“Thank You Very Much” is a polite F-you performed by Rapsody, the 26-year-old MC from famed DJ/producer 9th Wonder’s indie label Jamla (based in North Carolina). This Krysis-produced gem just came out in late April, and over a 100,000 YouTube views later, the people have clearly spoken. This song slaps hard. It’s like rock candy for your earbuds.
Rapsody is a former member of the N.C.-based hip-hop group Kooley High, and a solo artist since 2008. Over the years, she’s worked with a extended laundry list of progressive A-listers, including Erykah Badu, Mac Miller and Kendrick Lamar. Perhaps she’s earned her longtime buzz among so many established MCs and singers because she’s really a writer’s rapper: sharp, subtle, slightly profane and, line by line, very funny.
She tears into doubtful music labels, mouthy trolls, funny-acting BFFs and opportunistic faux friends like she’s after rap’s Iron Throne and she’s got dragons. Her lyrics are pugilistic and slick in a classic B-girl stance. Even as casual and “whatev” as her vocal delivery may sound on the surface, you can tell that her real intention is to carry somebody’s head home in a burlap sack.
Rapsody’s personal motto is “culture over everything,” and Return of the B-girl, the title of her debut 2008 mixtape, aptly introduced her as a preservationist of the B-girl in the modern era. Of course at this point, it would be super easy to get all “deep thinkpiece” on you and mention the recent kerfuffle about mainstream radio’s diversity-challenged female rapper drought. (The one that gives Iggy Azalea’s cringe-worthy Southern accent and Nicki Minaj’s bare booty the aura of voter fraud to fans who still long for the days when offerings from female MCs were a bit larger.) But that might be too much political baggage to hang on Rapsody’s shoulders anyway.
Suffice it to say that, in a perfect world, this MC’s got next simply because she’s that good. Thank you very much.—Sun Singleton
Follow Rapsody’s movements at her website, iamrapsody.com, on Facebook and her Twitter page.
