Psalm One has experienced many triumphs and hardships while navigating a career in hip-hop. Over the past few years, the uprising after the murder of George Floyd, the pandemic, and numerous callouts of unacceptable behavior within the Twin Cities music scene have left many taking stock. The discourse has brought forth new discussions about mental and physical health, and has also provided forums for recollecting past traumatic circumstances leading to calls for accountability, transparency, and safer spaces. With all of that, the work always starts within oneself.

On two new projects, a book and album, Psalm One puts in the work of healing past traumas into a dedicated practice, thanks to therapy, meditation, and investing in herself.

“I try not to put too much ego behind it, but my story is fascinating,” Psalm tells me via Zoom. “I've been through so much, and to be blessed enough to write about that journey is one of my life's greatest honors.”

Earlier this year, Psalm One released the book Her Word Is Bond: Navigating Hip-Hop and Relationships in a Culture of Misogyny. Her new album, titled BIGG PERRM, is set for release on September 2 on Bandcamp via Filthe Analects (with all other DSPs releasing the album September 30). She is celebrating the book’s release locally on Friday, August 26, at Public Functionary in northeast Minneapolis.

But before we reflect on where Psalm is at now, let’s revisit how she got there.

“I come from a long line of seekers of knowledge, including writers, comedians, and singers.”

- Psalm One, Her Word Is Bond

Born Cristalle Bowen and raised in Chicago, Psalm One had a strong family lineage dedicated to the arts and the written word. One aunt was a professional singer, family members sang in the church choir, and another aunt on her dad’s side performed in theater productions. The arts may have seemed like a pre-destined career path, but Psalm chose science.

“I was being pushed into academia more than anything,” she recalls. “When I announced I wanted to be a chemist, my family was like ‘Do that, for sure.’”

During Psalm’s high school studies, she ran into like-minded hip-hop heads, joining crews such as PDX with Open Mike Eagle, Sonar, Rift, Misfit, and Anti-Matter. She later linked with Pugslee Atomz and Thaione, as part of Chicago’s own burgeoning scene with the Nacrobats in college, appearing on the crew’s album All Ways in 2003, and wowing fans and press alike with her solo projects Bio: Chemistry and Bio: Chemistry 2: Esters and Essays.

“Pugslee Atomz is a phenomenal freestyler,” recalls Psalm. “Being around phenomenal freestylers early like Pugslee and Thaione in Nacrobats, made you not only want to come up with dope stuff off the dome, it made you want to come with something even better, because you had time to mull over it, and figure it out. There was always friendly competition like, ‘I'm gonna get you on this song/verse If you don't come with it.’”

One memory that gets significant runtime in Psalm’s book was her first big feature on Casual’s Smash Rockwell album on the song “Bitin’ and Freakin.’” Psalm’s book includes the story of how Casual booked a plane ticket for Psalm to travel to the San Francisco Bay Area. There, she watched Casual work on the beat and they discussed the concept of the song. 

“I've had great sessions, but few would ever even come close to that one,” Psalm says. “That was also my first bigger placement. All of that was happening at once, and forming and forging such a great friendship with Casual, it was such a big boost to not just get validation, it let me know ‘okay, my pen is really strong.’ I've had really good interactions with pretty much everybody in Hiero to this day.”

After that trip, Psalm nearly signed with the Oakland-based Hiero Imperium, before ultimately linking with the Minnesota-based independent hip-hop label Rhymesayers for the release of The Death of Frequent Flyer.

“In 2005, I signed my first record deal, and since 2015 I’ve been crawling out of a hole of depression and abuse. That’s what happened to me. Everything happened to me, fool. And I’m right here. I’m alive and well.”

- Psalm One, Her Word Is Bond

Psalm’s book details the mix of good and bad situations she faced following her Rhymesayers deal. Frequent Flyer and the mixtape Get in The Van, Vol. 2 were released to great fanfare. The former garnered praise from URB Magazine, and The A.V. Club. Despite that, Psalm felt the label gave future projects the cold shoulder and left her without an outlet to release new music, which she outlined extensively in a 2020 Medium article.

However, the hiatus from music that Psalm took would be short-lived. After switching cities from Chicago to the Bay Area, Psalm began tutoring kids, which blossomed into doing work mentoring youth with the ASCAP Songwriter Residency at AmericaSCORES. Thanks to the advent of Bandcamp and other means, Psalm was still able to release music, putting out a slew of mixtapes and singles, along with albums such as 2015’s P.O.L.Y. (Psalm One Loves You) and 2019’s Flight of the Wig.

“I always had some sort of reassurance or some sort of opportunity on the horizon, that when I put my all into it, I get something great out of it,” Psalm says. “Thank God, that has continued to happen throughout my career.”

Tours of Europe and the U.S. with Louis Logic, CunninLynguists, and more, managed to keep Psalm visible to fans. But the toxicity Psalm was experiencing from prior personal and professional relationships persisted, which weighed on her mental health considerably. Ultimately, she made the decision to move to Minneapolis with her partner, Angelenah. Together, they made up two of the four members of the Rapperchicks. Afterwards, both Psalm and Angelenah became known as Big $ilky, and released a trio of projects, the most recent being Big $ilky, Vol. 3 during the summer of 2021.

With Psalm’s book out in the world, she is preparing for what many artists after the music scene callouts of 2020 have failed to do, and that is doing their own healing and work. Out September 2 on Bandcamp via Filthe Analects, BIGG PERRM features beats by Chicago-based producer Custom Made and is Psalm’s return to an independent label. BIGG PERRM tackles that inner healing work on its debut single, “Basement Check” featuring Metasota.

“BIGG PERRM is me doing the work,” Psalm says. “I was writing the album as I was finishing those final edits of the book. So a lot of those ideas of perseverance and triumphing over something really bad, you hear about in BIGG PERRM.”

Alongside Dionne Sims of Black Garnet Books, and Christin Crabtree of the Show Up Collective, Psalm will take part in a community discussion regarding Her Word Is Bond on Friday, August 26. Along with the work that comes with radical healing, and reimagining safe spaces for all, Psalm is very much looking forward to the conversation to not only be about the themes her book tackles, but also how the Twin Cities music scene can rebuild after the scenewide callouts of 2020.

“I expect some very insightful conversations about people who love Twin Cities music,” Psalm says of the upcoming discussion. “Spending four and a half years living in Minneapolis made me more aware of the community in Minneapolis, and how loving folks are and how much we actually do want to care for our musicians and people who bring great shine to the scene. We can't throw people away, but with all the callouts, and the boycott that we experienced, your goal should not be to throw anyone away, but focus on how we can be accountable for ourselves, each other, and what accountability looks like.”

Psalm One in Conversation: Book Launch Event (co-sponsored by Black Garnet Books). 6 p.m.-9 p.m. Friday, August 26, 2022 at Public Functionary, 1500 Jackson St. NE Studio 285, Minneapolis. Info