It's been five years since Rapsody dropped her last album, Eve, but now she's gearing for the release of her forthcoming project, Please Don't Cry. Speaking to Billboard, she says the new album is her most vulnerable one to date.

"It's supposed to be ironic, right. It's Please Don't Cry, but the real message is please do cry," she explains. "Allow yourself to be human, allow yourself to feel, to sit in your emotions, to grow from it. And think of all the reasons that we do cry."

"Of course, we cry when we’re sad, but we cry when we’re happy, too, and joyful," Rapsody continues. "And we cry when we’re in love. It’s just about allowing yourself to really be imperfect and embracing the human that you are."

Rapsody had an idea for the follow-up to Eve years ago, but was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in emotions she eventually let out in her music.

"Everybody having to sit with themselves, be alone, the volume of the world turned down and everything internal turned up. You have some healing to do, you have a lot of growing to do and evolving," she said of the pandemic. "I started working on three albums at one time. I'm thinking Eve is done, I know which one I want to do next, but then I had this other idea, but then I'm feeling so much emotionally that I need to purge."

At the end of the nearly four-year process, she'd recorded 360 songs. "I had a lot to say, I had a lot to get out. But I was relearning myself," Rapsody says.

Fans can hear some of Rap's thoughts on Please Don't Cry, arriving Friday, May 17.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.