http://www.ursula-rucker.com/maat.html

Artist. Activist. Mother. Though not necessarily in that order, Ursula Rucker embodies all of those titles with a level of class not seen among most rebels. But she’ll be the first to tell you that juggling all those monikers is a daily grind, yet a welcome yoke she hoists upon her shoulders in order to teach her kids left from right and sleep at night knowing she’s fulfilling her purpose on this planet. Her new album, Ruckus Soundsysdom, finds her exploring new sonic and lyrical territory with King Britt at the helm as co-executive producer along with Ms. Rucker herself and a handful of talented, female Brooklyn producers.

The sound isn’t so much a departure as it is another intriguing layer to a woman whose own eclecticism shows the spoken word movement what poetry in capable hands can do. Rather than creating a wannabe hip-hop album, Rucker strikes a fine balance between her words and dark, glitchy beats inspired by an unexpected source.

“I've always wanted to do something with the Rza. He's one of my favorite music producers, so I decided if I can't actually do something with him, that I would do something that's inspired by him.”

Coming on the heels of what Rucker called a ‘rough year’ for her, there’s a lot of reflection and analysis on Soundsysdom that speak to this darker undercurrent throughout the album. But other than making sure she rocks with the tightest music possible, there wasn’t too much premeditation in creating this album.

“Most of it was written just during the recording - kind of spontaneous…just kind of going with the flow and whatever day it was and that's what I was feeling, that's what would come out.”

The concept of working with a team of female producers, though, was percolating for a while. Combining the talents of Amatus, FishEye and Rucyl Mills, Rucker found the additional female energy she was looking for to complement her music. This perfect storm of collaborators and content brought Rucker an emboldened attitude for this project.

"They ain’t ready. That’s my theme for this new album, they’re not ready. And I know they’re not, but I still do it anyway. I still take the chance and do it anyway because that’s my comfort zone. And it’s funny because my comfort zone is the zone where other people are uncomfortable."

That space of discomfort in which Rucker thrives may be part of the reason why it's easier to find her flows on the road in Austria or the UK than in her home country.

"I’m not tooting my horn at all ‘cause I’m scratching my head really. But I think with me, I don’t think people really understand what I do. They’re like, ‘Is she a poet? Does she sing? What is it that she does? Does she, like, do concerts or does she do poetry readings? Lectures?’ You know it’s like, ‘If she can rock a concert, can she also do an intellectual presentation at a university?’ Uh, hell yeah!" she says, erupting in laughter. "You know, but it’s like people don’t really get it. They can’t really – and nobody asks."

Rucker's ability to express all facets of her personality shines through on the album. One minute, she's kicking a poem of female empowerment over a sparse beat on "She." Next, she's the center of the "Cypha" destroying all challengers, sounding more Salt 'n' Pepa than Saul Williams. Then, she reserves her right to be all those things and none on "Read Between the Lines," where she takes aim at the critics "on MySpace and Okayplayer" who try to pigeonhole her.

"I think with the new ways of technology it's so much more - it's easier for people to have access to you... but at the same time, sites like Okayplayer and things like that help the artist, so it's like you kinda have to balance it out. You have to choose, 'Okay, do I wanna be in this arena or not wanna be in this arena' and if I choose to be in it, then you have to deal with everything. You know, you have to find a way to deal with it."

Despite nearly 15 years of performing her work for a mass audience, it hasn't gotten any easier for Rucker to deal with the pressures associated with her underground, underappreciated status.

"The fact that I am juggling the raising of four boys with, you know, being an alternative artist and trying to make a life out of that and being an activist at the same time, fuels the fire in my work, you know because it's ever-present, the struggle is ever-present," Rucker relates.

But rather than sink into the pit under those trying moments that she said will come to every artist pursuing their goals, she finds her family as the ultimate relaxant.

"Every day when I wake up, I'm like, you know, at some point during the day I'm probably going to have my head in my hands and be sitting in a corner ready to cry until, like, one of my kids pops into the room and then I gotta make dinner and help with homework when they snap me out of the depression that I was about to fall into," she says with a laugh.

It's easy to see the humor she finds in her boys as she describes them navigating the world through the hip-hop she knows and loves so well. While her thirteen year old may give equal time to Lil Wayne and Pacific Division, her ten year old is in the 'thug out' phase, rocking his hat to the side and making unsavory comments about women. Even though it seems like he must not know who his mother is to try and get away with something like that, Rucker leaves room for her kids to find their way into the culture.

"Each generation has to have their own thing, so in that respect you can't rob them of their experience of this thing that we call hip-hop. But you can hip them to the forbearers, know what I'm saying, so they know...We need to really have more people that are going to be able to make that connection for these young folks so they can have something to compare it to, so they have a different reference."

One must look no further than Ruckus Soundsysdom for a quality alternative to materialism and misogyny. The culmination of what Rucker calls "a couple of nerds making an album," the project married Rucker's approach to King Britt's, allowing them to explore their creative relationship deeper than their usual one track collaborations on previous projects. Plus, she's not one to be mired by expectations of deep messages just because she's capable of bringing them.

"I think, you know, because I'm a poet and because I'm one of these artists who are constantly speaking out against something or for something and champion the cause of healing the planet or saving the world, that people think that I'm a certain kind of chick...or that I'm a hippie, that I wear long, bohemian skirts and flowers in my hair and I'm like, 'Wow, you couldn't be more wrong.'... Don’t get it twisted. It’s not just always just about the message. Like yeah, when I say something, best believe it's always going to have some serious content, but like you know, when I put it with music, I'm a music head, too."

After three very spread out months of studio time due to she and Britt's respective travel and performance schedules, Rucker's latest entry to the struggle was complete. Maybe it’s the nature of poets to be open like raw sores. It is they who must constantly express the ills of mankind in verse, intuitively transmitting the feelings of the people into powerful nuggets of written resistance. Sometimes to their detriment they are too plugged in with their surroundings, yet Rucker’s most impressive quality is her humanity. She is almost meta-human in how she balances the mundane and philosophical, the practicality of being a wife and mother who sometimes just wants McDonald's french fries, yet being an underground, sometimes struggling, artist and being unable to relinquish either role. When those moments of tension arrive, Rucker finds encouragement in her mentor, Sonia Sanchez.

“Just seeing her still on the frontline after so many years and never compromising or changing. [Sanchez] can speak to a lofty group of White women at an afternoon tea and go and speak in front of a hip-hop organization of all 20 to 30 year olds and still be relevant, able to communicate and not have to change, really, who she is and what her method and intention is."

Like Sanchez, Rucker is a living symbol of brazen individualism, no matter what's trendy, she sings to her own beat.

"Even in those moments when I'm ready to give up, this is just where I'm supposed to be.”

Crosspost via Okayplayer.com