.”
She went for higher BPMs and different themes with this project. It’s faster and more joyful. Her trademarks are there. But it dives into the thrill of the dance floor and the excitement of a potential new partner too.
She let the room in on the inspiration behind “Apple Juice,” at one point. “I had a crush,” she admitted.
It was about the beauty of Blackness shining through in every circumstance. “We going through really dark times, and for me joy is resistance,” she said.
God Gotta Afro & Gold Hoops is currently available across all digital streaming platforms.
Bars And Books! Rapsody Hosts Listening Event At Brooklyn Public Library
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