Below are just a handful that best channel her brilliance. From “Baltimore” (as heard in Jay’s “Caught Their Eyes”) to “Do What You Gotta Do” (as heard in Ye’s “Famous”), a wide range of her songs have inspired a great number of rap reproductions.
Whether it’s JAY-Z on 4:44 (multiple times) or Kanye or Wayne, Nina continues to serve as a political conduit for hip-hop iconoclasts. Nina reinvented the tune and changed the lyrics to create I Want a Little Sugar in my Bowl. An artist's duty, as far as I'm concerned, is to reflect the times. In addition to collaborating with friends like Hughes, Simone drew from her influences like Bessie Smith who released a song in 1931 called I Need a Little Sugar in my Bowl. There is more than a superficial connection between Simone and rap-if not in her politics than in her dynamism, that rare ability to summon the sounds of the past and make them feel brand new. What kept me sane was knowing that things would change, and it was a question of keeping myself together until they did. Salamishah Tillet’s American Quarterly essay carefully diagrammed this relationship, calling Simone “both a compelling singer and a cultural signifier, a virtuoso and political visionary” whose samples allowed rappers to “access a version of ‘sonic black radicalism.’” But what Tillet misses is that rap, in its rebellious spirit and alchemic methods, is also an act of sonic black radicalism. For decades, rappers have used her tone and musicianship as sonic reference points for black struggle and livelihood. Stars when you shine, you know how I feel. And this old world is a new world and a bold world for me. Sleep in peace when day is done: that's what I mean. Butterflies all havin' fun, you know what I mean. Dragonfly out in the sun, you know what I mean, don't you know.
She has easily become one of my favorite female singers of all time. It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life for me. She had a very low voice for a woman and wins one over easily with a voice that conveys emotions and energy so well. Nina Simone was an artist and activist of singular vision and voice. Nina Simone was a classically trained pianist (she studied at Julliard), singer, songwriter, and civil rights activist.
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