NEW MUSIC | SA-ROC (@sarocthemc) RELEASES ‘GODDESS GANG’

By Rishma Dhaliwal • On What is New ,

God­dess Gang is the ulti­mate squad anthem of 2018.  “God­dess Gang” bar­rels through staid inter­pret­a­tions of fem­in­in­ity and turns respect­ab­il­ity polit­ics on its head with a spit­fire lyr­ic­al cadence and 808 heavy track remin­is­cent of the dopest HBCU march­ing band. Through­out the Sol Mes­si­ah pro­duced banger, Sa-Roc rejects con­ven­tion­al expect­a­tions of female rap­pers so pre­val­ent with­in the industry, demand­ing to be judged not on her appear­ance, but lyr­ic­al skill alone. At one point she rhymes, “Beauty irrel­ev­ant, this is not pageants. I’m a rap dragon. Every time I open my trap its fire and your out­look end­ing up tra­gic”, warn­ing all who under­es­tim­ate her tal­ent to beware. The video, dir­ec­ted by Tommy Nova, sym­bol­ic­ally employs col­or-sat­ur­ated visu­als to both engage the view­er and to illu­min­ate the faces of women that have long been rendered invis­ible from his­tor­ic­al nar­rat­ives, reli­gious icon­o­graphy, and tra­di­tion­ally gendered career roles. The song per­fectly punc­tu­ates this imagery with jar­ringly bright horns and stac­cato per­cus­sion, chal­len­ging the world to pre­pare for a future defined by our own terms. To put it plainly, it’s a cer­ti­fied bop. Only one thing remains in ques­tion. You ready?

Sa-Roc has carved out her own lane through a com­bin­a­tion of air­tight word­play and intel­li­gent con­cepts. Over the course of her illus­tri­ous career, she’s released a series of inde­pend­ent releases, per­formed along­side the likes of Talib Kweli, Dead Prez and Atmo­sphere, and she’s one of the few MC’s to per­form reg­u­larly as a fea­ture artist with The Roots, all around the coun­try. Sa-Roc landed an under­ground hit in 2014 with “The Who?” fea­tur­ing Dav­id Ban­ner before sign­ing to Rhymesay­ers Enter­tain­ment. In 2017, she delivered a fiery cameo on “We Got This” from Broth­er Ali’s All The Beauty In This Whole Life LP, before join­ing him as dir­ect sup­port on his Own Light Tour across North Amer­ica, which she fol­lowed with an unfor­get­table per­form­ance to an audi­ence of over 30K at Sound­set Fest­iv­al. Then she made waves in 2018 with the release of her new­est single, “Forever”, quickly rack­ing up 400k streams on Spo­ti­fy and over 1M views on You­Tube. She also appeared Wil­li­am Feagins Jr.’s film, The Pos­sib­il­ity Of Her, this year–a fea­ture-length doc­u­ment­ary that high­lights 12 women of col­or who are act­ively involved in non-tra­di­tion­al careers or pas­sions, echo­ing many of the same obstacles over­come by Sa-Roc in her own career.

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Rishma Dhaliwal

Edit­or / PR Con­sult­ant at No Bounds
Rishma Dhali­w­al has extens­ive exper­i­ence study­ing and work­ing in the music and media industry. Hav­ing writ­ten a thes­is on how Hip Hop acts as a social move­ment, she has spent years research­ing and con­nect­ing with artists who use the art form as a tool for bring­ing a voice to the voice­less. Cur­rently work­ing in TV, Rishma brings her PR and media know­ledge to I am Hip Hop and oth­er pro­jects by No Bounds.

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About Rishma Dhaliwal

Rishma Dhaliwal
Rishma Dhaliwal has extensive experience studying and working in the music and media industry. Having written a thesis on how Hip Hop acts as a social movement, she has spent years researching and connecting with artists who use the art form as a tool for bringing a voice to the voiceless. Currently working in TV, Rishma brings her PR and media knowledge to I am Hip Hop and other projects by No Bounds.