“I’d write a song down and then try to follow the format,” says Abner, who now performs under the name Prowess the Testament. “I remember going to show [my cousin] all these lyrics I wrote out — and he pulls out his book and there’s literally the same thing.”

At that point, there was no looking back.

Now an experienced emcee, Abner has a writerly style and a fascination with the ancient and divine. Her artfully constructed lyrics betray her lifelong experience as a writer — and her verses are eclectic, touching on cosmology, philosophy, Egyptology and folklore.

All these elements rise to the surface on Prowess the Testament’s new single, “Alpha Centauri.” In the song’s video, the Laurel, Maryland, rapper articulates her visions in a grimy setting — she posts up in an alleyway, standing before some of D.C.’s finest hip-hop artists: Enoch 7th Prophet, MC Logic, Ardamus and The Cornel West Theory’s Tim Hicks, who also produced the song.

Abner says “Alpha Centauri” is about breaking out of conventional thought. “Much of my point was to remove that compartmentalized thinking that separates art and science into separate vocabularies,” she says.

With its Kung Fu movie samples and breakbeats, the production on “Alpha Centauri” harks back to the golden age of Wu-Tang Clan. Abner’s delivery steadily grows in intensity before the beat cuts out, pausing for Beethoven’s “Für Elise.” The moment is layered with meaning.

“It is intended to represent a deafening silence in the song,” Abner says. “Beethoven allegedly composed [‘Für Elise’] while nearly deaf. Scholars have been hypothesizing for years over who ‘Elise’ is… I like to think that Beethoven’s muse was simply the stillness of silence.”

Abner began releasing music in 1999 under the name Naiea. But the initial experience was overwhelming and left her burnt out. She moved to Africa, where her passion for hip-hop followed her in an unexpected way.

“I remember waking up in Kenya to Jeru the Damaja,” Abner says. “I’m in the hills… 2,100 meters above sea level, and ‘One Day‘ is blasting out of the compound… I literally fell out of the bed laughing.”

Abner returned to the U.S. and began making music under the name Prowess the Testament, a name given to her by hip-hop elder statesman KRS-One. “Alpha Centauri” is her second single overall and the first from her new EP, Air​.​Human|Breath​.​Divine, officially out today.

In May, Abner drops another EP, called Right Where I Left It. She also hints at other surprises down the line, like an upcoming show with the Hip Hop Unforgettable Tour and a legendary boom-bap artist.

“I can’t give away any secrets just yet,” the lyricist says, “but I can promise it will be epic.”

Prowess the Testament’s new EP is available on Bandcamp.

That intensity is in full force on “G.O.D.,” a track from The Cornel West Theory’s new album Coming From The Bottom, as Dobbins and vocalist/producer Tim Hicks discuss drone warfare in photorealistic detail.

“I decided to address an issue that most MCs are afraid to,” says Hicks. Dobbins is on the same page. “It’s a very troublesome feeling when you see society entering a digital-militant state.”

The duo pulls no punches on “G.O.D.”: Citing present facts, they forecast a grim future deprived of safety and privacy. The song’s video drives the point home with war footage, clips from sci-fi films and images of world leaders like Benjamin Netanyahu and Barack Obama — or as Dobbins calls him, “the drone president.”

Notably, the song features vocals recorded over the phone with journalist and activist Mumia Abu-Jamal, who’s spent the last 33 years in prison, charged with a murder that many say he did not commit. A chilling sample of Abu-Jamal uttering “drones” punctuates the song’s anxious verses.

Hicks says he’s been in touch with Abu-Jamal since 2013.

“I became totally absorbed with his cause and the issue of his freedom, and began tracking down people within the movement to get him released,” Hicks says. “I have spoken with him both through letter and occasionally by phone. I’m a friend of his family.”

Abu-Jamal is one of several prominent activists and artists on Coming From The Bottom, the group’s first full-length since 2011’s The Shape Of Hip-Hop To Come. Other appearances include rapper Chuck D, community organizer Rosa Clemente and film director Melvin Van Peebles, who is credited with inspiring the project.

“[Van Peebles] told me to make an album that people have to hear, not one they want to,” says Hicks.

“We wanted to make a scathing album that was conscious and brutal,” says Dobbins. “People have been stuck in glam-hop since Bush was in office. We were like, it’s time to behead n****s.”

Nationwide this week is called Banned Books Week. At the D.C. Public Library, it’s called “Uncensored.”

Banned Books Week was established in 1982 to raise awareness of books that people want off the shelves. It’s not an issue limited to the McCarthy era — even now, parents, leaders and various interest groups rally to censor or remove books from libraries for all kinds of reasons. But the D.C. Public Library widens the scope of Banned Books Week, looking at any form of expression that’s been challenged, including music.

That’s why the library has made a playlist for Banned Books Week two years in a row, says Maggie Gilmore, a librarian in DCPL’s adult information services division. This year, the D.C. Public Library Foundation asked her to compile a list of songs with a dual theme: censorship and D.C. music.

Gilmore consulted her fellow librarians for ideas and solicited input from attendees at August’s D.C. Record Fair at Penn Social. This is the resulting playlist, streamable via Spotify and YouTube, below:

Bad Brains, “Banned in DC”
Chain & the Gang, “Free Will”
Parliament, “Chocolate City”
Chuck Brown & the Soul Searchers, “Run Joe”
The Evens, “Wanted Criminals”
The Cornel West Theory, “DC Love Story”
Ice-T, “Freedom of Speech”
Coup Sauvage & the Snips, “Don’t Touch My Hair” (JD Samson Remix)
Minor Threat, “Straight Edge”
Bikini Kill, “Rebel Girl”
Unrest, “Malcolm X Park”
The Blackbyrds, “Rock Creek Park”
The Roots with Wale and Chrisette Michele, “Rising Up”
Diamond District, “March Off”
Marvin Gaye, “Got To Give It Up”

The playlist comes across as a celebration of outspoken music — not hard to find in this town, Gilmore says.

“[D.C.] is a natural environment for people to discuss political issues,” Gilmore says. Plus, she says, the city’s constantly shifting population can aggravate local tensions.

“With D.C. having so many people moving in and out of the city, there’s always been tension in the various groups that are represented in D.C.,” Gilmore says. She cites D.C.’s signature funk sound as an example. “Go-go has always been challenged by those who may feel it’s obtrusive — and maybe not even the music itself, but the social scene around go-go.”

The playlist debuted at last Friday’s opening party for “Uncensored: Information Antics,” the library’s new exhibit in honor of Banned Books Week. The show remains on view at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library through Oct. 22.

Gilmore says “Uncensored” and this playlist are part of the library’s larger efforts to document and support local expression in all forms. DCPL’s D.C. Punk Archive has been in the works for a year now. Gilmore coordinates the library’s series of punk-rock basement shows, meant to highlight its punk collection. After this, the library focuses on archiving go-go, then jazz, Gilmore says.

“Trying to highlight local music, [D.C.’s cultural] history and current artists — that’s one of the main goals of the basement shows, to provide a space for bands to play,” Gilmore says. “So this was an opportunity to continue on that.”

Related: WAMU’s Kojo Nnamdi Show airs a segment on Banned Books Week Tuesday at 1:32 p.m. Can’t tune in? The segment will be archived on kojoshow.org.

Warning: Some songs contain explicit lyrics.

Via Spotify: