Rapsody stopped by the Genius office to discuss her new song “Asteroids.” The track features and is produced by Hit-Boy off Rapsody’s upcoming fourth studio album. On this episode of Verified, learn why the North Carolina native introduces fans to the real her.
“Being human can be scary, it’s taking off the shield and letting you know this is where we going y'all. So buckle up.”
“Being human can be scary, it’s taking off the shield and letting you know this is where we going y'all. So buckle up.”
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MusicTranscript
00:00 I wanted to introduce myself as Marlena and not Rhapsody.
00:03 And Marlena is a human.
00:05 Being human can be scary.
00:07 It's taking off the shield and letting you know,
00:09 this is where we going, y'all.
00:11 So buckle up.
00:12 (upbeat music)
00:15 Asteroids is me allowing myself to be vulnerable, right?
00:22 It's about being okay with living in your honesty.
00:25 You don't have to be perfect.
00:26 You don't have to be this idea of what success is.
00:29 My thoughts and my opinions and my feelings
00:31 are just as valid as anybody else.
00:33 First name Marlena, last name Evans.
00:36 Underappreciated, but I'm still the most respected.
00:39 My insecurity is the fear of being rejected.
00:41 When you this raw, they listen with an erection.
00:43 So I started it with first name Marlena, last name Evans
00:46 from a conversation I had with No I.D.
00:48 You know, we was going through songs,
00:49 just listening, he was like, "Rap,
00:51 "everybody knows you can rap,
00:52 "but that's the only thing we know about you."
00:54 And you know, he brought up Eminem as an example.
00:56 He was like, we know his name is Marshall Mathers.
00:58 He loves his daughter, da da da da.
01:00 And he brought up the song, "My Name Is Slim Shady," right?
01:03 And I was like, all right, well I could do that too.
01:05 My name is Marlena Evans,
01:06 so first name Marlena, last name Evans.
01:08 And then it just kinda went from there.
01:11 It was just like, yo, whatever you feeling, just say that.
01:14 Niggas pull the drape before they rap about affection.
01:16 There I go, it's hard to rap without a message.
01:19 My biggest flex is I can stand on what I did.
01:21 Never faked anything, the cause of how I lived.
01:23 I ain't no millionaire, I ain't no bitch.
01:25 Real niggas don't shoot, they talk with they fist.
01:28 I love playing with words,
01:29 and I have a lot of respect for Drake's vulnerability.
01:33 I love that, especially as a man, and a man in hip hop,
01:35 that he's not afraid to be emotional.
01:37 In our community, sometimes we're taught
01:39 not to show emotion.
01:41 You taking life, you fighting, you putting yourself
01:43 in just a situation that you necessarily won't be in
01:45 because you don't know how to deal with your emotions.
01:47 So that's just a play on the Draco and Drake.
01:50 Lose some, win some, live another 10, 20, 30, 40, 50.
01:53 It ain't worth doing the bid.
01:55 Advice I give, how am I to pay
01:57 when a motherfucker like me is nice like this?
01:59 Nobody write my shit.
02:00 I should wake up in Jacob, make what they make,
02:02 and drive a 4.6.
02:04 That's crazy.
02:05 I see people like, yo, how are you so good?
02:07 Like, it's just unfathomable.
02:09 Why is it unbelievable that I write the way I do?
02:12 Would you say that to any guy?
02:13 It's unbelievable how good you are.
02:15 Believe it.
02:16 I went rock boy to hot boy to hit boy to big boys.
02:20 Y'all threw some rocks at me.
02:22 I threw back asteroids.
02:23 Y'all crazy.
02:25 I'm crazed.
02:27 Jay-Z's always been one of my favorite rappers
02:29 and that ended up being the label that I signed to.
02:31 And then you have Hit-Boy,
02:33 who's another like legendary producer.
02:36 And this is who is riding with me.
02:38 Those my asteroids.
02:53 I think I was at a position of like,
02:55 do people really care?
02:57 Maybe I should just disappear like Lauren
02:59 and just go do something else.
03:00 And her album "Unplugged,"
03:02 I listened to it so much.
03:05 For her to make an album like "The Miseducation"
03:07 and then come back and do an "Unplugged"
03:09 and to be as raw as she was,
03:11 and that was the space I was in about being raw.
03:13 I just related to that.
03:15 There was a beauty and a freedom in that.
