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UNCONTAINED Episode 02.

Part 2 of the UNCONTAINED mini-docuseries. A back-stage look at the AFROPUNK x TARGET UNCONTAINED Artists at AfroPunk Atlanta 2021!

It's been close to a month since we witnessed the return of AFROPUNK's live music festival in Atlanta. It had been over a year since AFROPUNK's community gathered in real life to celebrate music, fashion, art, entrepreneurship, and inspired cuisine of all sorts. The return of AFROPUNK sparked new energy and has been a catalyst for conversations within the black community. With the return of the festival, AFROPUNK brought back their longtime collaborators, Target, to create a platform dedicated to empowering leading women in the arts. Over the two-day period of the festival, fans gathered at the UNCONTAINED stage to enjoy music from artists such as Rico Nasty, Tems, Van Jess, Yung Baby Tate, and Doechii. Platforms such as the UNCONTAINED stage have played an important role in highlighting new talent to audiences who otherwise would have not had a chance to see them due to the lack of live festivals over the past year or so. An example of this is Tems, who had her debut festival performance in the US at AFROPUNK. Over the past year, since her feature on Wizkid’s “Essence”, Tems has been flying the Nigerian flag high, and with the recent signing to Since ’93/ RCA Records, the world has started to notice this shining star. We've seen her trajectory to superstardom and fans have been waiting to see her live and so, it was no surprise to see so much excitement around this incredible act. Artists like Doechii have spent the last 12 months growing their fanbase through online platforms s well as bagging features from artists such as TDE's Isaiah Rashad. Doechii's "Yucky Blucky Fruitcake" currently sits at over 24 million streams on Spotify and has two million views on YouTube, so a platform such as UNCONTAINED was a perfect place to celebrate her.

Another exciting act that fans couldn't wait to see was Yung Baby Tate, who has been putting out work. Following her electrifying performance at the AFROPUNK festival, she was criticized by some people when images of her were shared online. The body-shaming however was quickly slammed by the artist and her fans and quickly turned the hate around to a body positivity campaign. Yung Baby Tate even got support from Rihanna, who DM'd her with some words of positivity.

In case you missed the festival or would like to relive the moments at the UNCONTAINED stage powered by Target, you can catch the performance on www.planetafropunk.com where all the exclusive behind-the-scenes footage will be available. AFROPUNK and Target have put together exciting content which you can enjoy at the comfort of your own home and witness a celebration of incredible women who are leading the music scene right now!
Transcript
00:00I feel like this song was the start of it all.
00:22She was just always that kid that wanted to do something.
00:26Since she was like four years old, she was doing ballet, tap, dance.
00:31I mean, we've always been very active ever since she was little.
00:35Safe space amongst like black people.
00:40Specifically like queer and alternative black people.
00:43I'm excited because I get to perform with black female artists.
00:48And I'm so excited to perform with the girls.
00:56I feel like life was much harder when I was afraid to be who I was.
01:02I realized it's harder not being who I am.
01:04And then when I was who I am, I realized, oh, it's a little bit easier.
01:07It's not easy all the time, but it's easier than living in fear.
01:11Uncontained, how would I define that?
01:13I think that I embody that in my music.
01:15I bounce genre to genre.
01:17I don't really care what anybody thinks.
01:19I can't.
01:20Because it was too much of a burden to care what people got.
01:23The industry kind of puts you in these boxes and categories,
01:26but I don't really care.
01:28I feel safe to do this song.
01:29It's called Black Girl Midbar.
01:32Let me see your spirit fingers.
01:34Let me see those spirit fingers.
01:36Smoke some sort of down the trunk, get your bacon, then you'll come the hallway.
01:53Y'all ready for our next performance?
01:56I saw her backstage, she's looking right.
01:59All right, give it up for my sis, Y'all Baby Tess!
02:14Let women know from a young age, let little girls know, like, it's okay to be 100% you.
02:22Don't feel like you can't wear a freaking bodysuit with your stomach out because you got a little role.
02:29It feels amazing, like, to know that something that I just wrote for me to, like, lift myself up out of a dark space can touch so many people that have never met me, might not ever see me.
02:52Yeah, okay, oh, oh, damn, I just outfit bitches again.
02:57If they wasn't hatin', so how we probably could've been friends.
03:00Ain't no competition, cause they don't got the life.
03:02It's good to be here today and share the stage with so many other black women that are doing the same things I'm doing.
03:09And to be surrounded by so much, like, beautiful black freedom and joy and, like, creativity and expression.
03:19It feels amazing.
03:20And I'm inspired by the other artists.
03:23I'm inspired by people I see in the crowd.
03:26Let's go! Let's go! Let's go! Let's go! Let's go! Let's go!
03:34I think that's punk. Whenever you just make anything yours, like, it's all about the attitude. It's all about your art expressing the attitude that you feel.
03:57Oh, for real? Yeah! Yeah!
03:59I was taught to feel how I feel, keep it real.
04:02I can't express how many times I've looked in the crowd and felt, like, exhausted.
04:07But as someone's singing word for word, I'm just like, I can't even be tired right now. They're too lit!
04:13What! Let's go! Let's go! Let's go! Let's go! Let's go! Let's go! Let's go! Let's go! Let's go!
04:22Let's go! Let's go! Let's go! Let's go! Let's go! Let's go! Let's go! Let's go!
04:26I just feel like right now is such a time for female rap.
04:31I just try to own that.
04:32So, people are always gonna doubt what's new.
04:36It's inevitable.
04:37So just keep going on the path you're going.
04:40Rejection was what made me unapologetic.
04:43It just becomes the point where so many people are,
04:45that's not cool, that's not this, that's not that.
04:48That's what makes you uncontained when like,
04:50you know yourself so well, they can't know like outside
04:53anything tell you like, oh, this is fire.
04:56No, no, this is fire.
04:58I'm fire.
04:59Let's go, one, two, one, two, three.
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