Stress and faith are the topics of an alleyway feud of soon to be departed lovers at the opening of Joe’s I Wanna Know music video.

Joe, drenched in denim ink, top down, approaches a barely newly single woman, and offers a listening ear, alcohol, and his number. He, starkly different, in how he reassures her with “give me a call anytime,” n therefore, successfully courts our leading lady. But in all Joe’s attempts to be suave, he maintains an earnestness n personally I wanna know if it’s for punani or lust or love at first sight. All three options are horseshit to me.

At first, I do believe he’s in it for the sex. Our single lady, laid out on a white bed, in black lace, as he sings about her being a knockout therefore Joe needs to know what turns her on. It’s not until we wind into the second verse, when Joe makes clear that her previous man didn’t know how to care her like he can. N still I admit I am bit confused as to how he can say this so confidently about a woman he’s met in an alley at bare minimum 12 hours ago. So let’s enter a fourth option to the chat: perhaps she is a projection, a hologram of who he seeks to love, of someone he once loved, and this woman is merely the container for him to shape an ideal into.

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Joe claims he is the concerning type and yet they sit in his home, on the couch, his knees firmly planted to the ground, hands rooted into his thighs, and this allegedly delicately fragile woman dangles off his arms, leans into his neck. For a split second, she is an accessory to his concern, she is not the recipient of his concern. Meanwhile, in this split second, his real concern reveals itself: watching himself, on a television screen, singing the same song.

So, now I ask: is Joe singing to himself n trying to convince himself of worthiness? Does he view this woman is a vehicle for him to receive love? As Joe croons I wanna know, the couple encircles each other on the television - almost similar to a matador with a bull - yet it’s more gentle. Yet there’s still something slightly off putting, you know? The way two people can keep a distance, maintain eye contact, before the split second decision of choosing between embrace or defense. Or in other words faith or stress. or in other words: Mercy.

In my opinion, despite the kissing, the type of pact between these two has yet to be made clear until she opens the door to a room with him in black leather, her in hot pants to match, and him begging, to a woman, he again, barely actually knows, singing, “tell me what I got to do to please you, baby anything you say I’ll do.” Has Joe actually done anything to show, through his actions, that he does care about what our bad bitch wants or needs? If we watched this video without sound, without the lyrics, I mostly see a self concerned man and woman as: accessory. N if that is the case, how is this any different than what a mother means to most men? A well of reassurance, care, without needs of her own, who remains silent.

So: fifth option: desperation and love are often confused for each other. But that doesn’t change my favorite part: where Joe finally admits to a curiosity that extends beyond the physical, that extends beyond what he perhaps pridefully overestimates of himself, but instead offers a careful wish: to journey through her mind. To exhume her suppressed emotions. Maybe what we are actually witnessing is sexual attraction becoming something deeper like an impatient yearning for intimacy and time is a barricade. But… that sort of immediately gets fucked up when during Joe’s second go around of begging, he dances in a trio, in black and white, and yet again this has nothing to actually do with our leading lady. Yet again. This has everything to do with Joe. And somehow the closing scene is the ecstasy, the almost orgasm, of him and her drenched in a rain room kissing.

So hear me out I think this is a song about a man who wants to convince himself of being a worthy lover. I think this is a slow jam hype song to overcome the fear of rejection so let’s deliver this gentle plea instead. And I have no feelings about any of it, this is an observation of a man who wants companionship. But leverage too? He centers wanting her to know everything about him and yet we know nothing of Joe except a performance of who Joe wants us, the spectator, to see him as.

in my unmarked archive are.na

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So I’d like the petition a new music video. One where a lover, is sitting in a dark navy bedroom, curtains drawn, and they are on the precipice of deciding whether or not to crack open the quarry of brokenness in front of an audience of one: me. About the past. About who broke their heart before. My petition is that: I wanna know is a song where two people lay their swords down. Remove the blade from the jugulars as if to say, I am going to give you the thing that kills me, if you want to know so badly, I am going to show you the map tracing my blood to the endless wound my last lover left inside me. The cost of buying into forever. But the thing is:

I Wanna Know is not about fucking. It’s not about lust. It’s not even about love at first sight. It’s about the trenches of conflict, of being at the gates of a familiar hell or heaven, and determining how are you going to decipher openness. It is somewhere between being hastily eager and discerningly avoidant about the promise of another chance at giving your self over to someone new. It is asking: to whom do we owe mercy to?

from unmarked archive are.na

N these types of conversation appear one sided in Joe’s I Wanna Know, but to me, these are opportunities for a call and response between two people deciding if they will let doubt swallow them up. I wanna know is beyond performance. Beyond playing understudy to insecurity taking up so much space that it’s almost operatic. It’s so dramatic. But instead. I wanna is know is about what type of forgiveness can you hold onto for yourself, and another? What kind of worthiness can we surmise n say “let’s do it again, yeah let’s do this shit all over again.” I think I wanna know forever, n I don’t mean that in the traditional marriage kind of way, but rather in that: I can acknowledge forever is subjective and even impermanent, n I can bottle that forever up in a couple years or a couple decades or a couple minutes - the choice is up to our pitiful hearts.

So. Petition for I wanna know as a music video where I blink back tears n say yeah Imma lay myself between both your thighs, your lips, and the secrets you’ve attempted to erase, n I’m bare, body censored over the gritty parts, but not the grittiest part which is me saying I have a need, will you not see that as a complaint? N you meet me there, eye to eye, face to face, n say same, n offer the same kind of yearning. The same kind of action. The same kind of care. It’s terrifying to admit the worst things we have ever done or what we have let someone do to us but I’ll go first: If you wanna know, the worst thing goes both ways in which I became a ransacked village, a river of quarters, and an island of lonely for the sake of an idea - which is love is there if I pretend it is.

Louise Bourgeois, page 10 of “The Trauma of Abandonment” - in unmarked archive are.na

So if you wanna know, this is the best promise I got: when I see love imma name it, when I see its absence, I will call its shape into the room, and that does not mean I will disappear myself like I have done before. That does not mean love cannot make a return nor will I forget to catch its echo. N If you really wanna know. There was one time, when I was sick, and the person I thought I would grow old with, almost let me die, and truth be told, if you wanna know, that happened multiple times, and so here is the worst thing, I didn’t raise a dagger, I didn’t raise my fist, I lost my voice. Rendered soundless.

If you wanna know I must hold my rage close, even if it is quiet blade against my hips. Here is the tension between stress and faith: I want you and I wanna know you reverberates in sync and bounce off the strings of a violin playing softly in my bedroom. It pierces the bubble oozing in fantasy and projections we made for ourselves and the past creeps in N it’s all so unsexy - this crossroads of choosing what is familiar vs. taking refuge in the unknown.

Alice Sparkly Kat

So. Final Petition: for I wanna know to be like Song of Solomon when Mother Toni says, “you wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weights you down.” What I am asking is: will we know ourselves enough to understand when it is time to take flight beside each others singed wings and call that opportunity?

References:

1. Joe - I Wanna Know

2. Toni Morrison - Song of Solomon

In 6th grade, I had a crush on a boy named Mac.

He was in the grade above me and every time we were in our school’s alleyway, I’d sneak glimpses of him. We’d talk here and there, our families almost carpooled. After school, I’d go home and write songs on my piano about him. With lyrics like: “only if you will ever notice me,” I was pilled up off Alicia Keys, and I was down bad. In fact, so down bad, that when my mother played Tyler Perry plays, I’d think of Mac during lengthy monologues where the men would profess their deep love for a woman. Perhaps this is why I always leaned a lil “masculine” in my expression of affection, between Alicia Keys and Tyler Perry, but I just related to the sincere act of expression.

One time, I went so far as to transcribe an entire monologue in my flip phone, and sent that to him. Lucky for me, I didn’t know where the space bar was and so naturally he said he didn’t read it. I don’t think I knew much about love at 12 years old, but I did know about warmth, and the earnestness that comes with wanting to share that warmth with another person. Kinda like those ooo’s that flutter in on You Don’t Know My Name, it’s a frequency that I wanna sync up on. Yearning is a text message without spaces but the message still needs to be delivered.

Contrary to popular belief, i am a lover.

N when i say lover, i do not mean in the over romanticizing n jumpin each other’s bones kind of way, but lover as in would you allow me to gaze upon the gapin wound of your vulnerability and nod with understanding? I’m a lover in the key of Aaliyah’s One in a Million and Mary J Blige’s Be Without You. But I was always compared to Alicia when I was a child, just cuz we both lightskin with almond eyes, but I listened to The Diary of Alicia Keys. I related to her voicemail sonnets n aspired to be just as smooth. Deep voice, bold, calm, confident, I was raised to be a lover on her music. I am a lover girl in the scent of weed smoke and devotion. with my hands in service. My love is dramatic as Alicia’s yearning because it’s just that serious for me. I’ve seen the nights where death slinks in the shadows of crowded bars and takes niggas out in silence. so I ain’t tryna be alarmist, I am simply just as urgent as Death with my Love for everybody.

Released in 2003, The Diary of Alicia Keys is a hybrid R&B album that functions as Keys’ auditory diary mixed with songs.

Incredibly personal, we are let into her world of relationship tumult. I didn’t start listening to Alicia Keys until I was in 5th grade in 2005, but her album became a backdrop to my every day life. I had a boyfriend in 5th grade named Max and My Boo feat. Usher became the theme to our relationship. Her music added a layer of meaning to my mundane existence going to an upper class private schoosl, I’d look out the window on the way home and imagine being in love, having friendships, missing dead relatives, the window was a portal for me to imagine through and through it I ideated on love and grief in all its forms.

I got crushes here, I got crushes there, I got crushes everywhere. I’m not hopped off the rom com romance juice but moreso am motivated by sincere connection. It’s terrifying to let another person in, regardless of whether it’s platonic, sexual, emotional, spiritual - letting someone into your heart and giving them the power to say, “damn bitch you live like this?” is a risk. A worthy one. But it’s still one that I understand people shy away from. After enough heartbreak, you can’t help but become a lil stone cold. I feel like Alicia Keys’ music addresses all this directly, head on, with songs like “Karma” and “If I Was Your Woman,” Keys is a reluctant optimist with hesitance - the perfect formula for a yearner.

In Of Black Study, Joshua Myers writes on hesitation saying,

“Hesitation is a creative force. To hesitate is to pause and consider. It is not merely not knowing, or the absolute state of being unsure. Rather, it is being sure that we can only be unsure of a certain kind of unsureness, a certain kind of closure. Space must be created in order to ensure we don’t close off other kinds of possibilties. So, hesitation is a moment of both refusal and imagination. It is never one or the other. But it is not closure. Hesitance is not the achievement of resolution. Resolution is only possible when a destination is chosen. Hesitation is a break that nevertheless allows us to remain open, listening for what can be. For what has never been.”

