No Justice, No Peace: Rapsody on Art, Activism, and the Power of Music
The Tight Rope
SpkerBox Media
5 • 605 Ratings
🗓️ 18 March 2021
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The professors invite Rapsody to discuss the legacy of the Black music tradition and how it continually reiterates itself within “new genres” creating a cultural archive. Additionally, Rapsody discusses her journey ‘making it’ in the business without compromising her vision for her artistry and the stories she wants to tell. As they discuss both the legacy and future of hip-hop, the Professors and Rapsody discuss the popular tropes in hip hop music and interrogate how gender stereotypes manifest both ‘the business’ and music itself. Finally, they speak to the political nature and origins of hip hop and exchange views on how it continues to fortify generations of freedom fighters.
Rapsody is a Jamla/Roc Nation artist who has spent the better part of the present decade lapping peers and counterparts while mesmerizing fans who still prefer their rhymes detailed and nutritious. The Snow Hill, North Carolina native has more than held her own alongside greats like Kendrick Lamar, Black Thought and the late Mac Miller. She has been broadcasted and hailed by media giants––from NPR to USA Today to TIME Magazine to BET (2013’s Hip Hop Cypher) to NBC (The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, 2015). In 2014, XXL named her one of the 20 Greatest Female Rappers of All Time. The following year, Dr. Dre crowned her his “favorite female emcee.”
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Credits:
Creator/EP: Jeremy Berry
EP/Host: Cornel West
EP/Host: Tricia Rose
Producers: Allie Hembrough, Ceyanna Dent
Beats x Butter (IG: @Butter_Records)
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I get a lot of messages from parents, dads, and mom. |
| 0:03.4 | A lot of dads that say, I want to thank you because I was riding around with my daughter |
| 0:08.0 | and I was just playing your music and she goes, dad, I like that. |
| 0:11.1 | So now me and my child have a connection through you. |
| 0:14.7 | We are witnessing America as a failed social experiment. |
| 0:21.6 | How do we tell this story in a way that builds the kind of emotional moments of the colorblind ideology built? |
| 0:28.6 | So many young brothers and sisters of the younger generation find themselves so far removed in the best of their past. |
| 0:36.6 | What are we going to make out of the nothing we've been given? |
| 0:41.1 | How do you envision possibility? |
| 0:46.7 | Well, here we are. |
| 0:48.2 | Here we are, brother Cornell West. |
| 0:50.7 | Welcome, welcome, everybody. |
| 0:52.6 | In the audience, I'm Tricia Rose. I'm here with my dear friend, colleague, and committed freedom Friday, Cornell West, and we are on the tightrope. How are you doing today? |
| 1:03.5 | Ah, damn, I'm always fired up knowing we in dialogue and we in motion trying to keep on pushing the way Curtis Mayfield taught us. |
| 1:13.5 | Always keep on pushing. And that song we just heard from the outset there, I mean, I remember |
| 1:18.9 | Denise Williams, that just got to be free. Oh, yes. Remember the late night quiet storm radio? |
| 1:26.7 | Oh, Lord, Lord, yes. |
| 1:28.7 | Yeah, like, is it on yet? |
| 1:30.1 | And we would just be able to just float away on some hopeful possibilities. |
| 1:34.6 | The radio was a beautiful thing back then. |
| 1:37.1 | It's got that earth-winning fire vibe from Maurice White and Charles Stepney produced it, but |
| 1:42.9 | Denise Corrote. |
... |
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