August is shaping up to be the biggest music month of the summer. Adding to our anticipation is singer-songwriter KIRBY. She’s been teasing us with tracks like “The Man” and “Thick n Country” since June, and now she’s finally revealing the project from whence they came, Miss Black America. The album title, which is short for Mississippi Black America, is a nod to her upbringing in the Magnolia State and how growing up in the rural South shaped her and her Black identity. She’s keeping that idea alive with the release of the set’s next single, which just so happens to be the Big K.R.I.T.-featuring title track.
The music track for “Miss Black America” is dramatic, yet soulful. Strings, piano, guitar and a kick drum thump, swoon and swirl together to help KIRBY deliver a message that speaks to her Blackness, her Southern roots and her self-determination all in one fell swoop.
“God bless America / You wanna free us pay them teachers like they senators,” she sings on the opening verse. “I pray my brother see the king in his people / I pray my sister see the king in her people.” She later goes on to boast about her wealthy future, ask for KKK members to slink back to the depths from which they came and for a reality where Wakanda isn’t fiction.
Big K.R.I.T. follows up KIRBY’s verse by echoing her statements with his own slick rhymes. “We far from a magic negro / That Hollywood designed to help the whitewashed heroes,” he rhymes. “More than a elevator worker or bellhop server / That gotta show you where the key go / More than the help / Granny cooked the meal, gon’ help yourself.”
The video keeps it simple as it reimagines a Black first family with KIRBY and K.R.I.T. as the heads of household. The camera doesn’t leave them as they sit and have a picnic on a lawn with a large, white house behind them. It’s an idyllic vision, especially given our current reality.
As good as the single is, we have a feeling that Miss Black America is going to be even better. The set will arrive on Friday, August 29th, and boasts the three singles released thus far and nine other new tracks that are sure to be infused with KIRBY’s sass and soul. You can check out the album’s Southern Gothic cover and the full tracklist when you head below. But first, listen to “Miss Black America” and watch its video right here.
KIRBY Miss Black America tracklist:
1. When You Coming Home
2. Bettadaze
3. Miss Black America feat. Big K.R.I.T.
4. The Man
5. Thick n Country feat. Akeem Ali
6. Na$ty
7. Under Pressure
8. Mama Don’t Worry
9. Reparations
10. Jump The Broom
11. My People
12. Afromations
