In the past few years, hip-hop has seen a resurgence of female rap talent that have taken the game by storm and made it clear that the boys club has been infiltrated by a new crop of ladies that have no concern for taking a back seat. Of these insurgents, Rapsody is among the more tenured artists repping for the women that have captured the attention of the rap populous, who have championed her as the embodiment of what a female rapper should aspire to be.

She first came to prominence as a member of North Carolina's rap collective Kooley High in the mid-aughts and signed with super producer 9th Wonder, to his Jamla Records imprint. Rapsody would branch off on her own with her 2010 mixtape, Return of the B-Girl, and has built on that foundation with acclaimed mixtapes like Thank H.E.R. Now and Crown, as well as the studio albums The Idea of Beautiful and Beauty and the Beast.

Those projects would help cement Rapsody as a queen of the underground, but it would be her work alongside the most respected lyricists in rap that would truly separate her from the pack of rap hopefuls and put her in a class of her own. Kendrick Lamar, Talib Kweli, Styles P and Big K.R.I.T. are just a handful of the spitters Rapsody has been pit against, only to hold her own and gain the respect of her peers, a feat that has proved elusive for many of her peers and predecessors. That credibility gained would proved to be priceless, but a surprising cosign would come in the form of JAY-Z extending an offer to Rapsody to ink a deal with his Roc Nation label in 2016, a move that piqued the interest of many industry insiders and fans alike as to what the Snow Hill rep's next move would be.

The answer was revealed this past week, when Rapsody unleashed Laila's Wisdom, her third studio album and first under the Roc Nation umbrella. Boasting guest appearances from Kendrick Lamar, Anderson Paak, Busta Rhymes, Lance Skiiiwalker, Black Thought, BJ the Chicago Kid and Musiq Soulchild, as well as production from 9th Wonder, Eric G, Ka$h Don't Make Beats, Khrysis and Nottz, Laila's Wisdom finds Rapsody throwing the kitchen sink into her most high-profile release to date.

XXL scoured through Rapsody's latest collection and compiled 20 of the best lyrics from Laila's Wisdom.

  • "Laila's Wisdom"

    Rapsody

    "When haters come around look em down tell ’em, 'We don't owe you'/You gon' lose some friends but those circles are better than the ovals/A Black man left the oval, keep that style you got soulful/The best of the best gon fear you, sky's the limit see, I told you/You gon be the difference between McDonald's, Burger King and Whole Foods"

  • "Laila's Wisdom"

    Rapsody

    "When they told me my chances of losing was higher than divorces/You gotta know your worth and work ‘cus I can't force ya/Growing up I shopped at Kmart and Ross’, celebrated every win/And learned to learn from all my losses/I never signed paperwork without reading the clauses/My parents worked way too hard to not get no credit for it/I'm a trip like Grayson Allen, y'all never made me VALID/I learn that from Phylicia Rashad and Debbie Allen"

  • "Power"

    Rapsody Featuring Lance Skiiiwalker and Kendrick Lamar

    "The power of the dussy make a grown man cry/The day I came up out my mama I saw a grown man cry/They say it has magic powers, even Magic ain’t die/Wake you up out ya sleep to take a 3 a.m. car ride/He said the booty the only thing between him and God/They love the booty, sacrifice they family and job" - Rapsody

  • "Power"

    Rapsody Featuring Lance Skiiiwalker and Kendrick Lamar

    "Carolina home boy, you know we keep a Stackhouse/That's power when you know the game, I'm feeling like a champ now/I went the rap route, homie get out the trap house/I want the power to be able rap bout, what I rap bout/Black child, God, love and textiles/Point, blank decimal, Steph Curry projectile/I saw the goal from eight miles" - Rapsody

  • "Chrome (Like Ooh)"

    Rapsody

    "Boys on the block told boys on the spot/You gotta shot youngin’, you ain't gotta get shot/Dangerous to measure a man by the size of his cock/I was told to measure a King by the size of his flock/Who your leader and where y'all going? My army big enough carry a boeing’, ride off to the Lox"

  • "Ridin'"

    Rapsody Featuring GQ

    "Club wit' your children, fifth of liquor and skittiwee/Try to run that game on me but baby you shit’n me/Same hemoglobin, family tree, I know you very well/We all got somebody in our family that we can't save from hell/Pressure, pain, memories of bad thangs you been through/Cried so many tears is surprising you ain't mildewed" - Rapsody

  • "Ridin'"

    Rapsody Featuring GQ

    "Brain scattered like showers/I’m losing power, my life is starting to fuck wit me/Dealing wit lots of feelings, depression becoming publicly/Luckily I'm in line, I’ll be damn if a nigga cuttin’ me/Climb a mountain for mo’, no safety, or rush for me/Take a shuttle to space, space is never enough for me/Peddlin’ by the moon they assuming someone abducted me" - GQ

  • "Sassy"

    Rapsody

    "In a league of my own/Watch what you say you don't know who you among/Speak a little truth, here come the stones/Throw me a few, look I got good bones/Diamonds tween my knees/Oil wells in thighs/Does my sassiness upset you?/Oh, you mad cuz I survived?!"

