Rapsody

Rapsody plays Vinyl on Tuesday, October 20, at 8 PM. It's one of four dates on a mini tour she's doing for her album God Gotta Afro & Gold Hoops, and the whole thing is set up as an MTV Unplugged-style acoustic session. If you're used to her over a full beat, this is a different way to hear her: stripped back, with the focus on the lyrics and the voice rather than the production.

That focus is a good place to start, because Rapsody has built her name as one of hip-hop's most respected storytellers. She's from Snow Hill, North Carolina, and has been working for more than a decade. Along the way, she's appeared on Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly, which earned her a GRAMMY nomination, and released Laila's Wisdom, which picked up nods for Best Rap Album and Best Rap Song. Then came Eve, a tribute to Black women. The BET Hip Hop Awards named her Lyricist of the Year, EBONY put her on their Power 100, and XXL listed her as one of the 20 greatest female rappers of all time.

In 2024, she put out Please Don't Cry, and the track "3:AM" brought home her first GRAMMY win. She's shared stages with Aretha Franklin and Robert Glasper, and President Barack Obama invited her to a White House roundtable on criminal justice reform. This Atlanta date is part of that short run around God Gotta Afro & Gold Hoops, the album she's bringing to the stage in this acoustic format. The show starts at 8 PM at Vinyl, 1374 West Peachtree St. N.W., Atlanta, GA 30309.