Goapele: Closer to Hip-Hop Than You Knew

Editor’s note: This story is part of That’s My Word, KQED’s year-long exploration of Bay Area hip-hop history.

Goapele has never been a typical R&B singer. From the start of her career in the late ’90s, the Oakland-born vocalist has defied categorization. Her breakthrough 2001 single “Closer” arrived amidst a landscape of slickly produced, radio-friendly R&B, hip-hop/soul hybrids, and then-trendy neo-soul. Produced by Amp Live of hip-hop duo Zion I, with keyboards by Mike Tiger, “Closer” broke the mold with its warm, organic sound and inspirational, near-universal message of moving closer to one’s dream.

The song quickly became a Bay Area staple, landing in KMEL rotation — a rarity for an independently released R&B song. Before long, “Closer” entered the station’s nightly “7 at 7” countdown, and began moving up in the rankings.

“There was one point where they were going down the list, and 50 Cent was number two,” the singer recalls today. “And I was like, damn, I was bumped off the list. And then it got to number one and I was so happy.”

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That moment literally moved Goapele closer to her dreams. “It was just so affirming for my city to embrace what I was doing, and music that was so close to my heart, and music that I didn’t know what genre it fit into.” It was also a validation of the Bay’s independent spirit, rather than “emanating something that’s already out there,” she says.

“Closer” became an anthem for people achieving a goal or moving forward in life. “I’ve sung it at a lot of colleges over the years. I’ve sung at weddings. I’ve ran into a lot of people that said it was their high school graduation song,” the singer recalls. The song has been embraced by rappers and singers alike, including Drake, YG, Kendrick Lamar and Chris Brown, as well as countless freestyle and mix-tape emcees. “I’m really grateful that it has stood the test of time and resonated with people.”

She attributes this phenomenon to “how the drums hit” and how Tiger’s chord progression “just gives a certain feeling of like, upliftment and frustration at the same time that I think so many of us relate to.” People also relate to its central theme of “striving to get to the next level. And it can feel like a struggle sometimes even in the midst of glimpses of, you know, success.”

The song remains a staple of Goapele’s live sets, even though she’s recorded plenty of new music in the 20-plus years since “Closer”’s release. She admits there was a time when she was over it, and wanted to focus on fresh material. But then she realized, “people in the audience really wanted to hear it. And I just, I had to take a step back and think about my favorite artists. Like, I love a lot of their old music. You know what I mean?”

Goapele’s 2001 album of the same name sold approximately 65,000 units on consignment, launching her as a viable new artist with a strong following. Since then, the singer has released four full-length albums and an EP, numerous music videos and a lifestyle brand (Dreamseekers) while performing live all over the world. She’s carved out a lane as a true original, never following current trends, yet always relevant, as her range has expanded from soulful, slow-tempo ballads to pulse-pounding club jams.

Shortly after her live performance at the inaugural Days with Zahra festival in Napa — as she readies herself for the release of another album, titled Colors — she reflected on her long association with Bay Area hip-hop.

An agent for social change

As it turns out, Bay Area hip-hop was an important part of Goapele’s experience growing up, one that shaped her path as an artist. The first local rapper she recalls listening to was MC Hammer, when she was in junior high school, followed by Hieroglyphics. By the time she got to high school, she says, “for me it was all about underground hip-hop.”

Early in her career, she sang over hip-hop instrumentals at local spots like Mingles and La Peña. “My brother was a DJ. And so, you know, dub plates were popular.” A dub plate-style version sung over the remix of Supercat’s “Dolly My Baby” turned into one of her first singles, “Childhood Drama” — which she recently sung live in Jamaica with DJ Shortkut after not performing it in years.

Goapele’s first local rap collaborations were with Zion I, E-40, and Hieroglyphics members A-Plus, Casual, and Pep Love; the Oakland hip-hop collective also helped her independent label Skyblaze get distribution. She went on to team up with many Bay artists including Mac Mall, Clyde Carson, and Keak Da Sneak, and, more recently, Rexx Life Raj. “I was definitely surrounded by a lot of rappers,” she reminisces.

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She’s since recorded with national artists like Dwele and West Coast rap legends Snoop Dogg, Aceyalone and Planet Asia. But she says she won’t work with just any artist. “My criteria for working with anyone is just that it’s a positive vibe and we mutually want to work together… I’m open to, you know, so many different stories. But when it comes to the music I’m putting out, I just don’t want it to have a negative effect on the culture.”

Goapele’s standards for collaboration and her value system reflect both her cultural background and the values of her native region — known for its activists, community-based organizations and political and social discourse in its artistic output and cultural aesthetic.

As the daughter of South African exile Douglas Mohlabane and the sister of Namane Mohlabane — a co-founder of DJ collective Local 1200 — activism came naturally to Goapele. Her father was active in the anti-apartheid movement and a mainstay of a Bay Area South African exile community, while Local 1200 was known not just for their DJ skills, but their support of social justice causes.

During the campaign against California’s draconian youth crime bill, Prop. 21, Goapele collaborated with singer Kimiko Joy and female emcee Toy for an updated version of Billie Holiday’s “Don’t Explain” that tackled the weighty issue of the criminalization of youth and the prison-industrial complex. The title track of her 2005 major label debut, “Change It All,” addressed school closures, economic inequality, and the need to do better as a society. In 2006, she was named a Human Rights Cultural Hero by the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights during the nonprofit’s 10th anniversary celebration.