There’s trepidation and then there’s still deciding to go for it, but that hovering in between is what I consider yearning.

That waver between “refusal and imagination,” where we are “listening for what can be. for what has never been.” R&B as a genre carries that deep in its DNA. R&B reaches through the ether and extending an open palm, as if to say, the stakes are high, but let’s try to love one another through it. And maybe it’s because I also was just a lil kid who played piano, Alicia Keys did somethin to baby Walela. She made me want to venture into the world of love, entire heart on my sleeve, hair whippin in the wind from an open window, carryin all the possibility in tryna make new kin.

Femmes have been central to the creation of music since the first song,

the first drum that was ever beat, the first lyric ever written. Yet they’re consistently written out of that history. We’re made to believe it’s mostly men who make all the bangers. So, we at Chicken Grease decided to create a recurring series listing some of our favorite songs by or featuring women artists, as a way to help you get to know those you might be unaware of. It’s also a chance to get to know our writers through our tastes!

Miss.Education’s pick: House of Ravens, Yugen Blakrok (2013)

Yugen Blakrok is a South African rapper known for her otherworldly bars. Both spiritual and urgent, she raps like she’s sending a transmission from the future. If you’re not familiar with her music, it’s hard to do it justice here with words; her music is an immersive experience.

She is at home on any mic (check out some of her freestyles, for sure) and states that her style “is very obviously rooted in the 90s - the Golden Era - it’s quite lyric-heavy. I’m not afraid to get wordy.” While she certainly has the writing chops to identify as a lyricist, her flow cannot be divorced from the macabre, ambient, and discordant notes she raps over - her choice of music equally shines. Over time, she’s built up a catalogue of ethereal, Afro-futuristic, and gothic music videos that are unique to her vision and art.

It’s hard to choose just one song, but I landed on a track off her Return of the Astro-Goth album. This is the same album that got her noticed by TDE, who hand-picked her for the 2018 Black Panther Soundtrack. I love everything about the “House of Ravens” song and video, from the lyrics to the play with light and shadow, to producer Kanif the JhatMaster’s eerie, avant-garde sound:

Lee’s pick: Stand Up, Charli Baltimore ft. Ghostface Killah (1999)

Although originally from Philly, Charli Baltimore chose her name after a character Geena Davis played in movie, The Long Kiss Goodnight. And after recording a rap verse on Biggie’s answering machine and getting encouragement from him, she began pursuing a career in music.

The sharp and playful banter between Charli and Ghostface is the reason I love this song. There’s something about a woman talking shit directly to a man on a record. Plus, their chemistry in the video is off the charts. I’m also a sucker for funk and soul and the smoky vocal from Lyn Collins on both Me and My Baby Got Our Own Thing Going and We Want to Parrty, Parrty, Parrty really sets it off. And RZA using Frédéric Chopin’s Étude Op. 10, No. 12, a classical tune made in the late 1820s-early 1830s, helped make it a classic. Not sure Chopin thought razor threats would rest atop his masterpiece when he composed it though.

walela’s pick: Picky Bitch Checklist, Junglepussy (2014)

Known to the public for her role in One Battle After Another, Junglepussy is a alternative rapper from Brooklyn, New York. “In a 2014 interview with Interview, Junglepussy cited she has taken inspiration from musicians such as Erykah Badu, Missy Elliott, Lady Saw, Kelis, Busta Rhymes, Vybz Kartel, Mavado, The Veronicas, Metric, Gossip, and Soulja Boy.” She has released four projects, the most recent one leaning towards nu metal, afro funk, and alt rock.

My homegirl and I found this on Spotify in 2015 and used to play it driving between USC and Chapman University whilst being menaces to men in our early 20s. I will forever salute Junglepussy for this bad bitch anthem.

Miss.Education’s pick: Love Song, Jean Grae (2002)

Jean Grae is best described as a jack of all trades. She is a rapper, singer, dancer, producer, screenwriter, and author of the 2025 memoir In My Remaining Years. One of the best rappers to ever do it, she effortlessly mixes storytelling with poetry and emotion. Definitely check out her 2008 masterpiece Jeanius as an introduction, if you’re new to Grae’s rhymes.

“Love Song” is my personal favorite Jean Grae song. She’s so raw and vulnerable here. It’s a great song to cry to (don’t ask me how I know that). It samples The Stylistics’ “Stop, Look, Listen (To Your Heart)” and also has one of my favorite lines:

“What I thought was gold was only gold-plated”

walela’s pick: We on Dat, Monaleo (2025)

Houston based Monaleo rose to popularity for her 2021 single “Beating Down Your Block,” n ever since she been releasing banger after banger with features from Kaliii, Flo Milli, Anycia, Mello Buckzzz, Summer Walker, Teezo Touchdown, and more. She has released two albums to date and is known for actively speaking out about mental health and suicide prevention.

I found Monaleo during lockdown and immediately fell in love with her music. She no bullshit on every song while also equally vulnerable with her physical and mental health.

Lee’s pick: Underground Lockdown, Hurricane G (1997)

With the ferocity of a natural disaster, Hurricane G swooped in outta Brooklyn into hip hop with a unique delivery style that graced the tracks of rappers like Redman, Keith Murray and the Cocoa Brovaz. She was the first woman to join the Def Squad.

I chose this track cuz I love her rhyming style and commitment to her cultural roots. She opens up with “Hurricane G to the rescue, here to bless you, with a bilingual special,” and she does just that to clue you in about her Afro-Boricua background. Underground Lockdown was one of her most successful songs, next to Somebody Else. We lost Hurricane G to lung cancer in 2022. R.I.P to a muhfuckin’ legend.

Miss.Education’s pick: Poetry in Motion, The X-Ecutioners ft. Helixx C. Armageddon (1997)

Helixx C. Armageddon is a self-described “storyteller intrigued with exploring the human condition.” This storyteller has had their hand in a lot of different media, but in the late 90’s you would usually find them rapping (check out “My Time” or “Blacklisted” for some stellar examples).

“Poetry In Motion” is one of the final tracks closing out The X-Ecutioners 1997 album X-Pressions. It’s one of those approaching Y2K, “where do we go from here” type songs. Over a stripped-down track made out of a keyboard sample, looped percussion, and what seems to be water dripping somewhere in a concrete tunnel, Armageddon delivers her lines as a spoken word poem.

“Poetry In Motion” begs the question, if hip hop is no longer maintained solely by Black people, and the younger rappers are no longer being taught the foundations and principles of the art form, how will they know they need a DJ? And in today’s time of AI-generated songs, the question feels especially prescient.

walela’s pick: White Caprice, Kari Faux feat. Gangsta Boo (2023)

Hailing from Little Rock, Arkansas, Kari Faux released White Caprice in 2023 featuring a verse from Gangsta Boo who tragically passed away after its release. Known for her flamboyance and genre bending skills, Faux was heavily influenced by soulful gospel and bluesy funk contributing significantly to her sound.

Gangsta Boo was the only femme member of Three Six Mafia. Discovered at 14 years old after by DJ Paul, she was featured on six albums before going solo in 2001 with the release of Both Worlds *69. She collaborated with La Chat, Foxy Brown, Run the Jewels, GloRilla, and more. In 2023, Gangsta Boo died of an overdose. We honor her. Rest in Power.

Gangsta Boo in death remains one of the most cutting-edge powerhouses in music and Kari Faux follows her footsteps in elongating her legacy.

Lee’s pick: Strive, Apani B-Fly Emcee (2003)

Queens rapper, Apani B-Fly Emcee, aka Apani B initially broke out in ‘96 with the single Estragen, ft. Jean Grae, Helixx C. Armageddon, Heroine, Lyric, Pri The Honey Dark and Yejide—an all women led classic. Apani also boasts features with Yasiin Bey, MF DOOM (as alter ego, Viktor Vaughn), Pharoahe Monch and Organized Konfusion, among numerous others.

Strive is one of my picks because it’s a song of personal affirmation and a go-to for when I need a boost. I love the hook, where Apani B tells herself to keep going and not to pour from an empty cup: “Don't stop striving, it's all to the good, baby/If you need guidance, take a minute and marinate/Who ya gonna help if you can't help yo'self?/Where you gonna go when there ain't no place left?” The late, great Nujabes produced and released this track on the album, Hydeout Productions First Collection.

Chicken Grease pick: Daddy Died, earthsignchels (2026)

We don’t know much about her yet, but we have a feeling she’s here to stay. Chicago rapper, earthsignchels’ passionate flow on her brand-new track Daddy Died is a far cry from what you might expect in a delivery. She’s got a unique and choppy style we don’t hear often. As an ode to her late father, detailing her grief and the ways his passing has affected the way she moves in the world, this is a track anyone who has ever lost a loving parent can relate to.

These are just some of many favorites we have in rotation at Chicken Grease. Let us know which women artists you enjoy the most. Maybe we have some faves in common!

Kevin Costner stood behind a pulpit in his Sunday best at Whitney Houston’s childhood church, mourning her death. He shared the story behind The Bodyguard and how he knew instantly he wanted her involved even though he was asked, “Do you realize she’s Black?” He noticed early on that despite all the talent she had, despite all the beauty, she was still insecure. Still asked, “Am I good enough?” To which many would click their teeth, thinking, “How could one of the best singers in the world be insecure?” And sure, that’s easy to think about as I bit my lip watching. Bu I, personally, was trying not to cry as he ended his speech with: If he could tell Whitney something today it would be, “you weren’t just good, you were great.”

The day my body decided to act like a plunging roller coaster, I was dizzy tryna “sleep it off.” Whitney sang me to sleep. “My Love is Your Love.” Fred Hammond’s No Weapon woke me up. Withe very hospitalization that followed, Whitney and Fred have been played.

Whitney was our play pretend auntie - especially after Cinderella with Brandy. Her voice could go from a saintly falsetto to belting, sustaining breath longer than I ever could. She had this dynamic personality and a vocal range like her singing was the gateway to heaven itself. Yet she was told by family, by lovers, by too many surrounding her and benefiting off her: She was not good enough. In fact, she was crazy. Then the public agreed. To have hardship and be Black when you are supposed to be “just a singer” means to lead a life pretending no one has tainted it. Was ridiculed for having a toxic, then abusive relationship. Only because it distracted from the singing. I know I’ve said it before, but to be Black is to be nonhuman no matter how much money our talent makes us. It’s to supersede expectations to only be told, “Do it again but better.” Her addiction made her bad stock. loving a woman made her a heathen, the abuse she endured made her a nobody, and support was never considered something a “strong Black woman” needed. Everything was always Whitney’s fault - never those around her. She took the hit each time.

