HHBTM Records

Linqua Franqa "Model Minority" LP (2018)

$16.00

Details: Athens, GA based Linqua Franqa released her album "Model Minority" with Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records back in 2018 to local and national acclaim. The album came in three variants, this is the black vinyl. Copies are sold out, so get it here! Snap. This. Vinyl. Up.

Excerpt from Performer Magazine: "Between running for office in Athens, performing as Linqua Franqa, helping to unite the city’s burgeoning hip-hop scene and pursuing a doctorate in linguistics, Mariah Parker, only 26, has zero time. It’s also about to get worse since Parker just won that office seat.

It’s impossible to talk about Linqua Franqa, Parker’s musical alter-ego, without talking about her history of activism, as well as her background as a teacher and organizer. After moving to Athens, Georgia from a small town outside of Louisville, Kentucky in 2014, Parker became active in both the hip-hop scene and various social activist movements, including anti-discrimination marches, DACA protests, and local Women’s Marches. Parker’s passion for activism continued as she founded Hot Corner Hip Hop as “push back against racism and classism in downtown Athens” after venue owners in the downtown area didn’t think hip-hop would bring crowds large enough to make sense financially.

Four years later, Parker’s musical and political lives have blossomed. Her debut full-length as Linqua Franqa (Model Minority, recently re-released on vinyl) earned heaps of local praise for its neo-soul, nineties hip-hop influenced beats and meaningful messages. Franqa’s flow is dense and smooth, boosted by her imaginative use of syntax and storytelling."

Description: "The Model Minority LP is the first full-length release by Athens-based linguist-rapper Mariah Parker, whose scientific fixation with hip hop is obvious in the intricate rhymes she weaves over boom-bap beats. Written and recorded while Parker completed a master’s degree in linguistics at the University of Georgia, The Model Minority LP tells unflinching tales of emotional instability on Up Close and Eight Weeks, drug addiction on Midnight Oil, race and politics on The Con & The Can and feminist swagger on Gold Bike and Raww. Side-B of the album treats listeners to several remixes of previously released tracks as well as new collaborations with Wesdaruler, also of Athens, and DopeKNife, of Savannah. Longtime hip hop heads will hear echoes of nineties New York underground in both her playful vocal delivery and piano-centric, classic R&B-inspired compositions, especially with…Eight Weeks, which tackles sensitive topics of depression, self-injury, and abortion with both ferocity and grace, or …My Civilian Life, which shreds class privilege and falsity in the music business without batting an eye, or…Raw, a playful nod to Busta Rhymes and an anthem for black intellectuals." - HHBTM Records

Grade: VG+ (Cover) / NM (Record)

TRACK LISTING SIDE A:

1. Up Close
2. Eight Weeks
3. Midnight Oil
4. Breathe In
5. The Con & The Can
6. The Good Feels
7. Breathe Out
8. Gold Bike

TRACK LISTING SIDE B:

1. Raw (ft. Wesdaruler)
2. My Civilian Life (Wesdaruler Remix)
3. My Civilian Life (Dopeknife Remix)
4. Midnight Oil (Wesdaruler Remix)
5. Gold Bike (Acapella)