Let there be no lingering doubt that D.C. rapper RAtheMC is dedicated. A former “X-Factor” contestant and the first signee to D.C.’s House Studio label, Ra is also a hardcore runner and a fount of new material. If you didn’t see her pop up on local music blogs somewhere in the last year, you probably read them with your eyes closed.
How does she make it all happen? Ra would probably say it takes hard work, yes, but the kind tempered by business sense.
“The first time you get paid for doing what you love, that’s when you know—you feel like you’ve made it. Can’t nobody tell you nothing after that first check,” Ra says in a recent video interview. “But then the first show where you actually gotta pay somebody—you know, you getting paid, but you got a band playing for you, or you got background vocalists—that’s when things start to get put into perspective. That it’s not just gonna be a bunch of partying, you gotta be on top of things.”
RAtheMC hammers home that message in “Put In Work,” her new, pugnacious track produced by House Studio’s P. Murph. But she makes ample time for boasts: “I’m Wu-Tang with a girl in it/Rolex with a pearl in it,” she raps, building up to an anthemic chorus that demands (albeit literally) your handclaps. This sounds like work, for certain—but it’s no chore.