Following her searingly autobiographical 2017 album Laila’s Wisdom, North Carolina rapper Rapsody turns her gaze outward on her new LP, Eve. As well as an album title that refers to the Bible’s first woman, each track is named for a different inspirational black woman – Oprah, Aaliyah, and Michelle Obama among them. Rapsody uses these women’s legacies as springboards to explore wider themes of struggle, self-belief, and success, displaying the same deft lyricism that made Kendrick Lamar one of her fans back before she guested on his 2015 album To Pimp a Butterfly.
Densely referential and carefully wrought, Rapsody’s lyrics contain many more head-nods to successful black women than are in the track titles (she mentions ballerina Misty Copeland on Tyra, and Angela Bassett on Whoopi Goldberg).
With a delivery cut from the same cloth as Jay-Z or Lauryn Hill, she’s a storyteller, and counterbalances her wisdom with a dry, playful wit. Plus, she’s the queen of the dismissive one-liner (“I ain’t feeling you like I ain’t feeling new Kanye,” she announces on Whoopi).
Rapsody’s playful flow is mirrored by the shape-shifting production, which balances nostalgia with future-facing flourishes, as with the angelic backing vocals on Aaliyah. There are solid guest turns from newcomers such as New York rapper Leikeli47 as well as legends D’Angelo and GZA. But Rapsody herself is the undisputed star, offering up empowerment in droves on the catwalk-worthy Tyra (“damn I’m stunning”) and Serena, an ode to grafting hard for your fortune.
