interview: neale hurston is black in the rainbow limelight

Back in December of 2011, rapper Tango P.I. released his first mixtape ‘Black In The Rainbow’ before transforming into Neale Hurston (via a name change). If I had to guess why, I’d say that it probably has something to do with Afro-American author Zora Neale Hurston. I was right. “I outgrew Tango P.i. I found that the name limited me or gave an expected sense of how I was supposed to sound and I got sick of explaining the P.i part. [Laughs] I always followed the works of Zora Neale Hurston and her story goes untold. Out of all the names of bandits and kings, I chose a name of a woman practically wiped away from history but who holds more gusto than many men…”.
Newest track “Mojave Son” is taken off his upcoming EP, Haute Boheme. Neale’s rapid-fire style flow makes every track a thrill.

By Ayara Pommells, AFROPUNK Contributor *

You will need to pay attention to keep up with his fleeting energy and many of his metaphors can go over your head if you’re a lazy listener. Regardless, the production (courtesy of BC The Gift on this track) will keep your head nodding.

Neale Hurston’s music proudly waves the rainbow flag in a laid back sort of way. For example, his track “Robot B-Boy” is a rather tongue in cheek tale of the raunchy rapper falling in love with a seductive male android.

His sexuality is evident but he never seems to be directly addressing it although, all of his social network pages include the #lgbt hashtag.

Neale Hurston is not a cheesy gimmick: “Being taken seriously. Being a gay emcee kind of has an underlying tone of what a female emcee goes through, expecting you to sound sexy or majorly flamboyant. Overall breaking down what they think. Ali said “I’m going to show you I’m great because I already know” – and that’s dead truth”

He can actually spit his a$$ off and it’s surprising that his music hasn’t been picked up by more blogs. Hopefully when the Haute Boheme EP drops it will flip the script. My only gripe is that I wish he had more of an online presence, like an official website or a Tumblr or something. However, he does have a Twitter. Follow him @NealeHurston

Here’s Neale Hurston’s view on why you should check him out:

“It’s the next level of hip-hop. It supports the masses. I try to do what music was intended to do: uplift and smite competition. I say smite because of the obstacles of being an openly gay emcee. I’ve been told more times that I can’t simply because my sexual orientation. It trumps skill I’ve been told, but I beg to differ”.

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* Ayara Pommells is Owner of UK website Rawroots.com and a music writer for Soultrain.com, SOHH.com & AFROPUNK.com as well as an entertainment writer for Kontrol Magazine. Follow @YahYahNah.