Unmuted: Roc Nation's 'Reprise' is the Soundtrack to the Revolution

Rapsody, Chronixx, D Smoke, and King Mel come together for Roc Nation's album 'Reprise'. A musical protest, the album is comprised of powerful songs from multiple artists, this album aims to bring awareness to social justice issues, and a portion of the proceeds go to organizations protecting our civil rights. Hosted by Tatiana Pile

Video Transcript

D SMOKE: Listening to music, it gave me license to be all of myself. You know what I'm saying? Without boundaries and barriers.

[MUSIC]

TATIANA PILE: Roc Nation's upcoming album "Reprise" is a musical protest.

Comprised of powerful songs from multiple artists, this album aims to bring awareness to social justice issues, and a portion of the proceeds go to organizations protecting our civil rights.

Today, we have four incredible musicians who are featured on this album.

Joining us we have Rapsody, Chronixx, King Mel, and D Smoke.

Hi everybody. How are y'all feeling?

Are y'all excited to talk about this amazing album? I got a chance to listen to it and it is fire.

RAPSODY: All family here, so yeah.

D SMOKE: So much love on this call.

TATIANA PILE: So much love. With everything going on, honestly, joy, love, peace, happiness. All that, all those things are acts of rebellion. And to kick it off, this question is open to everyone.

Music is a universal language and has been a soundtrack to revolutions for centuries.

Why was it personally important for each of you to bring your voice to this album?

RAPSODY: We got to pick up the baton where, you know, the ones before us left off.

So many have done their part as artists, whether it be James Brown, Aretha Franklin, or you take it back to the '90s.

So you know, this is our time to make sure that we use our voices in the right way.

Music is one of the greatest teachers. It transcends religion, class, age, language.

You turn on that NWA, or they turn on that Public Enemy, listen to D Smoke.

You feel me now? It's just another creative way to touch people and touch people's souls and bring people together as one.

Music is one voice.

D SMOKE: As artists we have a responsibility, not just to our people but to the companies that support us, to start to remind them that, look, I'm going to do this music at such a high level that you realize that there's more of me out there and you search for them.

To see that our heart is coming from the same place, and the same care and commitment to excellence in the art, you know, it's just there's more out there.

KING MEL: With everything that's going on today, this type of music is going to make every year listen to it.

The first stage of changing something is identifying the problem. And then you can identify changes.

In this music, we are giving solutions to change, and people are listening to it.

CHRONIXX: The more we employ ourselves and the more we strengthen that bridge, which is our music and our musical talents, our ability to speak, flow, play our instruments.

That's the bridge. This is one of the projects that is consciously geared towards creating that balance and fixing certain issues.

So big up to the nation, for real.

D SMOKE: You know, I had this energy inside of me, but I also knew I was an extremely intelligent kid.

At ten years old, my brother-- my oldest brother, Ron, he popped in a cassette tape of ATLiens right, and lyric for lyric he just broke down Outkast's project to me.

And he was-- even the stuff that my parents wouldn't have wanted me to hear, because it was uncensored.

You know, they was like, fascinated by the way your nipples peak at me through your blouse, freaking me freaky you can't help but be aroused, excuse me lord, lustful thinking but that was the way we was brought up.

Sneaking to watch Playboy at night, we all must be caught up in worldly ways. The chemistry between boys and girls.

It's this intellectual approach to talking to a kid about what you're about to really go through, you know.

And so, listening to that music gave me license to be as hood as I want to be, as intellectual as I want to be, as honest as I want to be.

RAPSODY: There's nothing wrong with being hood. Like you say, hood is fly. Hood is smart too.

Don't think just because you hood, you've got to be a dummy, you gotta only talk a certain way.

If you could be all of that at the same time, and still be rich mentally, spiritually, and all of that. But still be a culture.

It all operates from a place of love and pride. You know what I'm saying?

These are great conversations.

Go get "Reprise" October 9th! Bye!