  • "Nobody"

    Rapsody Featuring Moonchild, Black Thought and Anderson .Paak

    "Nobody know nada/We all know the fate of Assata if Cuba don’t harbor/Nobody know I’m harder on myself than lonely fathers/Watching Mrs. Parker, these days nobody know who authored rhymes of rappers on carpets/Nobody know who real or not/Nobody still know who shot Big and Pac, I'm bothered" - Rapsody

  • "Nobody"

    Rapsody Featuring Moonchild, Black Thought and Anderson .Paak

    "Oh my God, nobody know the true religion/Why nobody know to show respect and mind your business/I know prison business, but nobody know how many innocent in it/Nobody know that cures cancer been made by the chemist/Nobody know the cost of a dollar worth less to em Kendrick/Nobody smart enough would ever say racism ended" - Rapsody

  • "Nobody"

    Rapsody Featuring Moonchild, Black Thought and Anderson .Paak

    "Internet got no chill, nobody know how it feel to be an artist/Look, nigga this some marvelous shit/Before politics, arguing real vs radio hits/It’s all hip-hop, you can’t divide what ain't different/Don’t like all underground music, I don’t hate all music that isnt/I was just making it clap to Wacka Flocka last Christmas" - Rapsody

  • "Nobody"

    Rapsody Featuring Moonchild, Black Thought and Anderson .Paak

    "Been a lyrical grand wizard like Theodore/I'm on the same wave length the sister Rapsody is on/I love it when she get on her Bahamadia joint/If she wasn’t true she never would’ve gotten me involved/Between the world and me like Mr. Ta-Nehisi Coates/Nobody know the artist Mr. Ta-Nehisi quotes/Laughin a boars, they grasping at straws to sniff the dope/Pen been engaged for ages we should probably elope" - Black Thought

  • "Black & Ugly"

    Rapsody Featuring BJ The Chicago Kid

    "You could neva diss me/I'm more Leo, you more grizzly/Watch yo mouth these country boys carrying tools like Dabnis Brickey/The tesla, the BMi benzo, I ain't picky/Talking appearance ain't no diss to me, no one dissin’ me/I been to hell and back and came back up here screaming victory" - Rapsody

  • "Black & Ugly"

    Rapsody Featuring BJ The Chicago Kid

    "Diary and frankly this game, I'm stylin'/My camp concentration, and focus been on a thousand/Black bottom Jordans, my sole black as organs/Of chain smokers and churches that sang hymns to organs/Ol' bae, looking for love but I can't reward em/Never be the same like what they did to New Orleans" - Rapsody

  • "You Should Know"

    Rapsody Featuring Busta Rhymes

    "Young Gu yellin' I should rippity rap more/I'm known to black out, y'all resemble the Oscars/Flow so much I need life guards/Not like Rikers, them some whole new bars/Influenced by many but I'm a whole new star, yeah/There's levels to this but I'm a whole new floor/They talkin' keys to success but I'm a whole new door" - Rapsody

  • "You Should Know"

    Rapsody Featuring Busta Rhymes

    "We run from the comics until we subjects to the comics/I'm a hero, don't be stressin' the zeroes and the commas/Lookin' anacondas, know they comin' with apples and oranges/Satan playin' me, I ain't Adam unless we talkin' ’bout bombin'/Over Baghdad, you look bad tryna to spar with me/I'm a lethal weapon, a saber or a razor, Darth Vader, Al Qaeda/Every friend of Jada, that said it all, I'm a midget at labor/Deliverin' babies the size of raiders, opinions were made" - Rapsody

  • "U Used 2 Love Me"

    Rapsody Featuring Terrace Martin

    "The hardest thing to do is to break your heart/Yeah, you broke mine and I forgave that part/It's like I woke up one day and I ain't love you no more/Now everything you do gets on my nerves a little bit more/I gave you everything I had, I can't give you no more/It's like there's levels to this thang and we ain't on the same floor/And now I feel like Florence, I gotta open the door" - Rapsody

  • "Knock On My Door"

    Rapsody featuring BJ The Chicago Kid

    "Love thy neighbor the bible say/Watching from the window, me and homies all congregate/Good lord you fine, um, that all I'ma say/Son got my head wrapped up like Mama Sway/Or mama Tate, come hug my neck, namaste/Wit all due respect, seven sons like Andre/We should spend a whole week together to conversate/Just knock on my door baby boy I’ll accommodate" - Rapsody

  • "Knock On My Door"

    Rapsody Featuring BJ The Chicago Kid

    "Every woman needs some affection/Need to be kissed, hugged, told she's loved it cures depression/I talkin bout you, most nights I lay around restless/I only get by day to day by counting my blessing/Tryna get your attention hope see me in these leggings/Know I was raised better" - Rapsody

  • "OooWee"

    Rapsody Featuring Anderson .Paak

    "I'm a window for homies, I know all of 'em watch/Time and time again reminiscing, remembering blocks/I used to walk around on ’em it's been a while now we back/Gotta speak on the youth to throw all my dreams in the air/My mind a hula hoop going round but got nothing to spare/Nothing to waste, head in the clouds, like I was high on that grape" - Rapsody

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