I am not Whitney - nor will I ever be, but I do cry about her often lately. It seems no matter what we do, as Black folk, that is the question that lingers: “Was I good enough” “Why wasn’t I good enough?” After listening to Kevin Costner’s speech, I sobbed to her Grammy performance of “One Moment in Tim” - snotty nose and all. Because you can hear it. The eagerness to be something meaningful.

I think we can relate to Whitney. I collected the gigantic tears from my face in a bottle of wishes, thinking, “That is all I want, too.” One moment and I can die in peace. Just one moment where everything is falling into place and I know I am gonna be here. Or see for certain that I have left an impact. Or a part of my heart has lived on in another. That is all I notice. I tend to ravenously search through cancer. Before cancer. Probably after cancer.

If anyone could speak to me as a self loathing child, if anyone could speak to me as a self blaming adult, I would want them to say while I am alive to hear it, “You aren’t just Good, Walela, you’re Great.” I want to do the same in return. I don’t want to be thirteen years old, picking rose petals off the bouqet sitting atop my grandmother’s coffin at her funeral, thinking of everything I wish I could have told her. I want to receive flowers while living. I want to give flowers while I am still able. I don’t want to rely on being good enough by someone else’s impossible standard. I want to be good by my own standard, in my own time. I want to be great, I want to be good, and I want to fail.

Perhaps if I’m wishing real hard, I want to be half of the sunbeam Whitney was. I want to evoke the type of emotion with the sound of my voice that makes you jump into the human form of yourself and say gah damn ain’t it wild to be alive? I want to know about love. Like how bell hooks writes about it. I know love is far more vast than what a romantic partner can give me. I want to love people, and I want people to experience my love. I want to understand love in all its forms; I want to stop begging for love, for the bare minimum; I want to stop being afraid of giving love. I want to give others a fraction of what her music and films, like, The Bodyguard, Waiting to Exhale, and The Preacher’s Wife, gave to me.

No, Whitney, you weren’t just great - you were brilliant. You are brilliant. And any good thing I do is for the kid singing along to “My Love is Your Love” on a silver portable CD player in the back of my mom’s car, looking out the window for love to find us both.

“Your horoscope is a Gemini, 2 sides / So you better cop everything two times”

—Kendrick Lamar

This past Wednesday (June 17th) K-Dot turned 39, June 16th was Tupac’s 55th, Ice Cube turned 57 on the 15th, and on the 14th, Freddie Gibbs and Gunna celebrated another year around the sun. It’s no coincidence all these GOATed emcees are ♊️Gemini 🔆Suns. Gemini placements are known to inspire quick thinking, clever word play, and inventive language. In short: lyrical greatness.

Gemini is the 3rd sign in the Zodiac year, occurring in between Taurus and Cancer (click HERE to see a breakdown of all 12 astrological signs). According to The Old Farmer’s Almanac, Gemini “is renowned for its adaptability, curiosity, and thirst for knowledge.” Geminis are the storytellers of the Zodiac.

People born between May 21st and June 21st were born when the sun is aligned with the constellation Gemini. Depending on their birth date, time, and birthplace, anyone can have Gemini placements in other parts of their natal chart.

As Gemini Season comes to a close, let’s pause to explore some of the many rappers who were born under this sign.

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Who are the Gemini rappers?

In the table below, you’ll find 44 notable Gemini emcees:

^ I’ve also included each rapper’s Mercury placement, because Mercury rules Gemini *AND* Mercury is the planet that informs communication and everyday expression in everyone’s birth chart.

What does Mercury influence?

Gemini is ruled by the planet Mercury, the 3rd house ruler of communication, persuasion, and verbal dexterity. Known for their mental acuity, they grasp concepts fast and can think on their feet.

There are an unusual amount of rappers who have both Gemini Sun *and* Gemini Mercury—essentially stacking them with bars on bars.

According to post-colonial astrologer Alice Sparkly Kat, Gemini is “the quick witted and always edgy place where Mercury feels most at home … Good teachers love Mercury in Gemini because they ask all of the good questions and bad teachers hate Mercury in Gemini for the same reason.”

In his 2008 track “The Gemini,” Kendrick implores the listener to: “Just call me K-Dot the Gemini / you don’t know if I might smile or might cry,” alluding to his natal sign’s mercurial nature.

Gemini has big trickster energy.

The stuff of myths and legends, Geminis are adaptable, resourceful, and lucky. In a piece titled “Gemini, the Buzzing Winged Trickster,” animist storyteller Gizem Gizegen notes:

“Gemini is the messenger, the magician, the pollinator, the trickster, the mischief-maker, the journalist, the reporter, the salesperson, the thief, the comedian, the jester, the orator, the scribe, the psychopomp, the eternal-child, peter pan, tinkerbell…”

The twins are experienced court jesters, expert at working a room to get their message across. They can deflect, deceive, beguile, and move in stealth (like when Raven steals light to give to the world). They can outsmart their opponents (like when Anansi and Brer Rabbit use wit to outfox the brawnier animals). And they can figure out what’s needed to strike a compromise (like when the twins’ namesakes, Castor and Pollux, got Zeus to allow them to share immortality).

Gemini Charisma

Geminis make good rappers because they’re strong lyricists and creative storytellers. They’re curious, witty, charismatic, and can think on their feet.

As the first mutable sign on the Zodiac wheel, this air sign is known for being able to fit in with any crowd, manage stress without letting others know they’re pressed, and come up with clever retorts on the fly. This quick wit makes Gemini a formidable battle rapper.

With his Sun and Mercury in Gemini, MC Jin is considered one of the greatest to ever do it. Click the video below to watch a clip that demonstrates his agility and word play.

Gemini can sell you the beach house in Idaho, and you will have enjoyed yourself the whole time. They have a level of magnetism that rivals that of their cosmic cousins Libra - an “it-factor,” if you will.

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Knowledge Reigns Supreme

Gemini may not be well-versed in every single area, but they do know at least a little bit about almost any topic. Their currency is knowledge, so they collect little pieces of information wherever they go. And they’re naturally observant, so they pick up on a lot!

In her book Astrology for Real Relationships, Jessica Lanyadoo points out that while the “Twin Stars have a reputation for being duplicitous … they can usually see all angles of a thing, and whatever truth they’re looking at in the moment can seem like the most important one.”

In a collection of essays titled Gemini: An Extended Autobiographical Statement of My First Twenty-Five Years of Being a Black Poet, Nikki Giovanni states:

“Facts are only tools to gain control over yourself and other people.”

Geminis understand this. They take in info rapidly and adapt readily. A Gemini will change their opinions and beliefs to reflect up-to-date facts. Don’t expect an announcement though - Gemini will expertly spin it so the focus is on the new idea, not the fact they were wrong as recently as 1 minute ago. That was in the past - now we on an ultralight beam. Keep up!

Gemini gets restless easily. They’re extremely curious and need room to explore. The world is their classroom.

If you have a Gemini in your life, just know they may need (in no particular order):

• novelty, variety, WiFi

• intellectual stimulation

• storytelling, archives, freedom of speech

• the WiFi password

• wordplay, a good book, banter

• opt-out clauses

• to know “who all gonna be there”

The Twin Sign & Duality

According to Cafe Astrology, “Geminis are said to have a dual nature, as symbolized by twins. This duality also represents exchange and interaction.”

Did you know fellow Geminis 2Pac and Left Eye Lopes had a few notable interactions? Click the video below to hear her tell it:

Pac and Left Eye were apparently mirrors for one another, to an uncanny extent. This makes sense because Gemini “provides the ability to know and understand reality,” astrologer Jessica Davidson explains - “if Aries stands for the subject and Taurus stands for the object, then Gemini is the relationship between these two…the knower and the known giving rise to a third: knowledge itself.”

Knowledge is conveyed through the written and spoken word. The twins know you can’t have a conversation without at least 2 people. So it’s no surprise many of our fav Gemini rappers are part of a duo.

Prodigy + Havoc

Havoc is a Gemini Sun and Mercury. While Prodigy is a Scorpio Sun with a Gemini Moon.

Issa Gold + AKTHESAVIOR

AK is both a Gemini Sun and Mercury. Together with Issa Gold, the Flatbush, Brooklyn rappers form The Underachievers. The duo is know for their cerebral lyrics and psychedelic mysticism.

Big Boi + André 3000

One of the most notable astro rap duos has to be that of Gemini André 3000 and Big Boi, his Aquarian co-pilot. Together, they form the iconic Aquemini.

With a reputation for changing their minds, it’s common knowledge that Geminis can have 2 sides. Astrologer Chani Nichols notes, “Gemini people can appear to be everywhere and nowhere at once.” Loved ones lament that Gemini is flaking out or switching up.

The twins can get a bad rap for having a “Jekyll and Hyde” aspect to their personality, too. It’s not uncommon to hear people say that they can’t predict which “side” of a Gemini will show up.

Having 2 Sides ≠ Being Bipolar

Pop astrology and psychology often equates being a Gemini with the experience of being bipolar - to the point either term can be lazily used as synonyms for “erratic behavior.” 2 Gemini rappers often pathologized in this way are Kanye West and Azealia Banks. Both have confirmed their respective BP diagnoses.

Regardless of inflammatory speech or problematic ideologies espoused by West and Banks, BP is a real disorder and the stigma facing people who have BP is real. According to psychologist Kevin Cokley, Ph.D.:

“There is no doubt that his bipolar disorder has greatly contributed to [Kanye’s] past and current difficulties. However, there is something much deeper going on that Eurocentric paradigms of mental health cannot explain.

For years, Black psychologists grounded in Afrocentric psychology have argued that mental health and wellness for Black people should be considered within the context of their culture [and] should be culturally and racially self-affirming.”

This is something Chicken Grease editor Walela Nehanda explores in their recent essay maniq: notes on blk mania. Nehanda, who coined the term maniq, explains:

“blk* surreal mania is a different experience for Black people, that doesn’t adhere to the typical presentations of “mania” in Western pathology. To be maniq is to be so full of sound, in another plane, it enters the mystical which is a contradictory backdrop to the current conditions we are required to endure.”

Gemini rapper Remy Ma can’t seem to shake the bipolar label - both from her haters, and even some of her own fans.

While Remy has clarified she does not have bipolar disorder, she shared that she suffers from PTSD in a 2017 Fader interview, stating:

“I really went through a traumatic experience. Almost a decade of my life was consumed by the prison system…I don’t think I’m going to forget any of the things I went through…when you’re in there seven years you get to hear so many different stories, and it’s disgusting the way this country operates off the prison system. We have the most people incarcerated out of every country in the entire world.”

