North Carolina rapper Rapsody has been laying pretty low musically in the year since her latest album, Laila’s Wisdom, was nominated for a Best Rap Album Grammy. While she’s kept busy with appearances on her label’s Jamla Is The Squad II compilation (alongside J. Cole on the song “Sojourner“), on television specials like Showtime’s Word Is Bond and Netflix’s Rapture, and with promo work for the NBA and WNBA (her freestyles about the standout players in this year’s NBA Playoffs are a must-listen), she hasn’t put out much music. However, she did make time yesterday for a musical dedication to her mom for Mother’s Day alongside Compton crooner Buddy and longtime maestro 9th Wonder on “Phylicia,” so named for the actress of one of TV’s most iconic mothers, Phylicia Rashad. Check it out below.
Rapsody has spent the downtime between albums working on new music, but hasn’t revealed what she might be coming out with next or when. Whenever she does come back, it will be to a rap landscape that’s experienced some seismic upheaval since her last album. Women have basically taken over, beginning with Cardi B’s Grammy Win — for the same award Rapsody herself was nominated for just a year prior — and including the rise of City Girls, Megan Thee Stallion, and dozens of other female rappers who have made space for all kinds of new perspectives in hip-hop. Rapsody is also billed to appear on fellow NC MC J. Cole’s Revenge Of The Dreamers III compilation, due later this year.
