Victoria Kioi talks to participatory artist, literary activist, poet, rapper, singer-songwriter and theatre maker Rufus Mufasa about her latest album Trig(ger) Warning(s).
This year, participatory artist, literary activist, poet, rapper, singer songwriter and theatre maker Rufus Mufasa celebrated the launch of her album Trig(ger) Warning(s) in Cardiff.
Those who have been following Rufus’s creative career will have been eagerly waiting for this project, which follows on from her critically acclaimed Flashbacks and Flowers, a ‘survival guide’ and coming-of-age story released in 2021. The album featured reflections on bilingualism, a common theme in Rufus Mufasa’s work, alongside hybridity, hip-hop, bravery, riot and resurrection. I sat down with Rufus to discuss her artistic process.
Rufus Mufasa has made a habit of balancing different mediums and creative hats, all the while also being a parent: ‘I suppose there’s even an activism in the fact that I’m doing all that while being a mother.’ Rufus explains that, as a poet from a young age, she has been building her craft long before motherhood, but adds that becoming a parent has given her work more urgency.
Rufus’ work spans a large range of topics, exploring motherhood, spirituality, ancestry, class, climate chaos, transgenerational trauma, the divine and the domestic, feminism and faith. ‘As I’ve journeyed through motherhood more, I can see that motherhood isn’t represented properly in the arts and I also feel, what am I selling my daughters?’ Rufus explains her drive to embody good motherhood for her daughters.
Following on from Flashbacks and Flowers, Rufus feels that her motherhood and artistry are interlinked: ‘I feel through my artistry, some people might think “she is so selfish, or egotistical”, all those things, when actually it makes me a better mother I think.’ Rufus adds that motherhood feeds her curiosity towards the world, and made her reflect on what was missing from it. ‘Where is my voice in all this?’ She emphasises that she does not want her daughters to equate being a mother with sacrifice, or with giving up on their own creativity.
‘Mothers are the keepers of language.’
When asked if motherhood impacted the themes she explores in her work and if the transition to parenthood disrupted this part of her life, she adds: ‘Sometimes with writing, I’ve had to really learn to practice’. Rufus adds that day to day chores play a part in her process: ‘I found a lot of my inspiration comes from being very practical, very in service and having that faith and trust that ‘it’s not going anywhere.’
Her lyrics often contain an element of storytelling, reflecting on overcoming difficult times in her life and staying the course through faith: ‘I was always a creative person since I was a child, coming from a family that wasn’t one of “officially” educated people’, she explains, before adding that she grew up around ‘phenomenal storytellers’. ‘My uncle John used to tell me everything about what happened underground. The songs they sang, the things they did. I didn’t realise he was talking to me about a lot of politics.’ Brought up between London and Wales, she recalls ‘Going to certain musical clubs in London and meeting different characters, learning new ways people live, being part of a multicultural society, learning new dialect, with new people and stories’.
She explains her attraction to rap though her mother’s singing: ‘My mother doesn’t see herself as a clever person but she is and she must have done pretty good on the old nursery rhymes. Mothers are the keepers of language.’
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Rufus has ties to the church and Gospel Hall Sunday School. When asked if religion is a big part of her work, she says: ‘I think probably even more than I realise myself. It’s complicated.’ She acknowledges that her introduction to creativity comes from growing up in the Gospel Hall Church, she explains: ‘I feel like ‘even now, all I do – writing, creating and whatever – has all come from testimony.’ However, she recounts her experience of being seen at church as ‘a little bit of a problem since the religious framework wasn’t to promote performance’. Even then, she would combine her faith and love of American singer Harry Belafonte, explaining that she would learn prayers and songs at the church and feel the need to give them a ‘Fonte remix’.
Growing up, her religious background helped her find community: ‘there was a Bible college in Penygroes where missionaries from all over the world would gather to pray and attend church. This was my school then.. I was always accepted and allowed to be myself there and learned a library of knowledge about hip hop.’ The college was also her introduction to learning about her own and other cultures and the interplay between them, what we borrow and what is given to us and what was never ours to give.
Her musical inspirations are eclectic, springing from her family (‘My stepdad is very soul, reggae, scar, calypso.’) to hip hop: ‘2Pac was my first ever way in to feminist literature. The things he was talking about in his music were about womens rights, and things that were happening to women. I wasn’t hearing that anywhere else.’ She also mentions other music inspirations such as Bugzy Malone, Jill Scott, Lauryn Hill.
She continues to explain how these influences have shapped her into an artist who doesn’t try to fit in the box of perfectionism to appeal to every publication but instead, into being herself and telling sometimes uncomfortable truths in her music and poetry.
‘It’s clear to me now that everything I couldn’t say before, I channelled it into this body of work.’
She talks about one song on the album called ‘Loco’, and humorously describes it as ‘mystical’ dramatic, fast-paced’ piece where she does not stop for breath. Rufus goes on to explain that a piece of her is always in the real world and the other in a ‘imaginary mythological realm’.
I ask Rufus about her process when creating Trig(ger) Warning(s), and what creative changes and growth have taken place since her last body of work in 2021. She explains it’s been a process of patience, hard work, faith and trust, adding that ‘a lot of things in life as a woman are about power and control and a lot of things in the arts are about power and control.’ In the making of this album, she explains, she had to release control and place faith in the process: ‘I’ve had to really trust the timing of when it’ll be ready.’ Rufus used the creative process that led to the Trig(ger) Warning(s) album to keep finding her voice, and put it in her music. ‘It’s clear to me now that everything I couldn’t say before, I channelled it into this body of work.’ She also hints that some ‘next level conceptual art visuals’ will be following her musical work. She explains that she didn’t think she would be able to navigate life after the pandemic, but explains it also gave her some opportunities in her career.
Finishing with some advice for young artists, Rufus concludes on an optimistic note: ‘have the vision and all the other things will fall into place.’ ‘If you can imagine it, you will create it.’
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