Also heavily impacted by the prison system, Tupac Shakur is another Gemini who famously embodied many archetypes and contradictions.

There’s 2Pac: the rapper, “thug,” and outlaw and then there’s Tupac Shakur: the acclaimed actor, poet, and revolutionary.

Click the still below to watch Tupac talk about his 2 different sides:

Exploring Gemini Placements in the Birth Chart

Tupac’s chart reveals a Gemini stellium (when you have 4 or more placements in one sign).

If you look at Tupac’s natal chart, you can see that his Sun, Mercury, Venus, and Midheaven are all in Gemini.

Having a Gemini Midheaven is like being destined to be a professor, rapper or lawyer; your life purpose is literally to communicate. LL Cool J, Heavy D, Royce da 5’9, and Isaiah Rashad all have this placement, too.

At 29°45, Pac’s Taurus Saturn is so close to Gemini that it’s conjunct. Any placement on 29° of a sign is considered an anaretic degree, meaning you are on the very last lesson from this sign before moving onto the next. Having an anaretic placement somewhere means that part of your chart may feel incredibly supercharged with meaning. Because Saturn rules limitations, delays, and karmic cycles, people with Saturn at this critical degree, like Tupac, are often known as “old souls.”

Emily, co-host of the astrology podcast Two Mutables in a Pod, explains that 29° Saturn “is often referred to as the degree of fate,” and may center on “finales, endings, decisions, and culminations.” She also notes that a person with this Saturn placement may find they need to make a critical decision before they can let go of old karmic cycles.

Sometimes Gemini energy is expressed through other celestial placements in your chart. For example, rappers Slick Rick, KRS-One, Prodigy, Murs, Future, DJ Quik, and 50 Cent all have Gemini moons. 50 has that illustrious Gem Mercury placement, too, as does Lil’ Kim.

Your favorite rappers’ rappers are also just as likely to have prominent Virgo, Aquarius, or Libra placements. Virgo is also a mutable sign (meaning they can readily adapt) and is also ruled by the communication planet of Mercury. With their sharp tongue, analytic mind, and resourceful storytelling at the drop of a dime, Virgos def have enviable rap skills.

Aquarius and Libra are Gemini’s sister air signs. And like Gemini, Librans and Aquarians are master linguists and deep thinkers.

Aquarian Megan Thee Stallion has a prominent Gemini Lilith placement, in her 1st house. 2Pac also had Lilith in his 1st house.

Black Moon Lilith represents rebellion, repressed energy, and the dark feminine. According to the astrology of Dawn Bodrogi, “There is a quality that comes off people with this placement—a charged, electric, slightly dangerous quality that others feel before they can name it. Sometimes this produces fascination. Sometimes it produces the instinct to control or suppress.”

More Gemini Traits

According to Rosec Jewels, Gemini’s weaknesses are: being prone to indecisiveness, inconsistency, nervous energy, and gossip.

But they’re also hilarious. And stylish.

Watch this clip for Jada’s take on the best Gemini rappers:

Gemini is also an expert escape artist. If they know the function might be boring, expect a non-committal RSVP (and an even vaguer ETA). They’ll probably show up fashionably late.

Geminis are here for a good time, not a long time. If they absolutely have to, they’ll make an appearance, but they’re approaching the event like they’re conducting an anthropological study. They’ll gather gossip data. They’ll make pilgrimages to the bathroom. And they’ll wander outside to smoke.

Do you have a friend who’s perfected the “Irish goodbye?” Chances are, that friend may have prominent Gem placements.

The Twins are also known to be evasive when facing a conflict - in fact, they will likely do whatever they can to ignore the problem, go around it, or even use humor as a strategy. When all else fails to solve the issue, they’ll turn to negotiating, using their silver tongues to charm the opposition. Geminis don’t have enemies; just potential allies. They can use their quick wit to win almost any argument.

But that doesn’t mean they won’t fight!

Gemini Evolution

Gemini will never stay in a situation that’s no longer serving. They won’t remain stagnant and cannot stand being bored. Just consider how many Gemini rappers have repeatedly evolved their image or sound.

Gemini artists like Kendrick, 2Pac, Ye, and André 3000 are known to reinvent themselves, going through several iterations of rap personas, name changes, fashion and iconography, and even political ideology. They’ve also shifted their approach to creating, recording, and performing.

Krayzie Bone’s “Flow Motion” verse is the perfect example of how innovative Gemini can be.

While trying to keep his mind occupied in prison, Krayzie started analyzing the flow of the legendary Big Daddy Kane. Kane would periodically flip the flow to a faster, more intense cadence, before returning to his typically laid back, smooth style. Krayzie wondered what it would be like if someone rapped like that for an entire verse.

Realizing it would be “the coldest shit ever,” he got inspired to write it himself. He had to borrow a pen and literally write it on toilet paper, but he got it down. That was the verse he spit for Eazy-E, and the group’s signature flow was what ultimately got Bone Thugs signed to Ruthless.

Being fluid and flexible are Gemini superpowers. It means they don’t stay stuck. Like fellow spring sign Aries, they can adapt to new realities quickly, and, like fellow air sign Aquarius, they can innovate and push the culture forward.

From the Archive: Gemini Ancestors and Elders

To keep with Chicken Grease’s theme of honoring the music that came before, lets pay our respects to some hip hop ancestors. Whether they rapped ahead of their time, made songs that are frequently sampled, or had a hand in producing the music directly, each of these pioneers have influenced the culture.

Sending gratitude and endless flowers to these legendary twins (some of whom are still with us today!):

• _{Patti LaBelle (born on 5/24) has a Gemini stellium; her Sun, Moon, Saturn, and Uranus are all in Gemini.}

• _{Miles Davis (5/26) has a Gemini Sun}

• _{Gladys Knight (5/28) has a Gemini Sun, Saturn, and Uranus}

• _{Sylvia Robinson (5/29) is a Gemini Sun and Mercury}

• _{Josephine Baker has a Gemini stellium consisting of her Sun, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, and Pluto and Curtis Mayfield has a Gemini stellium of Sun, Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Lilith. Both of these legends were born on June 3rd}

• _{Prince has Gemini Sun and Mercury, Gwendolyn Brooks has Gemini Sun and Venus, and Nikki Giovanni has Gemini Sun, Saturn, and Uranus. All 3 share a June 7th born day}

• _{Lionel Richie (6/20) has Gemini Sun, Mercury, and Mars}

There’s a direct through-line between Miles Davis’ on-stage antics, to Prince’s unrivaled performance prowess, to the braggadocios showmanship we see in today’s emcees commanding a crowd. In the 1920’s, Josephine Baker was known for her sharp wit, transgressive dances, provocative outfits, open bisexuality, and for her ability to use men’s overconfidence against them. Sound like any 2020’s rappers we know today?

Gwendolyn Brooks penned proto-rap classics like “We Real Cool,” a poem with its own breakbeat. With its effortlessly smooth rhythm, nonchalant attitude, and repetitive, stripped-down language delivered staccato style, you could trace a direct line from Brooks’ 1950’s poem to almost any Migos track.

Sylvia Robinson was a singer, recording artist, and co-founder of pioneering hip hop label Sugar Hill Records. She was famously going broke when she got the idea to assemble the necessary ingredients for a hip hop record. Or, as she tells it:

“All of a sudden, a voice said to me, if you put a concept like that on wax you’ll be out of all that trouble you’re in”

Sylvia produced 2 of the earliest recorded hip hop songs: “Rappers Delight” and “The Message.” Innovative and forward-thinking, she was the first person to release a commercially successful hip hop record.

Geminis are bridges: they relate two seemingly different concepts or styles. The Gemini elders listed above have each served as connectors—between Rap and The Blues, between free-styling and Jazz, between catchy hooks and Gospel’s call and response. The breaks from a DJ set mirror the get down in a funk or soul song. And the role of hip hop as counter-culture echos the early days of rock and roll, another Black American-originated music form. All these seemingly different genres are constantly being remixed into something new. And Geminis were at the forefront of so many of those sonic revolutions.

Final Thoughts

Geminis are the embodiment of dialectics. They express themselves through blending opposing ideas, in ways no one has quite put into words. They are comfortable straddling that line between dark and light, push and pull, yin and yang, mortal and immortal, wicked and good.

One thing’s for sure: Gemini won’t allow themselves to be pigeonholed as just one thing.

“you hear that? That’s a poet,” my mother says while Bopping her head back and forth to I Ain’t Mad At Cha.

We sit through traffic driving home from my elementary school in her sunflower yellow Volkswagen Beetle as she raps, “When I talk about money, all you see is the struggle / When I tell you I'm livin' large, you tell me it's trouble.” Here on the 10 freeway she can slough off the day. Pac was a regular occurrence in our car. From How Do U Want It to Changes to Brenda’s Got a Baby to Hail Mary, my mother held Pac nearest and dearest to her heart. As I got older, I went beyond holding an inherited soft spot for Pac as an artist to revering him for his politics and praxis.

What’s often not talked about when it comes to Pac is his positioning as a cultural worker where he dedicated a portion of his efforts to not only a shift towards a more radical imagination but also utilizing rap/hip hop as a vehicle to reach the masses and spark new consciousness.

Today, in honor of his birthday, we’re gonna delve into lesser known facts about the legend, Tupac Amaru Shakur.

1. Pac’s mother, Afeni Shakur, was a Black Panther and Member of the Panther 21

where she and twenty other Panthers were charged with conspiracy to bomb police stations and other public venues in New York. The trial was “…the longest and most expensive in New York history — revealed the illegal government activities which led to exile, imprisonment on false charges, and assassination of Black liberation leaders.” She was eventually acquitted on all charges. While imprisoned Afeni also worked alongside the Gay Liberation Front and worked alongside the National Task Force for Cointelpro Litigation.

2. Pac’s step father was Mutulu Shakur, a leader in the Black Liberation Movement

Mutulu Shakur was a member of the Revolutionary Action Movement as a teenager - a Marxist Leninist Black nationalist / internationalist organization also known as the first group to “apply the philosophy of Maoism to the conditions of Black people in the US.” Heavily influenced by Robert F. Williams, Queen Mother Moore, Malcolm X, RAM initially started as a campus organization, then over the years at its height the party had chapters nationally while remaining semi clandestine.

