God-Des Premieres New Single “Living in America”

God-Des, the trailblazing artist formerly of the groundbreaking duo God-des and She, premiered her galvanizing new single “Living in America.” This is her first piece of new music in over a year.

A politically charged hip-hop project, “Living in America” unfolds as a hard-hitting, but immediately catchy rallying cry for change. With its urgent beat and soulful piano tunes, God-Des showcases her masterful vocal flow and razor-sharp wordplay. God-Des fires off on police brutality, systematic racism, corporate greed, and conservative hypocrisy. With the 2020 presidential election only days away, she is not the only artist expressing raw outrage and irrepressible hope.

In releasing “Living in America,” God-Des aims to send a very clear message.

“If you don’t vote or you vote for Trump, you are harming gay people, trans people, and people of color,” she said. “It is our duty as a compassionate human to get Trump and any other hateful officials out of office. Biden can’t save the world in four years, but not having Trump will give us a shot at salvaging any sense of hope we have left.”

OUT FRONT had the opportunity to chat more with God-Des about the new single.

Hello! Thank you for taking some time to chat with me. How are you doing during these unprecedented times?
I always try to see the positive side of things, and I think I have had a lot of self-reflection during this period. I have tried to focus more on myself, my family, and just appreciating small things instead of feeling like I have to go do something incredible to have a good time. I like that I have picked up other hobbies, like I started to ride a bike again. I think it is really challenging, and it is really hard to see such a division in America over such a simple factual problem that we have. That has been hard to see, but I think it is going to force change. If you cannot agree on facts or truths, that is a real problem. I am hoping that the lack of leadership and honesty in the Trump administration has upset enough people to go out, vote, and make some change.

Absolutely. Now, you just dropped your new single, “Living in America.” Can you tell us more about the concept and inspiration behind the song?
I think sometimes with all the chaos and insanity of America, it is easy to get frozen and not know what to do. I just really sat with how I feel about the state of the world and wrote about it. I think the hypocrisy that we allow in this country is so insane. Like, if we just actually treated everyone equally and protected everybody under the laws in the same way, it would be such a better and more peaceful society, but the fact that it feels like only some people are allowed those rights is very upsetting. I think our values are in the wrong place. Like, why do we value gun rights over human rights? Why do we value a small break on our taxes which typically do not affect most people instead of feeding Americans? We are in such a bad place right now and we have got to change it. I am hoping through my song, it will inspire some other people to maybe think a little bit differently, act a little differently, and demand change.Is this a solo project?
Yes. I am actually working on my first full-length solo project. I am about 90 percent through with it. I just need to finish one or two more songs, and I am hoping it will be released around spring 2021.

What do you hope listeners take away from “Living in America?”
I really hope that people think more when they hear that song about the unfairness and inequality. I hope that it makes them realize, either you agree with this and you are not doing anything to be proactive about it, or you did not agree with it in the first place, but you are starting to think differently. I feel like there needs to be cultural awareness of what is happening in our country, and I hope that inspires people to tackle everyday issues like science and climate change. It doesn’t need to be a defensive topic, but we should all be able to agree about this. That’s not saying we should put everybody in the oil and gas industry out of business. Let’s rethink energy and solve these problems together. I think that is where certain people who have been afforded certain privileges don’t want to lose and are fearful of losing those, so they are willing to kind of step on everybody else to maintain that. We need to change that dialogue because there are more people like us than the few who control the majority of power in our country.

What does living in America mean to you?
It’s this beautiful dream that is also a nightmare. Like, the possibilities are incredible, but it is painful because I am having a hard time deciphering the truth. I think what’s really challenging is if I’m on social media and the social media site knows that I am democratic and feel a certain type of way, the only information that I am being fed is stuff like that. You can live in a completely alternate universe if you are a Trumper or tend to lean more conservative. The information that you will see is completely different. Those two things are very stressful and need to be changed. Up until social media, CNN, and Fox News, you would watch the nightly news and they just kind of told you what happened.

Since that, it has been confusing and divisive, but there is so much great potential for America if we just treated everyone the same under the laws that we have written and just with general respect. I have never seen this sense of defensiveness in my lifetime. I always felt like Democrats and Republicans were different, but a lot of times, we could kind of see eye to eye on certain things. Now, people aren’t talking to their family members, friends, it’s insane. We should try to have some values or morale. Like, don’t be bigoted. Give everyone an equal opportunity. American could be so beautiful, but I feel like it is turning really ugly.

Have you always had a passion for singing and songwriting?
Yes! Obviously, you know I was in God-des and She, and She is such an incredible singer that I kind of never wanted to take my stab at it. I love melody and rhythm equally, I just never really tried to sing because I kind of felt like I’m just going to rap, but I feel so empowered because I can make all my own beats now, and I have always done all my own writing. Now, I can also sing my hooks if I want to sing. It has been such a cool evolution for me. I feel like I am writing the best music now that I have ever written.

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You are widely known for your activism within the LGBTQ community. Why is that so important to you?
When I started rapping, I literally thought I was the only gay rapper in the world that was out, and I felt like gay people didn’t have a voice. I just felt like I needed to speak the truth about the experience of being queer in a public way so that it could make people feel okay with themselves and not feel ashamed if they were struggling. We didn’t have mentors to look up to. That is obviously changing now, but I feel some other successful gay folks are not talking about our struggles, and that is okay, but they haven’t gone away. They have just changed, and I never want to lose sight of that. I do this for our community, I hope everybody love the music, but I need to empower gay people because we do not have many people that have stepped up and tried to do that.

You have hit on why this election is so important, but unfortunately, many people still believe that their vote does not matter. In the 2016 election, over 100 million people did not vote. What more do we need to do to change this perception?
It sickens me and makes me so mad because I think Trump only won by 77,000 votes in the entire country. That is just unacceptable. Women and people of color have fought so long to just be able to vote, and I think it is disrespectful to not exercise that right. I think it is ridiculous to think that you can just not do it and the world is going to change. It’s not only voting for the president; it’s voting on your very local level. It’s getting involved in your community. That’s like saying that anything you do in life doesn’t matter because you are just one person. Well, one person figured out how to fly airplanes. One person got us to the moon, you know?

I understand the frustration if you feel like the government has never served you. I understand if you have been marginalized your whole life and you feel like it doesn’t matter who is there, but I can assure you that your life is going to get worse if we do not get Trump out of office. That I can assure you. Also, if we just flipped the Senate, that alone will be so huge for things. You may not personally feel like your taxes got cheaper or you have a lot more access to things, but over time, those law changes affect your community. They will trickle down to you and affect your kids and the generations after that. We just have to be more compassionate and realize that our votes actually do matter, and if we held our politicians accountable, things would be different.

I do not agree with just having a two-party system, and I know we have Libertarians and Independents, but they are not a realistic option at this point. Why are we not fighting more for that? Why can somebody get on the Supreme Court and be there for life? Why can senators keep running and be there for 40 years? The Constitution needs to be revamped. It was very prevalent for the time that we found America, but things have progressed so much, and we have so many people in so many different cultures and so many different needs. I really think we need to take a hard look and how we structure our society and try to be a little more compassionate and take care of our people.

“Living in America” is now available on Spotify, iTunes, and all other digital streaming platforms. To stay-up-to-date with God-des, make sure to follow her on Instagram.