MINNEAPOLIS — Among the many questions veteran Twin Cities rapper Maria Isa heard last year during her successful campaign to become a new state legislator, the one that always baffled her was, "Are you going to quit your music career?"
The proud native of St. Paul's West Side answered that query resoundingly Tuesday, when she issued a new EP on the same day she was sworn into office at the Minnesota State Capitol.
"Of course I'm going to keep making my music — that's where I get my energy," said the artist now formally known in the Legislature as Rep. Maria Isa Pérez-Vega, DFL-St. Paul.
Playfully titled "Capitolio" — Spanish for "capital" — the new mini-album is a breezy but punchy and just lightly political collection featuring seven short songs, ranging from the proud and poppy Puerto Ricans/Latinas shoutout "My Love" to the classically braggadocios "First Class Flights" to the more fiery and fierce "Lo Que Necesitas." All are infused with her self-dubbed "SotaRico" blend of Latin, Caribbean, reggaeton and boom-bappy hip-hop grooves.
There's also one more track that kicks off the album, titled "Tío Bernie." That one features the most distinctive rapper straight outta Montpelier, Vermont, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, in a candid recording of him encouraging Pérez-Vega to bridge the hip-hop community and state government (captured when Sanders came to Minnesota in October to campaign for Attorney General Keith Ellison).
An integral part of the Twin Cities hip-hop since her late teens, the now-34-year-old educator, activist and mother and producer YMMI ("Yimmy") were working on the new EP right up until last week in order to have it ready to post around Tuesday's swearing-in ceremony. "Capitolio" is available digitally via Apple Music, Bandcamp and iammariaisa.com.
"I had been working on it from the first day I was running for the House, and it's been a part of my campaign trail the whole way," she said.
The point of issuing the EP on what's already an important (and busy) day, she explained: "I wanted people to know I'm still me, still a hip-hop artist and mother and girl from the West Side, and I'm bringing all that with me to the Capitol."
Part of the most diverse roster of new legislators in Minnesota history, Pérez-Vega said she was deeply moved to have her real family there when she was sworn in at the Capitol midday Tuesday, including toddler daughter Loíza, as well as some of her hip-hop family.
"Seeing the Klituation crew there in the lunchroom at the Capitol was really something else," she marveled, referring to the all-female hip-hop dance party team that included Sophia Eris and DJ Keezy.
Noting that most state legislators continue with their personal careers while also serving at the Capitol, Pérez-Vega believes her particular line of work can benefit her new role. Her next gig, by the way, is the governor's inauguration ball on Saturday that she also played four years ago before formally entering politics.
"Music is medication, and we can certainly use that medication in politics right now," she said.
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