Living Life in 1080p: An Interview with Nerdcore Rapper Sammus

As you may recall, back in October BNP went to Geek Girl Con in Seattle, WA. While there we had the chance to meet and chat with Sammus, aka, Enongo Lumumba-Kasongo, an amazing lyricist and beat stylist with a hard nerd edge, from Ithaca, NY. In addition to 4 discs and numerous singles, Sammus is also an accomplished educator and activist, pursuing her PhD at Cornell University. With a full schedule like that, we were lucky to grab a few minutes with her and talk video games, hip hop, and activism. Her new record, Pieces in Space, is available for pre-order now. Black Nerd Problems: We have about the nerdiest audience out there. So they’ll want to know why you picked Sammus as your stage name? And after that: Which Metroid game is your fave and why? Sammus: Hi fellow nerds! My stage name is a reference to Samus Aran, the main character from the Nintendo video game franchise Metroid. In the video game, Samus traverses the cavernous world of Zebes in search of the evil Mother Brain while covered head-to-toe in an armor suit. When you beat the game, the armor suit comes off and you discover that Samus is a woman. As a kid that was a pretty remarkable moment although I didn’t necessarily know what to do with that sentiment at the time. When I grew up and started making beats, I found that men kept asking me who had helped me to make my beats or whether I had even made them at all (something that happened as recently as last week). So I took on the moniker Sammus (adding an extra …