The Sunday Music Drop is a weekly radio series hosted by the KQED weekend news team. In each segment, we feature a song from a local musician or band with an upcoming show and hear about what inspires their music.
In this episode of The Sunday Music Drop, Oakland’s Jada Imani shares her song ‘Good for the Soul.’
“I made this song in hopes that it could be a song that people could absorb into their being as a sort of balm or a medicine,” Imani said. “Good for your health.”
Her music is influenced by Black music traditions including soul, funk, gospel, R&B, hip-hop and blues as well as music from the diaspora.
For Imani, making music is a way to make sense of experiences that might feel nonsensical. “It’s also my offering,” she said. “It’s the vehicle through which I like to share stories and hopefully try to contribute to a movement for change.”
She also sees the soul of the Bay Area as part of her, and it inspires her creative process. “I have no idea who I would be or what kind of music I would make if I didn’t grow up here,” she said.
She elaborates by adding that she sees self-care as an act of radical resistance, saying, “We’re living under capitalism that gains power through our suffering and our tireless work. Self-care is a really great way to balance out the overwhelm and chaos that we are all experiencing just by being alive in this world.”
Though she says she is shy, she feels like something “magical” happens when she’s onstage. “Performing to me is a deeply spiritual thing and always has a way of making me feel close to a greater purpose,” she said.
“I love the way that the whole room kind of feels like one unified kind of spirit. It’s an amazing way to combat the fear and isolation that we lived through the past two years.”
Imani will be performing at The Chapel in San Francisco on Nov. 12, 2002, at 9 p.m.
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