When Rapsody recalls her childhood style while growing up in Snow Hill, North Carolina, she says she wore whatever her mother bought for her. One uniform that she wore often included jeans, a T-shirt, and sneakers. As she grew older, she began to carve out a distinct style that leaned into tom-boy territory. As she ran track and played basketball a fixation on Tommy Hilfiger, Nautica, and Polo was pivotal to her during one era of her teen years. “I was super big on Aaliyah,” she expresses. “Aaliyah with the Tommy Hilfiger overalls, that was me. That was my energy and vibe for how I liked to dress when I was younger.”
One mainstay in Rapsody’s household was music. Since she grew up around what she calls a gang of cousins and older siblings, these individuals influenced her music tastes. “My mom and dad were always playing music, soul music,” she tells Essence. The rapper expresses that her father was a Luther Vandross fan so he’d regularly play the singer’s records. She says she learned about Eddie Levert, The Temptations, and other artists due to his love for the soul music of the past.
Additional artists she became fixated on included Whitney Houston, Sheryl Crow, and Michael Jackson–Houston and Crow were favorites of her older sister. Her mother would actively play Tina Turner and Patti LaBelle so Rapsody grew an affinity for these legendary acts. “Saturday mornings we cleaned but my mom always would handle the music.” Discovering Nas due to older cousins in her younger years led her down a fascinating rabbit hole but also a deep appreciation for the skilled lyricist. She says she also fell in love with Jay-Z’s music during this period of her life.
The artist continued expressing herself through fashion in high school. There were also core moments in her adolescence when she recalls expressing herself in somewhat girly outfits.
She says she even had a moment where she’d dress up in halter tops, heels, and skirts. “I liked to be comfortable, but at the same time, there were some days where I would dress up because I wanted to,” she explained.
In Raleigh, at North Carolina Central University her college years were ripe with experimentation with her style. While there she also pushed herself to create music under the tutelage of hip hop legend 9th Wonder. After being introduced to the Grammy-winning producer, she says it was like “pouring gasoline on the seed of a fire.” Her skills and belief in her craft blossomed. “From there on out, I was enamored and engulfed [in music].”
She was also actively pursuing music-making while she studied business in school, this distinction led her to perform at local events. Make-shift studios were where she cut her teeth rapping and pushed herself to explore her passion for music. “I [didn’t] have to spend a hundred dollars an hour to create music,” she details. The level of self-expression she tapped into was insurmountable.
Early performance outfits for Rapsody included graphic tees emblazoned with activists and titans who are renowned for their contributions to marginalized groups in the United States and abroad. “I was getting the hip hop tees with Che Guevara on it or Malcolm X, and jeans and I was wearing the beads and the medallions,” she tells me. “That was my vibe during those college years,” she adds.
Stylish artists who she admired during this era and to this day include Aaliyah and Lauryn Hill. She also mentions they are her current fashion icons. “They had this beautiful duality of being a tomboy, but at the same time showing femininity in the way they dress.” She says she has always resonated with each of their styles.
Rapsody’s modus operandi in college was to find herself. Spending time with close friends and 9th Wonder led her to explore and navigate being an emerging female rapper. On what she wore while still in school: “It was always like a graphic tee, some graphic hip hop tee, and some jeans, some sneakers and some beads and medallions.” She adds that she always had gold hoop earrings on. “That has never changed. Big earrings.”
The artist eventually developed into the confident and fly hip hop purist we know today. The road she carved out for herself was marked by failures and chances she took on herself. Since she has always been enamored with B-girl style it’s no surprise that she embodies that aesthetically. Large hoop earrings, a slick tracksuit, coveted sneakers, and gaudy accessories embody Rapsody’s go-to pieces.
She expresses that working with image architect Misa Hylton has been pivotal to her creative journey. Rapsody shares that the fashion innovator, stylist, and costume designer is gifted and has a pure heart. With these descriptors, she adds that Hylton has helped her elevate her brand tremendously. “We were friends, but I know she was life-coaching me along the way. I was able to go through this journey and start this album and be fearless in it because of Misa Hylton.”
