Hopie is not your average rapper. No, really. First, she independently released her debut album, The Diamond Dame, in July 2008, immediately earning her a nomination for URB’s Next 1000. Then, Hopie did a 180: She went on a musical hiatus to earn a law degree, emerging only to release videos and a T-shirt series, and to perform at Guerilla Union’s Paid Dues music festival. Now, as the ink on her diploma dries, Hopie has returned with back-to-back albums, releasing Dulce Vita in February 2011, and, now, offers Raw Gems. The pint-sized academic has always carved her own path. After a rocky start in Manila, and a difficult childhood in San Francisco, Hopie dove headfirst into music. Hopie is self-taught and classically trained in several areas, including violin, voice, music composition, spoken word, drums and guitar. Still, Hopie’s primary allegiance remains far from the ivory towers of music theory, lying markedly in experimentation with rap. In fact, Hopie’s brand of hip hop is anything but boring or conventional. Raw Gems is an experiment. It's an ode to inventive hip hop, drawing influence form 90s-era underground rap, dubstep and outer space. It's an album made for a hip hop fan by a hip hop fan, boasting features ranging from anointed up-and-comings to pioneers of independent rap. Armed with inventive wordplay & no-holds-barred beatmaking by Hopie's longtime producer, 6Fingers, Raw Gems is sure to prove that 2 years hitting the books hasn't derailed Hopie's left-brained schemes in the least.