The Work

Album: Tantil Before I Breathe (2016)
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Songfacts®:

  • This is the first single from Tantil Before I Breathe, Speech Debelle's first album in four years. During her hiatus from music, the rapper curated a London-based exhibition of art produced by prisoners and appeared on BBC's Celebrity Masterchef.
  • Debelle explained that the song addresses "having some sort of awakening in whatever form that may come in; whether it's about who you're around, what you want to change in your life, or having some sort of a breakdown. Which I had - which was the unraveling."

    "I realized I had to be broken for the light to come in," she added, "and that process is the blossoming to me, a form of expansion. This song is about waking up and being grateful for the opportunity to f--k some more things up, cry and then laugh."

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