The artist says she wouldn’t have been able to release her latest album Please Don’t Cry without Hylton and her current creative director, Patso Dimitrov who she connected with in 2016. Dimitrov shares that the creative process of building the visuals for Please Don’t Cry began with Rapsody sharing that she was heavily inspired by the film Air which details Michael Jordan’s original deal with Nike leading to the creation of Jordan Brand.
Costume designed by Charlese Antoinette Jones and starring Ben Affleck and Chris Tucker the movie was sharp, had an ‘80s flair, and was directed by Affleck. “She was very inspired by how Nike wanted to market the Jordan sneakers, and that’s where everything started clicking.”
He adds that her vulnerability and openness on the record led him to be inspired. It also allowed him to piece together and match her level of excellence as he states. “We wanted the visual identity for the album to build a brand of sorts, one that would evoke emotions that people are familiar with in their own lives, and make it as relatable as possible,” he shared. “Mostly because people knew Rapsody, the artist, but they didn’t know much about Marlanna, the person.”
On her style, he declares: “In all honesty, I believe the continuity in how she has presented herself and every aspect of herself within this record, both musically and visually, has been on a different level.”
Please Don’t Cry, an eloquent diary-esque album has high moments and also low moments. But, overall there is a musicality that is enrapturing which is indicative of Rapsody’s growth as an artist. Perhaps her truest version of herself poured out onto the wax, in musical form, she weaves earnest rhymes about love lost amid other tales where she leans into a journey of self-discovery.
“I feel like she found a way to show [her innermost self in a] tasteful and genuine way. I think there was a little bit of a misconception of Rap before this album that let people box her in, but now it’s impossible to do that,” Dimitrov adds.
Below we catch up with Rapsody who details her lifelong affinity for music, her hip hop journey, in addition to her fixation on her fashion icons Aaliyah and Lauryn Hill.
ESSENCE: Do you have any core fashion memories?
Rapsody: I remember one time I was so happy because it was wintertime, and winters back then in North Carolina were like, it’s cold now, but it was dumb cold then. And we would always get at least two or three big snowstorms. [My mom] got me this white fur coat. It was made out of rabbit, but I remember being so excited about that fur coat. But other than that, jelly shoes, she used to get us jelly shoes and Keds sneakers, but that was the style. We dressed like kids, like the romper shorts suits. I remember having rompers and wearing those all the time. But other than that, t-shirts, shorts, jeans, and sneakers were the vibe. And when we went to the Kingdom Hall, of course, we dressed up. I had the white ruffle socks on. But that was when I was a kid.
When I was older, though, maybe around elementary to middle school and high school I was really just big on the tomboy style and I played sports, so I liked to be comfortable and I was the youngest girl grandchild, but everyone around my age were boys, so I was just a natural tomboy. But I was [always] watching my older cousins, the guys, and the girls, and I remember they would wear the Nautica swim trunks with like a coat or the Polo t-shirt. I was just so into that. They’d always have them fly kicks, whether it was Air Max 95s or the Keds.
Tommy Hilfiger was also having a moment during this period. Was Aaliyah a style and musical influence for you too?
The music felt like the theme of how you dress. It was big, it was rough, it was assertive. It was all about individuality because everybody back then had different styles. Their style of rap almost mirrored how they dressed, or sang. Same with Aaliyah. I was a big DMX fan at that time too, and I used to love how he used to wear his baggy jeans with the Timberlands or the black combat boots and I was feeling it. So it was just the energy that went together with the music and the fashion. I resonated with both.
By high school you got more comfortable in tomboy lane in matters of style, can you break that down?
I love being a tomboy, but at the same time, I did also tap into my femininity. And in high school, I like to say I’m super well-rounded in that where I enjoy being comfortable. I played basketball heavily. That was my favorite sport. I played, I started varsity [my] freshmen [year] and I played up until [my] senior year, but I also ran cross country and I [ran] track and I played volleyball for one year. I liked to be comfortable, but at the same time, there were some days where I would dress up because I wanted to. I’d wear a skirt or a halter top or some heels.
