Toronto artist SuKha Never Dies is a force to be reckoned with on “Goddess.” The single comes from her 2020 mixtape, but was recently updated with a mesmerizing music video. Both song and video find SuKha embracing her power and playing with the racist and sexist tropes that have been used against her, subverting the image of a male god as she tells the listener: “I’m a goddess/ prodigious process/ mind on a scale, of no losses.” No matter the fight, SuKha is coming out on top.

 

 

 

 

SuKha uses sharp, imagistic language of weaponry and bloodshed to convey a fearsome feminine presence.

 

 

Born in Saudi Arabia with Bangladeshi heritage, SuKha’s “Goddess” was written in response to discrimination the artist faced growing up in both Saudi Arabia—where she was denied citizenship due to her background—and Toronto—where she was bullied upon immigrating with her family. The song turns those experiences of disempowerment on their head, as SuKha spits imposing bars over a menacing beat, built around a low horn and a sampled oud. “I’m ‘bout to blow up the sky/ nuclear age,” she raps. Also a fashion designer inspired by goth, anime, and South Asian styles, the video finds SuKha draped in flowing scarves, twirling a sword with elegant confidence. SuKha uses sharp, imagistic language of weaponry and bloodshed to convey a fearsome feminine presence, speaking back to anyone who thinks only men can be warriors or gods. 

 

 

In “Goddess,” SuKha provides her own vision of freedom.

 

 

In an interview with Tom Beedham, curator of Long Winter, Toronto’s inter-­arts series, SuKha explains that the song is also inspired by the double bind of gender and expectations of what liberation is supposed to look like for women. “People think the North American idea of being liberated is to be hypersexual,” she told Beedham, “and Islamic feminism believes in veiling and silence and empowering yourself and your community members.” In “Goddess,” SuKha provides her own vision of freedom, issuing social critiques as she stands firm atop cars and cliffs, arms extended out, her own source of strength, rapping, “I’m a fucking goddess I don’t even need to say it.”

 

 

 

 

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