Later, Shakur joined the Republic of New Afrika, founded after the Civil Rights era, The Republic of New Afrika was established in 1967 following a Detroit riot where a convening of Black Power leaders and organizations met to a create a Black nation in the South. He was also a member of the Black Liberation Army - a clandestine armed organization composed of Black Panther and Republic of New Afrika members. they carried out expropriations and prison breaks working alongside The Weather Underground.

He was the co-founder and director of the National Task Force for Cointelpro Litigation and Research alongside his partner Afeni Shakur.

Mutulu Shakur was also an acupuncturist who treated addicts in New York as an alternative to methadone and aided the takeover of - you can learn more about this in the documentary Dope is Death:

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3. Wrote The Code of Thug Life with his step dad Mutulu Shakur to Bring an End to Gang Violence, Enact a Code of Ethics, while Performing Shows in Prisons

According to Mutulu Shakur’s official website, “In 1992, at a cease fire agreement and gang ‘Truce Barbecue’ in Watts, California, Tupac Amaru Shakur was instrumental in getting rival members of the Crips and Bloods to sign a code of ethics, that which is called The Code of Thug Life. He and Dr. Mutulu Shakur had helped write up The ‘Code,’ with other ‘O.G’s’ who came together to bring order to the violence on the street”

The Code of THUG LIFE

1. All new Jacks to the game must know: a) He’s going to get rich. b) He’s going to jail. c) He’s going to die.

2. Crew Leaders: You are responsible for legal/financial payment commitments to crew members; your word must be your bond.

3. One crew’s rat is every crew’s rat. Rats are now like a disease; sooner or later we all get it; and they should too.

4. Crew leader and posse should select a diplomat, and should work ways to settle disputes. In unity, there is strength!

5. Car jacking in our Hood is against the Code.

6. Slinging to children is against the Code.

7. Having children slinging is against the Code.

8. No slinging in schools.

9. Since the rat Nicky Barnes opened his mouth; ratting has become accepted by some. We’re not having it.

10. Snitches is outta here.

11. The Boys in Blue don’t run nothing; we do. Control the hood, and make it safe for squares.

12. No slinging to pregnant Sisters. That’s baby killing; that’s genocide!

13. Know your target, who’s the real enemy.

14. Civilians are not a target and should be spared.

15. Harm to children will not be forgiven.

16. Attacking someone’s home where their family is known to reside, must be altered or checked.

17. Senseless brutality and rape must stop.

18. Our old folks must not be abused.

19. Respect our Sisters. Respect our Brothers.

20. Sisters in the Life must be respected if they respect themselves.

21. Military disputes concerning business areas within the community must be handled professionally and not on the block.

22. No shooting at parties.

23. Concerts and parties are neutral territories; no shooting!

24. Know the Code; it’s for everyone.

25. Be a real ruff neck. Be down with the code of the Thug Life.

26. Protect yourself at all times.

4. He was the youngest ever national chairman of the New Afrikan Panthers at 17 Years Old

5. Pac’s first business manager was the founder and security director of New Afrikan People’s Organization (NAPO): ex Black Panther, Watani Tyehimba and his lawyer was NAPO National Chair Chokwe Lumumba

According to The Freedom Archives:

“The New Afrikan People’s Organization (NAPO) was formed in 1984. From its beginnings, the NAPO was a coalition-based organization, focused largely on cadre-building and developing the grassroots support for a New Afrikan nation-state. Rather than seeing themselves as the immediate leaders of a political movement, the NAPO directly centered the local organizing struggles of various New Afrikan formations and attempted to bridge their collective struggles towards establishing the nation-state. In contrast to the PG, the NAPO was very explicit about being a revolutionary socialist, Pan-Africanist organization. The NAPO was clear that democratic centralism would be a key component in facilitating the development of their state power.

In contrast to civil rights movement-era organizations, the NAPO made it very clear in its creation that socialism was a core component of the NAIM. They recognized their struggle for liberation as intrinsically linked to other Black people abroad, specifically under the political objective of Pan-Africanism, defined as “the Total Liberation and Unification of Africa Under Scientific Socialism” as laid out by the All-African Peoples Revolutionary Party (AAPRP). The NAPO carries the most obvious, direct relationship to the PG’s organizing legacy and has since continued to spawn more organizations relevant to this present moment. In its most The most prominent formation active today that is directly tied to the founding and development of the RNA is the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXGM).”

Pac was strategically separated from Tyehimba and Lumumba when signed to Death Row Records

6. Pac was open with his critiques of the movement, here is a speech of him at 20 years old at a Malcolm X Grassroots Movement Banquet

7. Shakur performed shows to benefit political prisoners like his godfather: Geronimo Pratt and donated money to the New Afrikan People’s Organization

Learn more about Malcolm X Grassroots Movement and support their work today

References:

1. The FBI War on Tupac Shakur and Black Leaders by John Potash

2. The Freedom Archives

3. Mutulu Shakur’s official website

4. Wikipedia

5. Dope is Death Documentary

“It’s really sad that people think that you cannot live without believing in God, especially Black people,”

you hear a woman say, opening up KA’s God Undefeated, the seventh track on his final album, The Thief Next to Jesus.

Having left Christianity around two decades ago and more recently, taking a closer look at the bible and the ways it was used to rationalize oppression of our community, that quote and the album in its entirety, hit me in the chest on my first listen.

As a last album, released weeks before KA’s death in October 2024, The Thief Next to Jesus is a hell of a body of work to leave us with.

KA is one of the lesser known, yet most unsung emcees to ever do it. Unless you’re extremely plugged into underground hip hop, you’ve likely never even heard of him. Among notable emcees, he embodies the well-known phrase “your favorite rapper’s favorite rapper.”

As a huge Wu-Tang Clan fan, I first learned of him through GZA’s Pro Tools album, on the track Firehouse. He was so special and so gifted at what he did, that GZA, who many of us view as one of the greatest in the game ever, let him shine on this track mostly alone. GZA only chimes in on the hook to tell us a little about Brownsville, the neighborhood KA is from in Brooklyn and what it’s like sayin’:

If you were to ask me about KA’s background, this is the track I’d put you onto first and let him and GZA give you a rundown of where he came from to give you an understanding of why he approached hip hop the way he did. It’s also fitting the song is called Firehouse, because after surviving Brownsville and also needing to make a different decision about ways to put dinner on the table, KA became a firefighter and still created music purely because he loved it so much and found it to be a therapeutic way to work through his past.

Self-labeling his discography as Grief Studies, you could most definitely call KA a professor in the lessons of Black american grief and his own personal pain. But on The Thief Next To Jesus, he gets more specific on the griefology of what is to be Black and Christian or Black and NOT a Christian in amerikkka.

I would argue that KA’s life in Brownsville, as a Black man in amerikkka credentials him to learn us something in a lecture hall of the Black Griefology department. And surely, shaky faith would likely come with that at times.

“Ain’t nothing shook about me but my faith
Couple hundred years asking, nothing kept us safe
Ain’t nothing shook about me but my faith
Still do us the same, if we in the same place”-KA, Fragile Faith

The Thief Next to Jesus stirs up questions about the usefulness of the Black church, its greed, the way Christianity came to be in the Black community and our insistence on leaning on a god that doesn’t seem to be on our side. It even raises questions about whether KA might have known he was dying, as his cause of death wasn’t released and he seemingly alludes to his death throughout the album.

“I hope it’s borrowed time when my time come/Cuz all my time wasn’t kind son,” he hopes out loud on Borrowed Time.

Throughout every listen of this album, (and I’ve listened more times than I can count), I find myself wondering about whether he believed in a god anymore or at the very least, the Abrahamic one.

“The Thirsty sayin’ Lord have mercy is all I survey” -KA, Lord Have Mercy

The name of the album itself alludes to the biblical story about two thieves that were crucified near Jesus: the story of the Impenitent Thief. Specifically, the version in Luke 23:39. One of the thieves is said to be mocking Jesus, questioning if he was who he claimed to be—saying that if he were indeed the son of God or God himself, why not use his power to save them and save himself from crucifixion? The second, the Penitent thief, chastises the first for mocking Jesus and says they both deserve crucifixion, but Jesus doesn’t.

The Penitent thief then asks Jesus to remember him in the kingdom of heaven. The other one says nothing. Jesus tells the thief who asks to be remembered that he’ll have a place in heaven with him. And it’s presumed from this passage, that the Impenitent thief won’t be setting up residence there.

All for asking, what I, and many others perceive to be valid questions.

KA subtly and expertly weaves the themes of this story throughout, drawing parallels to our situation here in the u.s. A key theme being that we as Black people often ask God for help with money, food, shelter, drug addiction, freedom from brutality, among various other issues we face. Essentially, we ask for help to bring us down from the cross that is being a part of the Black community in amerikkka. And yet, God won’t use his power to remove us from it, causing us to question if he’s as powerful as Christianity proclaims he is, if he just doesn’t wanna help or if he’s even real at all.

And does questioning any of this make us unworthy of a “place in heaven?” Is questioning why we continue to live in hell?

It’s this that prompts me to ask on every listen, if KA likened himself to one of the thieves and if he did, which one? Is he the Impenitent Thief or the Penitent one? Is he both?

There’s one thing I do know as a longtime KA listener. Everything about his work is intentional.

“If you listen to what Black people are singing religiously, it is a clue as to what’s happening to them sociologically. Our music mirrors what is happening to us.” -Pastor & civil rights leader Wyatt T Walker as sampled on KA’s Bread Wine Body Blood

We’re living in a time where more and more Black people are questioning whether we need Christianity anymore, and if we ever did. Long before my little attempt here, Black people talked about the history of Christianity and the way it was used to capture us, justify that captivity and to keep us in line. I think we can partially credit that discussion with why we as a people are starting to lean more on looking to our ancestors for guidance.

As this country becomes more brutal here and worldwide, many of us feel moved to look harder at tangible examples of our ancestors physically resisting and at their spiritual practices as well.

We’re looking harder at our own history of self-salvation.

“A nod to God, but in large part it's ancestral”-KA, on Cross You Bear

There was a time where ancestral veneration had to be in secret, under the cover of Christianity. Now many in our community have become much louder about it. And more and more of us have become atheist or agnostic or just more willing to admit to being a longtime atheist or agnostic in secret. We’re seeing this in what’s being called the Faith/Evangelical Deconstruction movement, with Black content creators and community organizers creating videos or live streams where they’re breaking down the history of Christianity and biblical text and how that history pertains to our freedom or lack thereof.

We’re hearing it more and more in our in-person conversations specifically about our liberation as a people.

Like the Impenitent Thief, we question, if Jesus is our savior, why hasn’t he saved us? Why hasn’t our devotion to him as a community saved us? Specifically, from the past and resulting horrors of slavery, living under Jim Crow, and western imperialism?