Who are the style icons you look up to?
Lauryn Hill and Aaliyah are my biggest two as far as fashion and music together. Lauryn taught me about being honest in your music and something that we all could feel on a soul level. It wasn’t just about entertainment. She was so honest in truth about being a woman and what a woman looked like in this world, as a Black woman too, and in the business. And before the Miseducation, you had the Fugees, which I love that it was Black and it was righteous. It was like all these things in one and it was intelligent, but at the same time it was fun and it was hard and it was street. It was like they just put everything in a capsule that was Black to me.
Lauryn would have on the baby doll tee, but she’d have on the snow goggles and the fly pants to go with it with some Tims on. And I was like, yo, this is so crazy fly. It’s the same thing with Aaliyah, it was R&B but it was R&B but it still had the hip hop edge to it. That’s what I loved about her. And the same thing, she could put on jeans and boxers with it, but then put on a sports bra and then she had the fly hair with the one eye. It just spoke to me and I saw myself more in that than anything else.
It wasn’t the gowns, it wasn’t the dresses. I ain’t resonate with none of that. I resonate with the beauty of hip hop and mirroring this soul too, because it kind of all mirrors how I grew up, what you asked me before. My mom and dad are listening to soul and R&B, my sisters and cousins, my sister’s into Mary, who’s like a hip hop soul at the same time, but my cousins are into hip hop, heavy, Nas. And it was like, I loved all of those things and both of them felt like all of that.
Can you tell me what the creative process for your latest album consisted of?
It came in phases. I tell people it was really a live documentation of every part of that, 2020 of March, the summer of 2023, so that’s like four years or so, three and a half years. And I can remember the phases. The first year, it was right when the pandemic started and I had just gotten out of a relationship that was heartbreaking for me.
I remember just really being very depressed and sad, and at the same time, it was like I was going through this breakup and I was learning at that very same time about raising [my] consciousness, being more aware, learning to be my authentic self. I was going through so many transitional stages at the same time, healing from heartbreak, but at the same time, I was leaving another situation where I wasn’t my most authentic self, and it was like I was coming into myself. So it was just a lot of changes at one time.
What came next?
The first iteration of that album, I thought I was finished in 2020. It was super, super emotional and everything on it was heavy. Everything was heavy. I was just sharing everything. And I knew that I wanted to go there because of the friends that were around me and that were guiding me in my healing process. They’re like, “Yeah, Rap, your heart is broken.” But it’s so much deeper than that because I understand you can miss somebody, but missing them to the point that you feel like this. What is it that you can’t do for yourself that they did for you?
Having to peel back and you go in, and [my team] would tell me, “Yo, when you’re doing music, you’ve got to let people see that you’re not perfect.” One of my friends, Reyna Biddy, she said: “Let people know what makes you happy, what makes you sad, what makes you angry. Are you in love? Because nobody knows. Do you like sex? Nobody knows.” And I [was thinking]: “Wow, I haven’t allowed myself to be human.” So at that point, I screenshotted all of her questions and decided I [was] going to answer every one of these questions and more.
Did you use any other tools to assist with the creative process?
I was on Pinterest and I was being inspired by photos, colors, words, poems, and everything that I thought resonated with me, that either said how I felt, looked how I felt, and all the levels, joy, happiness, I would find pictures of Black women dancing in the club. And I was like, that’s a version of me. And then there’s one of a girl on the beach and she’s got her hands open and she’s looking up like this and it’s like she’s having a moment with God. I was like, that’s part of me. I would get all these things that represented me and we would create to those. We would try to create the sound to that. And I knew what I wanted to share based on that because it all came from me.
I wasn’t listening to any music. I wasn’t talking to a lot of people. I really not only unplugged from the world, but I just unplugged from everybody. If you weren’t in the studio creating with me as a producer, I wasn’t doing a lot of talking on the phone, I wasn’t watching TV. I love watching movies. It was just that everything was just, I just really took time [to go] inside of myself, and I was reading books and I was learning, and that’s what the process looked like for me.