03:18 I almost went psycho.
03:19 Jhene Aiko.
03:20 It's gonna be 2K only way these little, little, little
03:23 brothers could ever play me.
03:25 Jhene Aiko, she has a child.
03:27 I wanted to be 2K's brothers, right?
03:29 Be 2K, but like, be 2K the game.
03:31 Like y'all can't play me like little brothers play the game.
03:34 It's just this layered thing that was going on.
03:37 Industry plants, I eat 'em like Dr. Sabe.
03:39 If I went basic, I'd be in the Wraith.
03:42 If I had a dick, I'd be in the greatest debate.
03:44 The value you put on men,
03:45 especially in this space,
03:46 is a lot different than us women.
03:48 So if you gave the same lyrics,
03:51 same beats and everything,
03:52 and just gave me a song,
03:54 boy, I'd be in your conversation.
03:56 Call me, pick me, fuck y'all bitches like Lena Waithe.
03:59 That's my pride talking insecurities.
04:01 I face scars like Omar Cumming.
04:03 Now I rap back, took bigger steps than Kodak.
04:06 Okay Player had a article somebody wrote,
04:09 just again, calling me a pick man.
04:11 It just blew my mind.
04:12 Like, I don't even understand how you even got there.
04:16 And that was just word playing with Lena Waithe,
04:17 you know, who has sex with women.
04:20 She stands on that, she's prideful about it,
04:22 and she'll show up for the awards show,
04:24 and she'll have, you know,
04:25 the flag colors or the statements,
04:28 and I think that's so powerful,
04:29 to sit in who you are,
04:31 and so that's what it is.
04:32 It's like, yo, in the same way that Lena shows up
04:34 as her authentic self,
04:35 I'ma show up as my authentic self at the same time.
04:38 Pushed 'em off Everest just to remind niggas
04:40 what my level is.
04:41 Rap back, they don't pay me at the level that I rap at.
04:44 Crazy, if they can't benefit off you,
04:46 then they act shady.
04:48 I thought most of love would come back from my ladies.
04:50 'Bout 60/40, I'm just making observation.
04:53 Niggas call it clout chasing.
04:54 When I mention Jay-Z, fuck y'all.
04:57 Y'all just mad 'cause he don't know y'all, maybe.
05:00 I always thought, 'cause I spoke from being a woman
05:03 and two women, that those are the ones
05:05 I would connect with most,
05:06 but it's mainly been men that have been
05:08 the bigger part of my fan base.
05:10 There'll be conversations about the sexualization
05:12 of women in hip hop, right,
05:13 and how it's such at the forefront of mainstream media.
05:18 You have guys saying like,
05:19 "Yo, why don't y'all support this artist
05:23 "whose image doesn't align with that
05:25 "the same as you do them?"
05:27 Right, and it's like, "Y'all don't support them either."
05:30 And I'm like, you know, guys do support me.
05:33 So to me, it's like the system is patriarchal,
05:36 but at the same time, for me, when I do shows,
05:38 it's a lot of men out there,
05:40 and I'm not half naked,
05:41 and they care about the talent of it.
05:44 So, you know, I think it begs a conversation to be had.
05:48 Why don't women who aren't hypersexualized,
05:52 why don't they get the same support?
05:54 No more noise from y'all niggas.
05:58 When you the sun, you shine on all the Icaruses.
06:00 Know my power, I know what my penmanship did.
06:03 Dropped so many jewels, I couldn't even put 'em on wrist.
06:06 That's a sacrifice.
06:07 When you this nice, they wanna dim your light.
06:10 But never that.
06:11 Never that!
06:14 That's me saying, like, I've unplugged from the matrix.
06:17 And sometimes when you in it,
06:19 people can put you in a box,
06:20 and that box can be small and can be dark,
06:23 and you can't always see a light at the end of the tunnel.
06:26 It's like, yo, again, where's my place in this?
06:28 Do people care?
06:29 Because we're using false measurements to value ourselves.
06:34 You know, I had to go through that
06:36 and find my way out of that box.
06:39 It got dimmed, but I didn't lose the light.
06:42 And now I'm existing in the light.
06:44 Man, I got a lot of oh-my-god-shit moments.
06:49 It's just so many bars.
06:51 You know, I think y'all should just go to Genius
06:53 and just scroll up and down,
06:55 and just go through all the bars.