- Yo, yo, yo, I finally made it home.
You know, the only place to be, BET.
I'm so excited to come, perform in Imagine Room.
What's up, sis, how you doin'? - What's up?
You know 'cause urban support is important.
What's up, ladies? - Hey, what's up?
And we celebratin' my new album, Eve.
You know, shout out to all the fly Black females,
but come to the room.
Let's get it poppin'.
(audience applauds)
(jazz music)
How you doin' ladies?
How y'all doin'?
What's up, guys?
They gave me that tender intro.
I'm Rapsody, (laughs) this is BET, the Imagine Room,
this is my band, The Stormtroopers,
family right here, I call 'em family, sisters.
You know, we 'bout to just have a good time.
I got a couple songs that I wanna play for you
dedicated to some of the flyest women ever created,
Black women.
So, let's get into this first one,
dedicated to one special one from my home state
of North Carolina that I entitled Nina.
So, let's rock with it.
♪ Southern trees ♪
- Bearing strange fruit.
♪ Bearing strange fruit ♪
- Check, check, one, two.
♪ Blood on the leaves ♪ ♪ Blood on the leaves ♪
♪ And blood at the root ♪
♪ And blood at the roots ♪
♪ So bleed, so bleed, so bleed ♪
(music transitions to rap)
♪ Emit light rap, or emit Till ♪
♪ I drew a line without showing my body, that's a skill ♪
♪ Bad to the bone and the grill ♪
♪ You'd be dead wrong if looks kill ♪
♪ I'm still on my spiel, in the spirit of L Hill ♪
♪ Eye on the sparrow ♪
♪ Nose like a pharaoh's ♪
♪ Our blood line trill ♪
♪ For the young and all the Lil's ♪
♪ We all gon' get mills ♪
♪ Talk a lotta game ♪
♪ But we get paid too, like Jemele ♪
♪ Was raised upon a hill, the valley's a sunken place ♪
♪ I'm just tryna build like I came with some ghetto weight ♪
♪ Know I'm a God MC, 'cause homie, I made the devil wait ♪
♪ Before I brought hell ♪
♪ You ain't gotta tell me I'm hella great ♪
♪ I don't speak on it nowadays, I just meditate ♪
♪ Y'all can have the bars homie, I spit hard metal gates ♪
♪ Henry Louis Gates when I cop me some new estate ♪
♪ Make room for myself, I'm in a way different mental place ♪
♪ I keep it real, all y'all look anime ♪
♪ I'm fine like Anna Mae ♪
♪ Black don't crack like Angela ♪
♪ Black and brave like in the A ♪
♪ It don't come with apologies ♪
♪ Let's just tip in some Andre ♪
♪ When you greet me it's "Namaste" ♪
♪ Spread love the Brooklyn way or like marmalade ♪
♪ No matter if you street street, or more like the promenade ♪
♪ We gotta come together like the corn and the dookie braids ♪
♪ For the present and future days, I'll say what I gotta say ♪
♪ I am Nina and Roberta, the one you love but ain't heard of ♪
♪ Got my middle finger up like Pac after attempted murder ♪
♪ Failed to kill me, it's still me ♪
♪ Woke up singing Shirley Murdock ♪
♪ As we lay these edges down, brown women, we so perfect ♪
♪ Went from field (muted) to still (muted) ♪
♪ Being cropped out the picture ♪
♪ But we all know who got the juice, my sisters ♪
♪ Imitating us in all the Hollywood pictures ♪
♪ And still, they'll never be us, yo ♪
♪ I'm from the back woods where Nina would ♪
♪ Sing about the life we should lead ♪
♪ A new dawn, another deed, I try to do some good ♪
♪ I felt more damned than Mississippi was ♪
♪ They denied Nina in Philadelphia ♪
♪ And still we persevere ♪
♪ Like all the 400 years of our own blood ♪
♪ Africa, old panthers lookin' back ♪
♪ Like who gon' come up after us ♪
♪ Outside the movies, I make sure before it move you ♪
♪ It moved me, now bow down to the queens please ♪
♪ Look down, down ♪
♪ Make sure you bow down and show 'em respect ♪
♪ The black woman ♪
(women applaud)
One love to Nina Simone.
Shout out to North Carolina all day.
So how you feelin' back there, baby?
(audience applauds)
(laughs) That's how we gonna start it off
just to get the mood.
One of my favorite quotes from Nina Simone was,
"It's a artist's duty to speak and reflect the truth."
So, our truth is just how fly we are.
I'm just gonna keep it real and I'm gon' tell 'em
like it's supposed to be told.
I got one more joint I wanna do.
Is that cool with y'all?
(audience chatters)
We gotta switch gears, though.
We gotta talk a little smack on this next one.
To the ones that tried to play us to the left,
we can't be played to the left.
Inspired by one of my favorite movies,
with four phenomenal women, Set It Off.
This is Cleo. (laughs)
(hip hop music)
Yeap, yeap
Shout out to my Set It Off crew!
We comin' at you like this.
Keep it funky.
