The ever righteous female rapper Bahamadia, born and raised in Philadelphia, has just released her new single We Here. Her aggressive lyrics and unwavering stance on empowering women through her music has been the cornerstone of her rise within the hip hop scene.
Bahamadia – We Here
Currently on her ‘SomeOthaShip Connection Tour’, she’s always been an elusive yet outspoken artist with her last album being released all the way back in 2006 Good Rap Music which led to her forming B-Girl Records.
Former protégé of Gang Starr’s Guru (shown below) she cuts through genres as smoothly as lyrics.
The track simply titled Beautiful Things showcases her jazz roots, Ladies in the House her movement into acid jazz and as far from home as the genre electronica with Hollow. Her diversity reflected in this snippet of an interview she did with HiphopDX online:
“First and foremost I consider myself to be an eclectic artist. During the time of my official introduction to the industry of music my sound while ‘organic’ in nature was diverse and still is today,” she continued. “The jazz influence was reflective of my musical taste hence direction at one point seemingly more common practice for me because jazz elements complimented cadences being explored. Besides Gang Starr, Tribe, Freestyle Fellowship, The Roots and a few others many facets of incorporating jazz had yet to be implemented in hip hop song format masterfully. The state of hip hop music and culture overall is what it is. I am hopeful the near future will bring about balance as it relates to adequate exposure for ALL practitioners within our global artistic community.” http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/news/id.15375/title.bahamadia-announces-fourth-album-here-features-foreign-exchange
A RAPtivist in her own right Bahamadia currently runs arts workshops at Youth Emergency Services and was recently named a Creative Ambassador for the City of Philadelphia and is head of the Leeway foundation. This foundation was set up to honour women and transgender artists for their ability to create social change through their artistic and cultural work.
The Art and Change Grants and the Leeway Transformation Awards fund women and trans artists living in the Delaware Valley region of Bucks, Camden, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia Counties, who engage in art and social change work and have financial need.
We understand that art is not born in a vacuum. Art is created within a context. Who we are, where we live, how we relate to our communities, and how we view the world influence what we create, how we create, and why we create art for social change.
Bahamadia – We Here LIVE @ St. Louis