Rapsody om skammen för sin hudfärg – berättar om bakgrunden till Kendrick-samarbetet

"Just to touch on those subjects, and how we all need to love ourselves and love those shades and colors, and it’s all beautiful."

Att få medverka på Kendrick Lamars hyllade album “To Pimp A Butterfly” är en liten skara artister förunnat, däribland North Carolina-rapparen Rapsody. Redan 2012 spelade de in en låt ihop, “Rock The Bells”. I en intervju med MTV berättar hon nu hur samarbetet initierades av Kendrick till hans eget albumprojekt.

“He actually hit 9th first. I was traveling, I was on my way to Toronto, and it was January 11. I had a layover in Charlotte and I got stuck. 9th hit me like, ‘Dave [Free, Kendrick’s manager] just hit me, and Kendrick wants to send something.’ I was like, ‘Wow.’ “

Rapsody förklarar i intervjun vidare hur konceptet bakom låten “Complexion” klarnade efter ett telefonsamtal med Kendrick, som ville gå djupare på ämnet kring hudfärg inom det afrikansk-amerikanska samhällskiktet. Själv kunde Rapsody relatera till ämnet då hon under sin barndom upplevde en skam över att vara den mest mörkhyade i sin familj.

“Before he hit me, I was watching this documentary called “Dark Girls,” and it was talking about the light-skinned versus dark-skinned issue that goes on within the African-American community. And I took it back to when I was younger, I was the darkest skinned person in my family. I remember how I used to feel — like I wasn’t pretty enough, or I wasn’t good enough.

I remember I was about eight-years-old, my sister had a little bottle of bleach cream because she had a spot on her leg she was trying to get out, but I took it and put it on my body. It’s something that happens a lot. I have a younger niece, she’s five now, I remember when she was about to turn four, she didn’t like black Barbie dolls.

I wanted to touch on how we look on each other. Good hair, light skin, you must be smart; if you’re black, you’re dark-skinned, you’re ugly. That really happens. This is something that started with slavery, when they divided the house n—as and field n—as, and it’s still a part of today’s society and things that we battle with.”

Men hon fann styrka – i andra artister och deras budskap genom musiken.

“Man, a big thing is hip-hop. Seeing Queen Latifah and MC Lyte and Lauryn Hill did it for me the most. Just that whole ’90s era, Black is Beautiful, the Spike Lee films, that’s when I learned to love myself. I gravitated to it. That’s what got me into Maya Angelou and Nikki Giovanni. All of that together opened my eyes.”

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