While not an overtly political artist who spouts rhetoric and ideology at every opportunity, she’s stayed down and still “got a pound for the cause,” to paraphrase Digital Underground’s Shock G — another of the artists she says inspired her when she was coming up.

Transformative change and revolutionary content can take many forms — including music that adds something different and compelling to the sonic landscape. At the time of its release, Zion-I’s 2003 album Deep Water Slang V2.0 was dismissed by some critics who had trouble relating to its diverse influences and experimental qualities. Those qualities, however, are precisely what make the album stand out some 20 years later.

Goapele contributed vocals to three of the album’s standout tracks — “Flow,” “Sorry” and “Boom Bip.” Producer Amp Live plays around with ambient textures and non-cliched sonic approaches that seemingly expand hip-hop’s reach; meanwhile, Goapele supplies the hooks, reinforcing Zumbi’s conscious manifestos and emotional Zen-states.

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“So don’t fight the feeling / what we got right here / we ain’t going nowhere / open your mind / what we got right here / we ain’t going nowhere,” she sings on “Boom Bip” — subverting a pimpish credo associated with Too Short and Rappin’ 4-Tay to express a more holistic and spiritually affirming mentality. On “Flow,” the hook places the word “flow,” sung by Goapele, up against a bed of minimal keyboards, upright bass, and Vin Roc’s turntable cuts. Her vocals on “Sorry” are buried deep within a mix of flute, viola, electric piano and cello — all of which contribute to an emotionally resonant song that’s more about feeling than swagger.

Despite “Flow” being one of her favorite collaborations, Goapele can’t quite recall how it came about. “I worked with Zion I off and on for years,” she says. “We even had a studio right next to them at 880 (Studios in Oakland)… Amp just like, had a way of creating things like a puzzle. And sometimes, I would come in there and record an idea over a piece of a song. And by the time I heard it, you know, he had, like, made this whole new arrangement.”

Then there was “The Daze,” a track from her Even Closer album featuring Zion I and Casual of Hieroglyphics, which was recorded at Amp’s home studio in El Cerrito.

“I was walking into the home studio and Amp had the vibe, you know, already set in. And Steve (Zumbi) was working on his verses. And I was just like, adding whatever I could… I can remember the night that we recorded that just by the raw energy. And it was really just like a couple takes, you know what I mean?”

Ten years later, in 2013, Goapele again collaborated with Zion I on the sublime hip-hop love song, “Life’s Work” — which eschews playerisms in favor of committed monogamy. Zumbi’s love-affirming testimonials contrast beautifully with Goapele’s romantic vocals, and it’s difficult to imagine the song working as well without her contribution.

Goapele’s association with Hieroglyphics also spanned many projects. She’s made songs with Pep Love, Casual and A-Plus, along with the single and video, “Soweto,” which features the entire crew. She remembers Hiero had rented a house with a home studio in Venice Beach, and A-Plus asked her to drop some vocals on a track he was working on. “The guitar was just giving me African highlife vibes,” and the song’s hook, she says, was “just what I was feeling like, no matter where you go. We’re the same. We have the same story.”

The video, she recalls, was shot in Joshua Tree National Park on one of the hottest days of the year — the temperature reached 120 Fahrenheit. “I almost did not make it through that video, but the video ended up being beautiful.”

The Motherland and the Bay

One of Goapele’s more interesting collaborations came about in 2010, when she worked with South African emcee Hip Hop Pantsula for “Victory,” a song recorded in English, Setswana, and Xhosa, which drew attention to humanitarian efforts in South Africa and the African Diaspora. Pantsula, she says, “was incredibly talented, and I want to say kind of spearheaded or was big in the Motswako movement, which was a South African/SWANA hip-hop scene.”

Pantsula, aka Double HP, who joined the ancestors in 2018, was hailed as a “musical icon” by the African National Congress. Goapele remembers being in South Africa and seeing some of his concerts.

“There was a lot of rapping in Setswana and English… But the song “Victory,” it was just so exciting that the World Cup was in South Africa. I definitely was feeling a sense of pride even from afar. And I went out there to perform at the MAMA Awards. It was like an MTV Africa show, and they flew me out there along with The Game, and Clyde Carson from the Bay, who I also worked with on a bunch of other songs.”

Asked to draw a comparison between South African and Bay Area hip-hop, she says, “There wasn’t a huge music industry in the Bay Area. There’s a lot of labels in South Africa, but I feel like people have really had to create their thing from the ground up. And so there’s like maybe an organic feel to it and an edge and a soulfulness that it has.”

She recalls listening to the South African band Shava, who sing in her native tongue of Setswana. “The production was just so beautiful and vibey. The drums are always a little behind the beat. There’s similar production and feels that I think probably come out of a context of influences, like the culture just being soulful and raw and there’s definitely a spirit of resistance, you know?

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“But in South Africa, it’s the triumph and struggle that’s still there. Like, my dad had to leave because of the apartheid system and, in the nineties, so much turmoil and turnover in leadership. Equality is something that’s still trying to come about. There’s so much economic disparity. People were pushed out to almost like, reservations … I came out of that.”

That struggle has bred not just resistance, but cultural resilience. “There’s so much depth and raw talent that has come back, persevered through that. So there’s something to be said for that. How that affects the sound and the vibe.”

In other words, in some ways, South Africa is exactly like the Bay Area. But in other ways, it’s completely different. Goapele remains connected to both places and cultures. It’s who she is.