The Sunday Music Drop is a weekly radio series hosted by the KQED weekend news team. In each segment, we feature a song from a local musician or band with an upcoming show and hear about what inspires their music.
San Francisco rapper/songwriter/producer Afterthought says his dream isn’t to be the best rapper alive. Rather, he likes to create “universes” in his music that people can step into, and blends hip-hop, jazz, R&B and soul. Raised in the Bay Area, Afterthought thinks the region doesn’t get enough credit in the larger rap scene.
“We feel like we have this chip on our shoulder of, like, nobody is messing with us, nobody is giving us our due,” he said. “And so because of that, we do it ourselves.”
Afterthought sees writing rap lyrics as a form of therapy, and likes to do so when he’s alone. Some of his music focuses on body positivity. His song “Love Letters (To My Body),” from his debut album Communal Healing released in July 2023, is written as a personalized message about how he overcame his feelings about his body, including his skin color and hair texture. He reached out to artists Jada Imani and Sunday as well, for their ability to tackle big issues in a poignant way in their music.
“Body positivity, body dysmorphia and body issues are something that affects all of us,” he said. “It’s like every ‘ism,’ you know what I mean? And it’s almost harder for folks who don’t think about it. At the end of the day, I think about it all the time.”