It’s a conversation being had more and more.

And here in The Thief Next to Jesus, the music is mirroring what’s happening to us.

“How did the African soul survive this dark day? By the power of spirituality.” - sampled quote in KA’s Tested Testimony

I’ve long had questions about why, outside of forced assimilation during slavery, any of us would cling so tightly to a Christian understanding of a god. Especially when the bible explicitly shows this god not taking issue with slavery, with him even going as far as outlining ways for the Israelites to procure slaves but being sure to let them know not to enslave other Israelites. Everyone else was fair game and there was even permission to pass slaves off as inheritance, similar to the way chattel slavery was practiced here in amerikkka, (Leviticus 25:39-46). These scriptures were in fact, used as a justification to do so.

Shit, in Ephesians 6:5, Paul even instructs slaves to obey their earthly masters! We’ll circle back to this later.

It’s a massive part of why so many white, racist sects of Christianity and Christians wanna be the real Israelites so bad. These scriptures permitting the Israelites to practice slavery helped get people to consent to the practice of amerikkkan chattel slavery and not feel like they were doing something immoral. Sidebar: still wondering why it is Black Hebrew Israelites want this title though.

KA wrestles with these themes and more throughout The Thief Next to Jesus. He also acknowledges how multifaceted the Black church specifically has been.

The track Broken Rose Window opens with audio of a man sayin’, “The church participated vigorously in the underground railroad. Former slaves, who would assemble in the borough of Brooklyn, were provided food, clothing, and refuge.”

It’s no secret the Black church specifically has roots in community organizing, often providing what white citizens and the amerikkkan government historically stole, sabotaged or blocked us from having and aided others in freedom from captivity during slavery. Black Christians often led protests and actions for more rights, most notably during the civil rights movement—the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. being the most prominent.

Dr. King got Christians together, both white and Black to participate in the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the freedom rides and pushed for churches to be involved in the civil rights movement at large.

However, what should have been an easy sell for believers in a faith that publicly claims to be rooted in love and righteousness wasn’t. Dr King initially struggled to get churches, both white and Black involved. Obviously, he had more issues with public support from white pastors who felt like he was an extremist who mixed religion with politics. But what’s wild to me, is that he also got pushback from Black Christians, including members of his own congregation when he expressed a desire for them to get further involved in the movement.

Likewise, there were objections from Black pastors whose churches were part of the National Baptist Convention, which he was vice president of.

The NBC had about 5 million congregants, who Dr. King wanted to get more involved, but when he kept pushing for this, the president of the NBC, Reverend Joseph H. Jackson wasn’t havin’ it.

Jackson thought Black people needed to use the law to get civil rights and that what Dr. King was calling for was just lawbreaking. What’s funny though is that Jackson routinely broke NBC laws to remain as sitting president. And when Dr. King called him on his corruption and demanded an election and transparency about the org’s funds, Jackson had him booted from his VP position.

Why would Black Christians take issue with Dr. King trying to get the numbers to effectively push against segregation, and oppression of Black people in the south in general, when effective organization would benefit them?

One answer might simply be fear of white retaliation, but another answer in a sea of answers is that obedience to the authority, law, and our “masters” is baked into the religion.

Kwame Ture famously said that Dr. King was “one of the greatest mobilizers this century’s ever seen,” but that he wasn’t an organizer. And there are many reasons why, but could one of the reasons he struggled in this department be that he was trying to organize actions with people who were told by their faith to fall in line?

Still, it can’t be overlooked that the Black believers of this god do have a long history of being driven by their faith to stop the horrors happening to us.

Another notable example of a man pushed by his faith would be Nat Turner, who organized and led a four-day slave insurrection in Southhampton County, Virginia in 1831. He did this after many years of studying the bible, speaking with what he called, “the Spirit that spoke to prophets in the former days,” and having a vision of Black and white spirits in battle during a solar eclipse.

I’ve often heard from Black Christians that this is proof that Christianity is a “liberatory” faith and that God set Turner on his mission to revolt. Nat Turner himself believed that the Holy Spirit gave him the vision of the struggle during the eclipse.

But while reading Beneath the Mountain: An Anti-Prison Reader edited by Mumia Abu-Jamal and Jennifer Black, I learned that Nat Turner escaped the plantation he was on years before his revolt in 1831.

And it was his faith that convicted him to go back.

Questioned after the insurrection by a white lawyer named Thomas R. Gray, who wrote his words down in The Confessions of Nat Turner, Turner says he ran away to the woods for thirty days. While he was free, he said the Spirit told him to go back:

There’s a lot to think about here, but the first thing I come back to is Ephesians 6:5. Nat Turner read the bible often and we’re told, was a fierce believer.

If we are to believe the lawyer didn’t lie about anything Turner said, including seeing visions, then we have to take an honest look at his use of the phrase “earthly master,” which Ephesians 6:5 tells enslaved people they are to obey. After learning about him willingly going back and using that term to explain why, I was shook. It’s clear where he got the phrase from and I can’t help but wonder how differently things might have gone for him if his faith hadn’t moved him to return. Could he have organized a more successful revolt from outside? Could he have evaded capture indefinitely and helped more enslaved people to freedom after insurrection?

And what about the spirit he spoke to? I was talking with the homie, walela Nehanda about this, and they asked, “can you trust all spirits?” How much of that communication was real? After all, we do know the eclipse actually happened. But also, how much of the communication was the result of a man who had lived through so much brutality that all he had to cling to was what he read? Some of it being indoctrination into accepting slavery to the point that he returned to the plantation years before revolting because of verses he read.

“You can have him. As far as we're concerned, your Jesus is contaminated. Your religion means nothing. Like everything you've tried to force upon us is contaminated." -Ernie Chambers in 1966 documentary, A Time for Burning, as sampled on KA’s Cross You Bear

KA was well-known, by us who knew him, for choosing a subject or a theme, researching the fuck out of it and then making an album reflecting what had most been on his mind, what media he’d been interacting with and how the grief he lived with interacted with those things and how it related to us as a community.

The man mastered the art of choosing the most thought-provoking clip to set the tone or punctuate the point of a theme he wove throughout a song. And he’d do it repeatedly throughout an album. The Thief Next To Jesus, is of course, no exception to this.

In the above clip from 1966 documentary, A Time for Burning, we see Ernie Chambers, an activist, expressing his distaste for the superiority white people exert over Black people worldwide. He emphasizes his rejection of white superiority further by doing what so many of us have done: he renounces white Jesus. Ka used this clip at the end of Cross You Bear to drive home the fact that so many of us don’t fuck with this god and even for those of us who are Christian, we don’t believe in the version that enslaved us.

Our community as a whole has always been able to remix a thing to suit our needs and to a degree, we’ve done this with Christianity. But when I listen to this album, I often wonder if there’s a way for us to remix this god even further, create something completely new that can actually serve us or even operate without a faith, if that works for us. I believe this current brand of Black Christianity is no longer of much use to our community and the more I listen to this record, I think KA felt the same.

KA calls out the irony of the Black Church offering “blessings” to believers and instead indulging in greed, with lines like, “If you wanted to bless me/Woulda left me that collection plate,” on Collection Plate. With lines like these, the overall theme of the album seems to be that we have to be able to offer our community much more than prayer, much more than “Lawd hammercy,” much more than hollow blessings while blessing the pastor’s pockets instead. Now, more than ever, we need to actively bestow literal blessings on each other.

On the last track, True Holy Water, KA samples “For the Rest of My Life,” by The Gospel Music Workshop of America Mass Choir and he cuts the original track in such a way that the lead vocalist’s voice almost acts as weeping, as wailing about our plight. You can hear people in the back shouting and praising, but it feels more like ominous screams in a scene of our collective community’s terror as Ka promises, “I'm here for you, sweat, bled and shed a tear for you.”

As the conclusion to the album, I believe this is what he’s saying is needed; for us to be here for each other. Regardless of whether some of us choose to align with this god or not, we need to be showing up for each other in tangible ways. Working together, protecting and empathizing with each other.

On a track called Argo, on another album Orpheus Vs. The Sirens, KA once said he “Spoke for grimy, hope you find me timely, when you need it.” He also said, “When I part to grieve, pray the mark I leave, beautiful,” on the song Beautiful on this album.

Even with his passing in 2024, I’d say he was both timely in a time of our need and that he did leave many beautiful marks throughout this work and countless other records. In a time where the president has positioned himself as chosen by the Christian god, circulated an image depicting himself as God and characterized his violent and racist acts as divine—all with support, I find it to be right on time. Whether we choose this god or not, I believe it’s important for us to be honest about what the text actually says, how it’s been used against us, how some Black church leaders have abandoned our community in the form of taking advantage of members and how we’re not seeing them step up in the way past Christian leaders have in our fight for freedom.

It’s time for us to engage in sincere and critical conversations about anything that may or may not help us get free.

“Speak thoughts sincere to spare the soul, I pray every cross you bear is gold” -KA, Cross You Bear

The Thief Next To Jesus by KA, full album

Note: KA’s wife, Mimi, still sells copies of his albums on CD and digital audio files. We at Chicken Grease believe it’s important now, more than ever to purchase the work of the artists we love to support them and their families. Not only does it show our respect for them and their craft, but it can quite literally aid in survival and has become all the more important as an act of archival in a time where an artist’s work is at increased risk of being stolen and imitated with the rise of AI. Purchasing also allows us to always have access to the music that sustains our souls. You can shop KA’s discography here.

Let’s keep the music alive y’all.

Read more work by Lee Claymore on For Tha Humheadz

References:

1. 1. The Holy Bible

2. 2. Lessons from MLK's Fight to Mobilize the Black Church by Dylan C. Penningroth for Time Magazine

3. 3. This Far by Faith. 1946-1966: from CIVIL RIGHTS to BLACK POWER | PBS

4. 4. Beneath the Mountain: An Anti-Prison Reader edited by Mumia Abu-Jamal and Jennifer Black (2024)

5. 5. YouTube clip of Ernie Chambers in A Time for Burning, documentary 1966

“I got the hammer, I know it’s polarizing,”

Vince Staples mischievously raps over noise rock beats, opening his first independent release: Cry Baby. Leading with singles like Blackberry Marmalade, White Flag, and Cotton, signaling a return to his Summertime 06 & Big Fish Theory roots, Staples is clearly challenging his intention, his visuals, and his politics with Cry Baby. Without desire to hide behind metaphor, Staples is striking against empire, Cry Baby arrives as a manifesto: we not goin’ no where, so we better get busy about what we doin here. But the question becomes: is it clear in its directives or haphazard?

