Review: Rapsody’s God Gotta Afro & Gold Hoops
The artist’s role is to raise the consciousness of the people. To make them understand life, the world, and themselves more completely. That’s how I see it. Otherwise, I don’t know why you do it.— Amiri Baraka
[Y]ou have to look in the mirror and see God in yourself. — Rapsody
God Gotta Afro & Gold Hoops is Rapsody’s fifth studio album and, according to the North Carolina-based rapper, it was inspired by her ancestors and her recent travels. Sonically, the album leans heavily into hip-hop and R&B, with myriad cultural influences intertwined throughout the tracks. Lyrically, the album speaks heavily about self-love and self-worth, along with social-personal injustices. With this album, Rapsody joins a growing list of artists who trouble notions of blackness that includes Nina Simone, Odetta, Kara Walker, Wangechi Mutu, Sanford Biggers, Hank Willis Thomas, Rashid Johnson, Kerry James Marshall, and Wanuri Kahiu. Rapsody lovingly references newer ancestors Nikki Giovanni, Assata Shakur and D’Angelo, the latter who is featured in the song “Apple Juice.”
The album has resonances of the Black Arts Movement, which was a radical Black American-led cultural movement active from 1965 to 1975. Often called the artistic sister of the Black Power movement, it used literature, theater, music, and visual art to promote Black pride, self-determination, and a distinct “Black aesthetic.” It brings to my mind the concept of mobility in blackness. I quoted curator Nicola Vassell in an article I wrote for Art21 in 2014 titled, Black Futurism: The Creative Destruction and Reconstruction of Race in Contemporary Art. I wrote about the detachability of blackness from black subjectivity, identity, and history and how it can also be used as a tool for liberation in current times.
A black eye is our true tool — it’s the thing a lot of us rely heavily on for this art world to even exist… But at the same time, a black eye is the document of having been bruised. — Nicola Vassell, “Black Eye” exhibition
God Gotta Afro & Gold Hoops centers the artifacts of blackness. The album’s title references gold hoops that are symbols of identity, confidence, cultural pride, and self-expression. Rapsody went to Ghana where gold body adornment is rooted in the rich metallurgical history of the Akan and Asante (Ashanti) empires dating back to the 14th century. In Ghana, gold body adornment — including earrings, heavy rings, and pectoral discs — is rooted in the rich metallurgical history of the Akan and Asante (Ashanti) empires dating back to the 14th century.
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Artists such as Roxanne Shante, Queen Latifah, MC Lyte, and later generations of rappers and performers used big gold jewelry to assert presence in a culture where women had to fight for recognition. While there is no standalone track titled “Gold Hoops,” the phrase serves as a core conceptual and visual pillar for Rapsody’s album, and its lead single/title-adjacent track is “God Gotta Afro” that features the Karabo Ya Morena Choir. Listening to the song (and album) reminded me of Boston-based artist, sculptor, and jewelry maker Ja’Hari Ortega’s Big Hoops to Fill sculpture located at the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway through this October. I knew Ja’Hari as a high school student at Boston Arts Academy.
By rendering bamboo hoop earrings at monumental scale in the center of downtown Boston, the artist not only centers the everyday lives of women of color in public space, but also invites them to the artwork to play, rest, and relax. Such moments can be challenging to access for Black and Brown women, who are oftentimes discouraged or excluded –both structurally and specifically– from engaging in playful experiences. — The Greenway
Another artifact that represents blackness is the afro pick. Years ago, I wrote about Nontsikelelo Mutiti’s works that include afro hair picks with black fist handles, among other culturally relevant items. The afro hair pick became a political symbol for achieving self-determination for people of African descent. The 1960s movement in the U.S. emphasized racial pride and the creation of black political and cultural institutions to nurture and promote black collective interests and advance black values. Thirty years later, Black artists looked to outer space to achieve similar goals.
If you find earth boring
The same old same thing
Come and join our vision
Outer space, incorporated…
Rapsody’s “OMG! (Love to Sun Ra),”which features George Clinton, Nomisupasta and Jojo Abot, is a form of Afrofuturist time travel: the rapper reaches backward to honor jazz maverick Sun Ra and Afrofuturism while simultaneously pushing hip-hop forward. “OMG!,” like most Afrofuturists works collapses the boundaries between past, present, and future, suggesting that Black cultural memory itself can be a technology for imagining new possibilities. In the song Clinton tells you that he is Sirius B‚ he says the Dogon‚ the mothership is in rotation‚ a fragile‚ fearful‚ mortal being behind the curtain‚ expand your mind and you’ll see him. Like the Dogon, Sun Ra saw outer space as an origin myth to detach his identity from the history of enslavement and systemic racism.
On the song she picks out the fro dripping afro sheen‚ puts rollers in her crown‚ names Miriam Makeba‚ rides a ’64 Chevy Chevelle with oil wells in her thighs‚ names herself the Black Madonna‚ then the second verse goes‚ “Look just like my momma’s momma’s momma’s momma’s continent” then Diana Ross‚ then Auntie Em calling her to come home‚ don’t get lost in their images․ — Shatter the Standards
Rapsody’s God Gotta Afro & Gold Hoops exemplifies techno-vernacular creativity by transforming blackness into a broader scope of technology. Through artifacts such as the afro pick and gold hoops, Rapsody remixes Black aesthetics, ancestral memory, spirituality, and self-representation into hip-hop, demonstrating how cultural knowledge becomes a resource for innovation, identity formation, and creative agency. This album is TVC because the rapper draws from culturally shared artifacts and reworks them through the technological medium of recorded music. Hip-hop production, digital recording, and circulation become tools for expressing an alternative worldview rooted in Black cultural knowledge.