♪ I remember ♪
♪ Pondering, pondering, how to approach ♪
♪ Some of y'all sensitive ♪
♪ But y'all still need to know ♪
♪ Wonder how a bunch of sheep ♪
♪ Can have opinions on a goat ♪
♪ We all off the same continent and on the same boat ♪
♪ Remember early on ♪
♪ Y'all ain't treat me all the same though ♪
♪ Used to question why the brothers even rocked wit' me for ♪
♪ 'Member y'all wonder, used to wonder 'bout Wonder ♪
♪ Question why they ever wanna push a black woman ♪
♪ Homies on the label who ain't want me in the front, and ♪
♪ Some sisters in the industry ♪
♪ I know who was frontin' ♪
♪ Dress too tomboy, rap too lyrical ♪
♪ I could save all the pain but bring a few tears to you ♪
♪ Was boo they boo-hoo'd in Fort Lauderdale ♪
♪ Now they boohoo boo who 'cause I didn't fail ♪
♪ Know who you are, names I would never tell ♪
♪ The weight that I carried, those summers ♪
♪ I ain't never frail ♪
♪ Now they say I ain't elite ♪
♪ On to the next ♪
♪ I don't take time to address opinions ♪
♪ That ain't 9th, Dre, or Jay-Z ♪
♪ Only rap radars I need are them and the streets ♪
♪ Be careful, the validations y'all seek ♪
♪ I been in them offices ♪
♪ They don't look like you or me ♪
♪ I've been in offices where they look like me ♪
♪ I learned lessons 'bout my essence and this industry ♪
♪ Y'all banked on the wrong ones ♪
♪ Wasted your energy ♪
♪ Got more interest, got me laughin' at my enemies ♪
♪ Every, every back you turn ♪
♪ Can't keep me away from the life I earned ♪
♪ My rock bottom's still the high life y'all yearn ♪
♪ What I ain't given I had to take, my turn ♪
♪ Came back, more ammo, like Cleo to burn ♪
♪ Blaow, blaow, blaow, homie burn ♪
♪ We ain't forgot about them shots Jack ♪
♪ They gon' be mad when I squeeze back ♪
(gunshot booms)
♪ Money talk, bullshit walk, you dig ♪
♪ If you aim, you better squeeze ♪
♪ I see you, I know you talk a lotta ♪
♪ We ain't forgot about them shots Jack ♪
♪ They gon' be mad when I squeeze back ♪
(gunshot booms)
♪ You can bank on that ♪
♪ 252 comin' ♪
♪ They can bank on it, it's the all day ♪
♪ We ain't done, though ♪
♪ Well I remember ♪
♪ Let's keep it a whole G, and talk about it upfront ♪
♪ The best, point blank, period, every month ♪
♪ The goals been lowered, and we still scared to dunk ♪
♪ Y'all don't want no smoke, half the squad roll blunts ♪
♪ Let's talk about the baggin' ♪
♪ Let's talk about the business ♪
♪ Where there's money they staffin' ♪
♪ We'll milk the cows but they never put a calf in ♪
♪ White men run us, they don't want this kinda passion ♪
♪ A black woman story ♪
♪ They don't want this kinda rappin' ♪
♪ They love a fantasy, they love the gun bang action ♪
♪ What good is a black woman to them ♪
♪ Raped us in slavery, they raping us again ♪
♪ Only put us on TV if our titties jigglin' ♪
♪ Y'all tried to give us Tidals ♪
♪ Now they giggling at him ♪
♪ But we ain't peeped the funny they doing ♪
♪ Mom and mop's store been ruined ♪
♪ 'Cause we ain't wanna share the profit, we was all movin' ♪
♪ Now it's pennies on pennies ♪
♪ That don't make sense do it ♪
♪ We gotta stick together more than we has been ♪
♪ Beefin' with each other while they get rich laughing ♪
♪ Yeah, that's a no no ♪
♪ Bust my way through like Cleo with the ammo ♪
♪ On my own terms, I'ma take what's mine ♪
♪ Screamin' day after day, you won't sing that line ♪
♪ They gon' be mad when I squeeze back ♪
(gunshot booms)
♪ And that's a fact ♪
♪ And that's a fact all day ♪
♪ You see we came up, got our change up ♪
♪ But we ain't change up ♪
♪ In a world full of fake, still remain us ♪
♪ Let me get it, we ain't forgot about them shots Jack ♪
♪ They gon' be mad when I squeeze back ♪
(gunshot booms)
♪ Real rap forever ♪
♪ Showin' love to all my strong black queens ♪
- Jamla Records, Rock Nation.
♪ Bow down or get shot down ♪
- Yes, sir, this is The Stormtroopers.
Give it up for the ladies one time.
BET, Imagine Room, thank you for havin' us.
My album, Eve, is comin' out soon.
Check it out Nina, Cleo, appearances from D'Angelo,
Jizza, Queen Latifa, and so many more.
Mad love, y'all.
♪ Get the money, money, money ♪
♪ I remember ♪
♪ I remember don't worry ♪
♪ How could I ever forget ♪
♪ The first time, the last time we ever met ♪
♪ Well, I reme ♪
- Peace, hey. (audience cheers)
Thank y'all.