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In Staples’ third single, Cotton, he uses the same american flag he slathered in white paint from his second single, White Flag, to screen archival videos of uprisings, rallies, American flags burning, Black Panthers, and musicians playing alongside videos of Black life, birth, love, gathering, and the mundane. His visuals become a picture book for the listener to not only aid their digestion but potentially provide the next course of action. The surrender of a white flag isn’t to the state, but a new consciousness. What type of new consciousness has yet to be determined from Staples at this point of rollout but it’s on his mind. This is further emphasized in Blackberry Marmalade which ends in a reference to Dr. King’s Letters from a Birmingham Jail, “So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be.” It’s almost as if Staples is provoking his listener in order to shake them out of the overwhelming sedation of nihilism and technology.

Throughout Cry Baby’s roll out, we’ve seen american flag imagery from Staples photographed with a flag draped behind him to his profile picture changed to Jesse Jackson with an American flag backdrop on Instagram. The choice of the photo is worth noting, it was taken during a 1988 Juneteenth speech at the Democratic National Convention during which Jackson called for a common ground across identities, religions, and political leanings. It’s a painfully liberal speech (with a couple decent quotes) in which Jackson calls for lions and lambs to lie beside each other and disregard the ability for the lion to annihilate the lamb. Overall, he’s asking how we will survive, which appears to be a question Staples is also concerning himself with. However, he challenges this kind of liberalism by showing visuals of klansmen being hung as an act of counterviolence.

The flag becomes a question itself: do you really wanna integrate into empire? Cry Baby serves as a refreshing alternative to projects like Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter which relied on a mix of Southern nostalgia, bourgeois propaganda making, and encouraging unbridled thoughtless patriotism - Staples’ album instead is a catalyst for us to consider: what does being Black, beyond a marker of identity or representation, actually mean?

The political arena is nothing new for Staples

From the inception of his career, he’s has consistently made statements through his music from highlighting Republic of New Afrika member Monster Kody aka Sanyika Shakur on Ramona Park Broke My Heart to mentions of Pac, Geronimo Pratt, and Bunchy Carter on earlier projects Shyne Coldchain and FML to lesser known interviews where he breaks down the corruption of the music industry, Staples is always jousting against empire’s expectations of him. He is quick witted, sharp tongued, and gets immediately to the point. Rejecting status quo, as an artist, Staples’ lead up to Cry Baby’s release showed him provocatively challenging the limitations of being a public figure in these times. How far can he actually go?

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Performing with a full band for his album release at the El Rey in Los Angeles (and for Youtube Live)

Staples with arms crossed appears like a composed rock star stained in red light as he strolls through his Cry Baby album with sounds similar to Rage Against the Machine, Dead Prez, Wu Tang, meets the church, with some Slick Rick thrown in for good measure. He comments on not wanting to do press for this album saying, “ain’t nothin fuckin funny” - committed to focusing on the music. Staples follows with a short story of how long he’s been wanting to diversify and experiment with his sound citing label execs prevented him claiming he didn’t “belong” in electronic, rock, or genres outside of hip hop.

Suffocated by the trappings of his label, Staples is experiencing the breath of relief finally existing as an independent artist. With that freedom, he’s bucking against the narrative that compromising for the sake of visibility is worthwhile likening it to coon behavior. To Staples, Visibility is not a benchmark of progress, it’s a site of capture.

Staples attempts to rile up his audience yelling at them to sing alongside him with words like “N-I-G-G-A” and phrases like “God Bless the USA” , nearly each song having a version of call and response but the audience falls quiet. Staples, stares on with a type of look that says “fuck around and find out.”

He proceeds to move through songs like Only in America where Staples raps,

“America the beautiful, I’d like to take a look at you
It’s hard to see past the stars from behind the bars, know they love to throw the book at you We barely can read, plus speech not necessarily free
Black folks always embarrassing me, with that face down, hands up, hands on your knees”

TV Guide where he critiques Western media’s control over the masses with a chorus repeating,

T-t-t-television, you turn me on
L-l-l-lookin' at you, I'm not alonе
M-m-m-movie magic up on the screen
I think the television's controlling me, woah, oh, oh

Go Go Gorilla ripping into state sanctioned violence from police, mass incarceration, and genocide

Red line, gentrified, they give wrist slaps to them and sentenced mine
Went from bread lines to picket lines to main line prison time for the crimes that we commit
But genocide don't mean nothin' to Uncle Sam
Guess it's dignified in America, probably just dreamed that they were sellin' us

Big Bad Wolf critiques Barack Obama and the expansion of imperialism through bombing the Global South entirely rejecting respectability politics

Drop bombs like Barry O, you hear me coming
Up the street, my trunk jumping like a put-on
I put the hood on, it's plenty Zimmermans among us
But that ain't new, been gunning for us since Columbus
Drop that noose, you should be swinging in the jungle, black man
What's your master plan?
What are you gon' do when the shit crack off
And the big bad wolf come and blow down yours, huh?

And 7 in the Morning where he references the military industrial complex

7 in the morning, death is in the air
Decibels from warheads, deafening my ears
Desecrated holy land, the devil's near
Devastated, questioning if Heaven's real
7 in the morning, tryna get to noon
Staring out my window, watching the platoon go
Left, left, left, right, left

Staples’ lyrics are coming to life in real time, while he’s performin in Los Angeles at the El Rey, his hometown of Long Beach is being subjected to planned military trainings where “controlled explosions” and “simulated weapons fire” could be going off until 2am according to a City of Long Beach Advisory.

During an untitled song referencing Tulsa Oklahoma, he starts listing off revolutionaries who are dead from Assata Shakur to Bunchy Carter to Kwame Ture after he breaks out screaming “bitch ass nigga why you mad at me” - calling for a redirection towards the state of where we collectively point our rage.

Before closing his set, he gives the audience the directive to “get a gun,” Staples is not holding back on the directives assigned alongside his manifesto. This is not the first time he’s told his audience to get a gun, Staples is a jester who relies on being a “precise switchblade” (Alice Sparkly Kat) - you know when his words are especially incisive.

In the middle of performing Cotton, Staples refers to different types of Black people as Negroes, Coons, Niggas making clear it’s a venn diagram and that there’s a type of Black he politically aligns with. With his consistent hearkening to the Republic of New Afrika mentioning members like Sanyika Shakur and Assata Shakur, I can’t help but wonder if he’s pushing towards something like New Afrikan.

I first learned about the Republic of New Afrika

through James Yaki Sayles book Meditations on Frantz Fanon’s Wretched of the Earth where he shares his interpretations of Fanon’s concept of new consciousness and new identity - had Black worn out its usage? Black was originally a term Kwame Ture had coined as a means for us to part from African-American - however co-opted by Nixon to derail Black people from seeing themselves as separate from the United States…Black has since become about as meaningless as African-American. New Afrikan arose as a new identity for people that evolved beyond Black where identity signaled a clear political value and leaning.

Read: New Afrikan Declaration of Independence

Founded after the Civil Rights era, The Republic of New Afrika was established in 1967 following a Detroit riot where a convening of Black Power leaders and organizations met to a create a Black nation in the South.

According to the PG-RNA’s website (Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika), “A New Afrikan (Black) Nation -exists in the United States. It began forming during colonial days, after 1660, when the Black Codes were instituted. It was fully evolved by the time of the Civil War in 1861, two hundred years later. We have common culture, common perspective and values, and group identity, and common gene pool, derived from our distinct group history. We are “New Afrikans” because We, and Afrikan people, evolved from not one but several Afrikan nations and have some Indian (Native/Indigenous) and European genes, melded during the course of 200 years, between 1660 and 1861.”

Malcolm X Grassroots Movement expands further on New Afrikan and New Afrika saying,

“The term “New Afrika” designates us not just as a group or a collective but as a Nation. We claim nationhood and sovereignty at this time and in this place!

• because we aspire to independence, self determination and self sufficiency

• because our culture and interests are not just distinct but in opposition to that of the North American empire

• to highlight the conditions of colonization in which we currently live

• as a grounds on which to demand the recompenses – such as reparations – due to all nations whose international and inalienable human rights have been unjustly compromised

• to affirm our connection to the landmass on which our ancestors toiled and bled; to affirm out connection to land from which all wealth and health flows.

• because we recognize that people do not control their own affairs, who do not control the institutions by which they participate in public life are open to disenfranchisement, marginalization, and genocide

• to be able to act as a resource, example. and sanctuary for oppressed people everywhere

The term “ New Afrika” reflects our Pan African identity, our purpose, and our direction. Although we come from distinct ethno-linguistic groups in Africa and the African Diaspora, our shared oppression and the interdependence of our liberation redefines our borders.”

Some of the most well known revolutionaries were members of the Republic of New Afrika and identified as such: including Robert F. Williams, Queen Mother Moore, Assata Shakur, Nehanda Abiodun, Betty Shabazz, Jamil Al Amin (H Rap Brown), Sundiata Acoli, and Mutulu Shakur.

In fact, one of the most famous rappers of all time was deeply entrenched in the Republic of New Afrika movement: Tupac Shakur, the step son of Mutulu Shakur. While I’m not saying that Vince Staples’ directive is that we must become New Afrikan, I am saying that I do believe he belongs in a lineage of political rappers, but especially New Afrikan rappers making it worth exploring as a potential political lineage and identity for Staples as an artist.

While I don’t want to assign these politics onto Staples, it appears as though whether its his intention or not, he has aligned himself with a New Afrikan lineage. Therefore can we say Staples is a New Afrikan adjacent rapper? Talking to my homegirl she shares, “because he has such a mythic persona, he has a substance that’s hard to pin down unless you engage with his material.” He weaves so many references that if you’re paying attention it almost feels obvious that he has been pointing towards the Republic of New Afrika.

Whether consciously or subconsciously, it remains quite profound thematically throughout his work: Staples has an impulse towards self determination that can’t go ignored

The 2019 documentary Devil’s Pie opens with D’Angelo’s silhouette, drenched in cobalt midnight onstage, clad in leather, a wide brimmed hat, praying in song: “Our father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done. I don’t want you to meet the devil on your way, I know that he will, he will try to stop you from seeing your days, and all this confusion around me, give me peace, I believe in love.” As he sings the word love again, his voice rises in octaves, and the band behind him carries his ascension. The scene widens to an audience reveling and receiving while D’Angelo’s arms spread out to his sides. He continues to jump octaves, as he asks the audience if they believe in love. They scream. D’Angelo shoots one hand above his head, towards the sky, beckoning the Holy Ghost to come catch him, to come catch us all.

