Sa-Roc is arguably one of the most vibrant MCs in the world today. Her crisp articulation, fiery delivery, and her elevated and insightful lyricism has often placed her within the same conversation of some of Hip Hop’s most notable artists. Once dubbed by Okayplayer as “one of the most formidable microphone mavens in the game,” Sa-Roc is an artist for a socially conscious generation.

There was no lack of early influences; she was raised by an artist father and an avid reader for a mother who would expose their young children to black writers, musicians and performers. She was raised on everything from the syncopated rhythms of hometown Go-Go acts like the Rare Essence and the Backyard band, to the prophetic poetry of Gil Scott Heron and Nikki Giovanni. It was the work of writers like these and more that helped Sa-Roc foster a love for language and writing and while still young, she began to pen her own poetry and short stories. She attended the Sankofa Institute, a Pan African centered school where her writing, social and creative expression was nurtured by Hasinatu Camara, an educator and civil rights activist. Camara would introduce Sa-Roc to close friends like Kwame Ture (f.k.a. Stokely Carmichael) MutaBaruka, and Haile Gerima. It was through these personal encounters that she began to see how artistic expression could be used as a tool to educate, inspire, and create change, a set of principles that she continues to live by.

Sa-Roc was on the verge of graduating from Howard University as a biology major but decided to leave college and, eventually, to leave Washington D.C. for Atlanta. It was in Atlanta where she was introduced to famed DJ and producer, Sol Messiah. Inspired by one of the acts he was working with, Sa-Roc decided to record some of her poetry and rhymes to his beats. The result was her first EP, Astral Chronicles which dropped in 2008. She went on to drop a project titled Supernova that same year, and quickly began to gain recognition within the cultural and activist community in Atlanta, performing at social justice and political prisoner fundraisers, and other community based events. Still the full breadth of her artistic expression didn’t arrive until later that year when a surprise introduction at a Mutulu Shakur benefit concert thrusted her on stage for the very first time.

Sa-Roc had finally found the full range of her voice and there was no looking back.

Her Rhymesayers debut album, The Sharecropper’s Daughter, the title of which pays homage to her father’s experience growing up sharecropping tobacco, is in Sa-Roc’s own words “a sonic reflection on the generational inheritance of trauma and triumph that shapes our humanity and influences the way we see the world.” At a time where people all around the globe are calling for social change, Sa-Roc is an MC whose energy and conscious lyrics are here to shake up the rap game and remind us all that Hip Hop was always about giving a voice to the people.