![]() As a Black girl from the Midwest, my story is very different than somebody would hear coming from Atlanta or somebody you would hear coming from LA. I heard all of those instruments in a household where that was prevalent, but I wanted to rap and be able to, like, fuse all of that together, and really talk about my experience. My parents are older, so they loved Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder. And I'd say the sound is a mixture of me also growing up listening to Erykah Badu and D'Angelo. My music is really just me expressing that idea that I came from these Mississippi grandparents who built their own home, moved around the city, have experienced so many different parts of the city, picked up so many different relationships and friendships, and trauma in some ways, but been able to kind of move and heal through it. And the Black kids there are very vocal about their self hatred, very vocal about Black being bad, and vocal about Black women being ugly or wrong played a really big role and hurt me in a lot of ways. So being in all-Black schools having all Black teachers to then going to Robbinsdale where I'm the minority. I always went to schools in North Minneapolis. It was just a lot of culture shock for me. And then going to high school in Robbinsdale. And then we moved to Brooklyn Park, but I still was in North Minneapolis all the time. But my parents are teachers who always worked in North Minneapolis, so I was always there. He originally had a house in the Rondo neighborhood, and they got paid to move so that they could build I-94. I was born, like, right down the street from Jimmy Lee. How much have the Twin Cities influenced you as an artist, especially when you started to take it more seriously these past few years? And what does the Minneapolis sound and Ricki Monique sound like? When the pandemic hit, I was like, "What am I doing with my life?" The pandemic gave me time to think about what I wanted to do and gave me space to explore new music and tap into my own artistry a little more. In 2019 I was going to sessions, hanging out, turning up, but I wasn't really taking that time. And I realized I wasn't happy, so I decided to full-force work to find my art and start creating more music. I originally thought I would be able to make a bigger change in education. I just wasn't really rocking with the school system. And so that year into 2019, I was just working odd jobs. I went to school for elementary school teaching. What was happening in your life or things that you were observing that motivated you to say, "You know what, I'm gonna do this right now?"Ģ018 was the year I graduated from college. I tried to push out more, put some sort of intention behind the meaning of my music, and saved up for visuals. Honestly, 2020 was when I decided to take my music serious. And then I started writing as a kid, but I never shared it or really wanted to show anybody. He used to make beats and he would be like, "Let's go bar for bar." Like, "Finish my bar, and rap with me” and be silly in that way. When did your musical journey begin? And when did you start giving it your all? We chopped it about her origins, how she gets camera-ready, her experience as a Black woman from the Midwest, and why she doesn’t quite feel that she’s arrived. It’s with this love that I sat down with Monique before the release of her debut EP Good Seeds, out today. Having said that cutting off 15 minutes would have made it a bit better for international markets as well.One of the greatest joys of reporting on Twin Cities hip-hop is taking the time to connect with artists - truly taking the time to know them and understand their commitment and love of their craft. Great natural acting, very minimalistic and simplistic direction, strong message and a inspiration to dream! The movie is a bit longish but it was needed to develop the characters to their full potential. My Oscar for 2018 goes to this movie, just because it was not just entertainment but also and inspiration. It's an ode to a mother, an ode to a girl child and hopefully a lesson for a lot of people to be more accepting. Reasons that prevent from millions of people to reach their potential. ![]() This movie is not made for Oscars or awards, it is made for reasons. I liked "A star is born", but then I watched this movie from 2017 and wondered what "A star is born" was missing.well a lot of things - of course if the movie was created to justify the title.
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