Rapsody has been within the rap recreation for over a decade, and he or she all the time sings the praises of the nice feminine rappers who got here earlier than her whereas feeling excited to see a brand new era discover success.
“This can be a lovely starting. We’ve by no means seen it like this,” she stated in her Billboard Information interview Tuesday (Could 14) in regards to the resurgence of ladies in hip-hop. “I feel there was a time, ’90s ‘course you understand we had MC Lyte, Queen Latifah, Lauryn [Hill], Lil’ Kim, Cunning [Brown], Missy Elliott, Charlie Baltimore…. I might go on and on. However I feel with social media, you simply see it in such a heavy drive that’s in every single place. I’m enthusiastic about it.”
The 41-year-old MC named Ms. Hill, MC Lyte and Queen Latifah as her fundamental hip-hop influences, in addition to Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, Nas, The Infamous B.I.G., DMX and Erykah Badu (“She’s hip-hop to me,” added Rapsody). However she credit Nicki Minaj and Cardi B for paving the way in which for a more moderen crop of femcees.
“Nicki coming in, doing what she did, positively opened the door. After which when Cardi got here in, you have got two large ladies which can be very, very, very profitable. And if you understand the trade, you see one success, it’s like ‘Nice. Let’s actually pour into this,’” she informed Billboard‘s government director, R&B/hip-hop Gail Mitchell. “I feel that ladies’s tales have been wanted…. And I feel the way in which that Cardi supported so many ladies additionally helped as nicely. Due to who she was and the success she had and to talk folks’s names, to work with the artists that she did, it positively made room and house for different artists.”
Cardi has labored with most of the newer feminine rap stars like GloRilla on “Tomorrow 2,” which earned Glo her first high 10 hit on the Billboard Scorching 100; Latto on the Scorching 100 No. 13 hit “Put It on da Ground Once more;” FendiDa Rappa on “Level Me 2,” which earned her her first Scorching 100 entry; and Flo Milli on the remix of her Scorching 100 No. 15 hit “By no means Lose Me” (additionally that includes SZA).
Rapsody is about to launch her fourth studio album Please Don’t Cry on Friday, Could 17 through Jamla and Roc Nation. “It’s imagined to be ironic, proper. It’s Please Don’t Cry, however the true message is please do cry. Enable your self to be human, enable your self to really feel, to sit down in your feelings, to develop from it. And consider all the explanations that we do cry. After all, we cry once we’re unhappy, however we cry once we’re joyful, too, and joyful. And we cry once we’re in love. It’s nearly permitting your self to essentially be imperfect and embracing the human that you’re,” Rapsody stated of the album’s title, including that it’s her most susceptible physique of labor up to now.
Please Don’t Cry arrives 5 years after her album Eve, which reached No. 76 on the Billboard 200 and No. 42 on Prime R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. “After Eve and I did two excursions, I had an concept of the place I needed to go subsequent with the album. After which we went into the pandemic. Everyone having to sit down with themselves, be alone, the amount of the world turned down and every thing inside turned up. You’ve got some therapeutic to do, you have got loads of rising to do and evolving,” she recalled. “And going by means of the method, it began in March of 2020. I began engaged on three albums at one time. I’m pondering Eve is finished, I do know which one I wish to do subsequent, however then I had this different concept, however then I’m feeling a lot emotionally that I have to purge. And I feel it was every week as soon as we have been in lockdown, I did 10 or 12 songs in two or three days. And I simply stored going. And it took me about three-and-a-half, 4 years, 360 songs. I had quite a bit to say, I had quite a bit to get out. However I used to be relearning myself.”
Watch Rapsody’s full Billboard Information interview above.
