Sammus
⤏ ENONGO LUMUMBA-KASONGO IN CONVERSATION WITH AMINDI FROST
⤏ PHOTOS BY JESSE RIGGINS | MAKE-UP BY MEREDITH MARSHALL | STYLING BY JESSE RIGGINS
⤏ ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 2019
In the Summer of 2016, I was 16. I was asked to perform at Junior High; it was my first real show that wasn’t in a backyard. It was then that I met Faye (boss bitch at Junior High). When the Summer was over, she asked me to assist her with a music video for a rapper I’d never heard of before — Sammus. Once I met Sammus, I literally felt my heart change. I have never met anyone like her. I was just so amazed at her effortless duality — her rap persona paired with a PhD from Cornell are among her multi-hyphenates. Her song “Mighty Morphin’” is a perfect explanation of the kind of human she is:
“I’m not one thing / I’m not two things / I am more things / Than I’m reporting / I’m mighty morphing.”
AMINDI: The basics. Who are you? Where are you from? How would you describe what you do?
ENONGO: My full name is Enongo Lumumba-Kasongo. I grew up in Ithaca, in upstate New York. Now I live in West Philly with my fiancé — who will be my hubby by the time this is published! I’m probably most known for my creative work as a rapper and beatmaker: Sammus. But when I’m not rapping or making beats I’m lowkey an academic. This past summer I successfully defended my doctoral dissertation and received my PhD after eight years at Cornell University. I was also recently hired as a postdoctoral fellow at Brown University in the music department. I’ll basically get paid to discuss and work on my music, teach students how to rap, and bring all my dope-ass rapper friends to Providence to share their skills. I’ve been telling everyone that I feel like I pulled off the scam of the century, because it doesn’t make sense that this gig even exists and that I was somehow hired for it!
A: You just became a doctor! You are the only doctor-rapper-producer that I know of, and the fact that you’re a first generation, Black woman on top of that makes my heart swell. What made you choose to take on that journey?
E: Thank you so much! For the first few weeks after I’d successfully defended my dissertation and turned in all my paperwork to graduate I would wake up feeling like the whole thing was just a fever dream. It’s taken a minute to fully accept that I actually completed something I honestly thought I would never finish. As for the field in which I received my PhD, it’s called Science & Technology Studies, and it’s a neat interdisciplinary field that focuses on the study of science and technology as social constructs.
When I decided to get my PhD it was mostly because I didn’t know what else I could do after surviving a failed stint as an indie musician. At the time — 2010 — I was living in Houston, I had just started rapping, and I was convinced that if I could just use the money I had saved from working to support myself while I committed to music, I would come out as big as Beyoncé. About three months later I’d written a few songs, but I was totally broke, stressed, dealing with chronic health issues without any health insurance, and I realized that I really wasn’t about that life. So after a little bit of soul searching I came up with the idea to apply to grad school because I’d always been good at school. I love learning, and both my parents are professors! Even after my music began to play a bigger role in my life and net me more money than I was being paid through academia, I mostly stayed in school out of fear that my success as a musician was a fluke. With each year, I justified staying in the program by considering the sunk costs and how much I would let my parents down if I dropped out. And by the time I was six or seven years in I had been hate-tweeting about my PhD and discussing my journey at shows and in my music so much that quite a few other folks were starting to get invested in my success. I began to feel like completing my dissertation and earning my PhD was something I owed the community. And because adding “Dr.” and “PhD” to my email signature is high-key such a tight flex.
“I mostly stayed in school out of fear that my success as a musician was a fluke.'“
A: Now that your dissertation has been completed, have you had time to jump back into creating music or is academia still at the forefront? I can’t wait to hear what you create after this chapter; I feel like you’ve been working towards this goal since I met you and to see it achieved is so incredible!
E: You know, I thought I was going to dive right back into working on music the day I turned in my dissertation, but honestly all I’ve really been doing is sleeping, catching up on Netflix, and wedding planning. I didn’t realize how depleted I was until I finally had a moment to breathe. Before putting out new music I want to have spent some time getting to know myself again, eating things I like, visiting cool places outside of tour.
A: What kept you grounded through this whole process? Did you ever doubt yourself?
E: I would say that building a life as an artist saved me during the process of completing my PhD. Because academia normalizes — and even celebrates — many unhealthy, antisocial behaviors and the nature of academic work often requires people to isolate themselves; many people in the academy begin to feel like their only value is in their scholarly output and their perception among other academics. Because I had my foot firmly planted in this other universe, I was often able to remember that there’s a whole world outside of school and my value doesn’t have to be tied to my ability to sound really well read and brilliant all the time.
I would also add that having a community of other academics who supported me was really important. I’m a huge introvert, so I didn’t necessarily get energy by being super social, but it was so nice to have people check in on me who understood the unique contours of this hellish process. I worked with a dissertation writing coach, Dr. Deb Al-Najjar, and she so often helped me to push past moments of deep anxiety and my persistent doubt. And of course my fiancé was my number one supporter, and he always reminded me that whether I had the PhD or not, I would still be the same great person.
A: One of my favorite things about you is the origin of your name—can you tell that story and why you chose to call yourself “Sammus”?