Those who describe watching D’Angelo write and play music likened it to watching a translation of heaven, one that pioneered a new sound: Soultronics - a rhythmic concept dating back to J Dilla, where instruments such guitar, bass, or even piano and drums, play behind the beat, intentionally “out of time.” Primed for stardom in 2000, D’Angelo’s sophomore album Voodoo sold over 1.7 million copies in the states, and was lauded as one of the greatest albums of all time; then at the turn of a millennium, D’Angelo disappeared. Fifteen years later, a camera crew follows him in preparation for the homecoming tour for Black Messiah. All parts singer, choir director, orchestral conductor, D’Angelo is seen on camera, casually smoking cigarettes, with a silver chain hanging off his collarbones, while he sits gleefully at a piano in a black tank top, matching boots, with a smile open wide as the pearly gates, laughing.

D’Angelo’s manager, Alan ‘Pops’ Leeds, describes the original vision for Black Messiah never died, “it was a question of if he was willing to see it through.” During his absence from the public eye, media outlets mined whatever they could of D’Angelo so the masses still had something to feed on: be it drugs, reckless behavior, a car accident, there was a public thirst for D’Angelo and the disaster seemingly surrounding him. Major media monetized his brutal acclimation to fame with extensive coverage. Archived by a lens that is committed to misrepresenting him, refusal becomes a necessary gut instinct for an artist like D’Angelo where perception was never supposed to play a role in his communion with Spirit. “He’s the last pure singer on Earth, this guy you really feel it in your soul, but this guy, he tends to hide” Questlove describes. D’Angelo’s manager, Pops, alludes the artist was also possibly wrestling with the overwhelm of becoming a overtly sexualized symbol to the masses - was he seemingly straying from the church?

Known as the “Father of Gospel Music,” Thomas A. Dorsey was broke, suicidal, and believed he lost the ability to play piano when he wrote “If You See My Savior, Tell Him You Saw Me” in 1928. Convinced God was punishing him for writing and performing secular music like barrel house blues alongside Ma Rainey’s Wildcat Jazz Band, Dorsey saw his inability to play in direct correlation with his ambivalence towards writing church music. However, when a close friend dies in an apartment below him, Dorsey overcome by grief, carves a way into morning by writing his first spiritual song with blues influence. Making passageway through mourning is nothing new and its reinvention in the form of gospel was pioneered by Dorsey.

Thomas Dorsey playing the piano, his best known song “Take my Hand Precious Lord” was performed at MLK Jr’s funeral

Gospel, from its notes to melodies to lyrics, was in direct conflict with northern industrial church aspirations, therefore, it was not immediately accepted by pastors who appeared to cater towards middle class “sensibilities,” as if to reject “that country shit.” Those who fled, decided to forget. It’s not entirely logical, but it’s entirely understandable. Gospel also represented the sin and hedonism of blues that churches looked down upon with disdain. It wasn’t until Dorsey was invited to start a choir at Ebenezer Baptist Church by Reverend James Smith that gospel blues took off and remained an enduring medicine. Alongside the likes of singers such as Mahalia Jackson, it was clear regardless of tradition, the congregations resonated because of not only the music, but the lyrics for they provided a new sense of feeling: a re invigoration of faith. In the midst of despair, Thomas Dorsey, as Johani Jabir puts it, took on the task of the poet to offer and popularize a universal language for loss.

Nearly all of D’Angelo’s poetic and musical sensibilities indicate he came up in the church - every instrument, every vocal run, traces back to gospel. In Devil’s Pie, we see videos of his grandmother, writing words with the wind, her voice, gluing together the four walls of a church spirit overcame her to deliver a message. D’Angelo’s grandmother was also responsible for encouraging him to embrace his mission with the instruments God provided, including his voice, including his hands. The portals opened from the messages of a Black woman, usually a Black matriarch, almost always the Black grandmother, are not to be undermined. It is through the Black women in my family, I have been able to distill the mundane as nothing short of spiritual & the first place I ever witnessed that at work was: the church - most notably, my Granny.

Granny sat in the front pew at one of Greater Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist church every Sunday as the walls were almost blasted to matchsticks from all the belief breathing between us. She, a Mother, in all white, decorated head of the congregation and I was Her dynasty. The first time I saw someone catch the spirit at her church the ground bounced, there was a low thud of stomping, the room filled with still air and sweat, a pastor’s high falsetto, the revving and slowing of a choir, the mothers were humming and swaying side to side, as a congregation member ran up and down the center aisle, and I stood there at the edge, in a trance, and this was the closest experience I can link to me recognizing freedom as a child. Even if it was for a glimpse.

The essence of gospel is in the ritualizing of grief and love. There is no part of me as an artist that hasn’t been moved, inspired, affected, by that. The gospel I grew up listening to is imprinted in my work because my mother smiling through tears is soundtracked by Kirk Franklin, because Fred Hammond played many nights in a hospital I wasn’t sure I’d make it out of. Whether or not I’m aware, I have synthesized that which has influenced me to give myself greater meaning - even if I’m talkin about lovin, even if I’m talkin about death, even if I’m talkin about fuckin’, even if I’m talkin about smokin, even if I’m talkin about prayer - the gospel is there. More than anything, this applies to D’Angelo.

We cannot help what we have been influenced by but it makes sense it almost always traces back to the church. It makes sense that Soultronics therefore is an extension of gospel, which therefore is an extension of blues, which then leads back to hymns sung in the field, and the ringshout in the forest. It makes sense that D’Angelo may have been an unfit pastor, by respectability politics standards, but we know when he sang, when he played he was talkin to us, he talkin to the dead, he was talkin to God, and they were all workin through him n commanding us to hold onto what felt impossible: love.

When D’Angelo’s voice would rip outside of his body, it feels akin to the way my Granny’s church wrapped itself around me. When the band alongside D’Angelo remains intentionally outta step, D’Angelo, similar to the choir, opened a portal of “limbo time.” Coined by Sheila Smith McKoy, limbo time describes a fusion of African cyclical time as well as the disruptive rupture of the trans-atlantic that now keeps us, throughout diaspora, in the hang between. To embrace such a phenomenon is to then reject Western standards of time and prioritize embodied senses of being. Similar to “rememory: allusions, words, and/or images that recall important aspects of the black cultural experience,” limbo time bonds us beyond what is corporeal into the feeling. This is what D’Angelo always invited us to do: step into the feeling of now, this is a pact.

from talking to the dead: religion, music, and lived memory among gullah/geechee women by LeRhonda S. Manigault-Bryant

D’Angelo represented the artist in service, music as the vehicle demonstrating how to commune with God in ways we hadn’t been privy to. When the rhythm lags, he, like a preacher, is giving us the space to catch the Holy Ghost with him. That is not performance, it is a collective rememory, stepping into the ancient past and a “near future” (Schessa Garbutt). D’Angelo’s voice was not only a guide himself but to us as well for a way out the mire. There is no amount of money that compensates for such a servitude. Additionally, there is no amount of money that can cover the cost of being deemed Black, brilliant, and therefore: useful.

To me, Black celebrity is the categorized usefulness of performance. In an industry that relies on bastardizing the performer, therefore the channeler, therefore the pastor, fame is the furthest phenomenon from embodiment. If you ask any addict, myself included, drugs are not for the sake of disassociation but to feel alive, to feel integrated in the body. I could imagine in an industry that manufactures God as a contextless symbol: the celebrity, it is soul crushing to realize the cost of celebrity is to be a puppet on behalf of major media. The only antidote to such disorientation is: refusal.

I could also imagine it becomes unbearable. To refuse and still never able to escape fame, therefore never escaping the branding of: usefulness. And it’s especially unbearable when none of this said usefulness is on behalf of your God, or your well being, but on behalf of a spectacle, to masquerade as a false idol. The prestige of celebrity promises to render a mortal into a god, with all material needs met, and anyone who has had put their palms together knows - it is never that simple. And if you know how the story goes… the consequences begin setting in. We’ve seen it routinely: an artist, aware of this, becomes a fish out of water, gutted, belly up, intestines exposed, and we, the audience, look away squinting to forget. The conflict here isn’t the blood, it’s an industry and a public setting a dead body on a bed of ice and illusions for the taking. And while yes, we, as a people, have been brought here, subjugated, under the guise of usefulness, the refusing becomes second nature. So can you see how that and prestige and that and peril can get intertwined all too quickly?

Peril is not necessarily in the loss but in the potential. And potential brings a new kind of knowing and to live in peril is to time travel. So when I catch your gaze across a room, and D’Angelo’s Really Love plays on the stereo, I hope you gather me in your arms like I’m worth something. I hope you see the lifetime of potential and desolation between us. I don’t know if there is such a thing as ever feelin freedom for more than a second but there is sucha thing as belonging. And within belonging, we have no choice but to choose somethin. N even though god showed me joy, he also carved out the smile of everyone I’ve lost and put it up against yours for comparison - as if to say, this is the potential cost . And that is a perilous death of sorts.

Lately, it seems like all we know of belonging is through loss making our constant acquaintance. Like the day my Granny didn’t make it to that front pew at her church but instead looking for a train with her dead sister on it, from a hospital bed in East LA. And that’s the thing about death is that sometimes one body’s peace introduces a wrecking to another. I can confirm survival is a barren wasteland and possibility is what you make of it and it demands a frank acceptance of what is and could never be. Meaning I know Granny caught that train and there has to be another type of worship she doin over my head each night. Similarly on the 14th day of October, heaven cried a torrential downpour in Los Angeles, for D’Angelo, the child of mercy, began his journey towards the oceans hanging above us.

It almost always feels selfish to mourn just as we feel selfish for crying down here knowing D’Angelo’s body was overflowing with cancer cells, and so, it too, had to retire. May our grandmothers be waiting, in eggshell sequin hats, ready to cup his hands, nodding, “Baby, you did good. You did what you was brought there to do. Givin us all a new faith to hold onto.” May he open the doors of a church with blue bottle stained glass windows, his grandmother, at the center, dancing with God in all His spirit flesh, their hands conjoined, as ancestors circling in a spiral, shouting Glory Be. And D’Angelo, sits at a piano glistening in the back, his fingers steadily hoverin, preparin to be slightly outta step, singin, Amen. Praise God. I made it home. No longer the lamb, no longer the sacrifice. Praise God. I been delivered. Home.

References:

1. All The Birds Sing Bass: The Revolutionary Blues of Jayne Cortez, Tony Bolden

2. Devil’s Pie - stream on Locally Grown TV

3. The Birth of Gospel - A Chicago Stories Documentary WWTV

4. talking to the dead: religion, music, and lived memory among gullah/geechee women - LeRhonda S. Manigault-Bryant

Originally posted on (un)marked, an archive