feature: ‘raphaella’ – the “pre-debut” album from hip hop musician & visual artist evelyn chakra

Listen to the “pre-debut” album from musician and artist Evelyn CHAKRA, entitled ‘RAPHAELLA’. She states: “Released on October 7th, 2015, ‘RAPHAELLA’ is a musical explanation to where my head has been over the past year. This date not only signifies my 25th birthday, but also a full year since I revealed publicly that I was transgender. It is not intended as my debut, but rather, the pre-debut. I needed to release this to also get some demons out and clear my head. Most of these instrumentals were created within this time-frame, the ones created before are still key moments in my adult life in relation to being transgender and/or deeply depressed. Ranging in emotion from somber to angry as hell….and every other negative emotion in-between. It’s been a crazy year, many ups and downs (mainly downs) until recently. I’m blessed to say that I haven’t lost my mind and that my faith in God has never been so strong.” She adds, “Throughout the album, I have also written out explanations regarding where my head was at while creating, and why it is significant to this tape. If you are looking to “turn up”…this isn’t for you. If you want that “true to the essence Hip-Hop shit”…..this isn’t for you. This is my therapy, this is my release. I hope you enjoy….unless it puts you in a crappy mood…in which case, I succeeded in execution anyway. After all, it’s literally a year’s worth of negative thoughts converted into sound.” Check it out below, and view some of CHAKRA’s art at the bottom.

By Alexander Aplerku, AFROPUNK Contributor

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Instagram: @wisdom.sex.power.art and @nefelibata.creations