E: Samus — with one “M” — is the protagonist of the classic Nintendo video game Metroid, which I played with my older brother when I was a kid. It’s not clear what Samus looks like as you’re playing the game because the character is rocking a big armor suit; pretty much the only thing you know is that this person is badass and that they sport a massive arm cannon. Once you beat the boss of the game, the armor suit comes off and you learn that Samus is a woman! This reveal might not sound like a big deal in a contemporary context, but at the time that I was playing Metroid there weren’t a lot of playable women characters. And one of the fiercest characters in the Nintendo universe was a woman! When I grew up and started making beats, I took on the name Sammus because men would often ask me who made my beats or who helped me to make them, of course implying that I couldn’t have been the one to produce them. I felt that in the same way Samus’ gender identity had been a revelation to players in the 1980s and 1990s, my identity was often a revelation to the men who assumed that somebody was producing my beats for me.
“There’s a whole world outside of school and my value doesn’t have to be tied to my ability to sound really well read and brilliant all the time.”
A: What were your favorite video games growing up? Are they the same as your favorite video games today?
Growing up I had a few favorites. Definitely Sonic the Hedgehog, Mario RPG, Metroid, Final Fantasy VII, and Metal Gear Solid are my fave games of all time. I used to be obsessed with some lesser known games like Parasite Eve and Brave Fencer Musashi, but I never really talk about those because people never know wtf I’m talking about [laughs]. As for my favorite video games today, I don’t really have any new ones. Once I started pursuing music professionally while working on my dissertation I stopped having time for much else. But now that I’m done with my dissertation I’m trying to get back into gaming, mostly with retro games like the ones I just named. I do have some friends who are trying to bring me into the 21st century so my hope is that by 2020 I’m going to have a laundry list of dope contemporary games that I’ve been able to get into.
A: I’ve actually been talking recently with my friend about creating my own video game one day, and it’s been making me think of stages in my life as levels. How many levels would you say you’ve gone through so far? Have you found any “cheat codes” that have made life easier to navigate?
E: I love this question so much and I would so play the Amindi K. Frost video game! I’m 33 years old so I would say I’ve gone through 33 levels. It feels like every rotation around the sun is filled with all the same challenges you’d find in any good game — dodging bad guys and other pitfalls, keeping your health up, rescuing your friends, all of that. One of my favorite cheat codes — and this is definitely spoken as somebody with the luxury of doing work that allows me to honor a somewhat regular sleep schedule — is sleeping when I’m tired. I don’t drink coffee to stay awake because I really believe in listening to my body, especially as I’m getting older. I’ve made a lot of poor decisions on a lack of sleep. If I find that I’m consistently feeling like I’m not well-rested, it means I’m doing too damn much and I need to reprioritize. Also learning to say, “No” unapologetically has been pretty clutch. The last thing I’d say is deleting social media when I don’t have to be on it to promote a show or a song or something. That has been life changing. It’s made me a lot more present and a lot less anxious.
A: Switching gears, where are your parents from? Was it a struggle getting their support when you began music? I know your brother was in the Gym Class Heroes. Are there any other musicians in your family?
E: Like you, I’m first gen. My dad is from the Democratic Republic of Congo and my mom is from the Ivory Coast. For some reason I recall you saying your name is actually Ivorian? It’s been so beautiful watching your journey not only because your music is obvi fire, but also because I know you have a deep understanding of what it means to pursue music as a first generation Black artist. Your ideas of success and personal growth are often framed as directly oppositional to the ideas of our parents even when we’re not trying to challenge them. As for other musicians in my family, my younger brother is lowkey a dope computer musician. When we were younger, both my brothers and I were always humming songs and using our cassette player to record original tunes that we made on the keyboard. Without them, I doubt I would ever have even thought about making music.
A: One of my favorite songs by you is “1080P.” It’s up there with “Song About Sex” and “Comments Disabled.” I’ve been blessed enough to see you perform it on numerous occasions, and each performance has hit me right in the chest. In that song, you are so vulnerable with demons you’ve battled. I’ve seen you cry after performing it and then explain that you are just happy to not be in that place anymore. Asking for a friend (me), what steps did you take to achieve that state of mental clarity? Do you ever have moments when you’re at less than 1080P? How are things different now versus three-and-a-half years ago, when it was released?
E: First I’ll say that I’m definitely still a mess on a lot of days! There are many, many days when I feel like I’m at less than 1080p. I think one thing I’ve learned in the process of trying to get my mental health in order is that being out of a very dark space doesn’t mean that you won’t struggle again. But I am also so much more prepared to deal with the lows when they come around than I used to be. The most important step I took to achieve some measure of mental clarity was definitely going to therapy, period. So many of the things that I shared with my therapist and eventually in my music were things that I had never expressed out loud — even to my very closest friends. It was completely unsustainable and I was coming apart at the seams. Beyond that, I would say being more honest with people in my life about my limitations has helped me to feel so much freer. For example, I mentioned that I’m a huge introvert. The old me used to feel like I had to be social to be accepted by my friends and that there was something wrong with me because I felt so drained being around people I knew that I liked. But letting people know that I’m not someone who can hang out every day, or talk all the time has taken so much pressure off me and my relationships. I know that anybody who’s going to make me feel bad about being that way, or doesn’t respect that boundary is not someone I can really invest in.
A: What can we expect from you soon-ish? Be it a song or a selfie. What’s next for Sammus?
E: I’m working on my next album! I already have the album title and I know it will be eight songs. And I even have a few songs roughly recorded. I vowed not to come back to social media until I had new music so the next time I post a selfie, that means new music is on the way.
A: Last question: how are you so beautiful and amazing and inspiring and cool?
E: It’s because I listen to a lot of music from artists like you!
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