From Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the godmother of rock and roll, to the electrifying Tina Turner, the trailblazing Betty Davis, the soulful Etta James, and the iconic Patti LaBelle, Black women have been instrumental in shaping the sound and spirit of rock and roll from its earliest days in the 1900s to the present. Yet, despite their profound influence and undeniable contributions, their pivotal roles in the evolution of the genre are often overlooked and underappreciated.

Enter Detroit's rock and roll band, We Are Scorpio—a powerhouse duo composed of award-winning poet Jessica Care Moore and dynamic performer Steffanie Christi'an. After years of creative synergy and collaborations, they have finally unleashed their highly anticipated, self-titled debut album. In an exclusive interview with BET, We Are Scorpio delves into the inspiration behind their project, their experience working with co-producer Talib Kweli, and the challenges they face as Black artists in the rock and roll scene.

BET: Your debut album, We Are Scorpio, is here. How are you guys feeling?

Jessica Care Moore: Finally!

Steffanie Christi’an: I'm super excited. Jessica and I have been singing this music, performing this music together for quite some time, so we're really excited for the masses to hear it. 

Moore: Steffanie has independent rock records but was singing with me forever, so it didn't make sense. Both of us toured and were really busy separately. We had the time during COVID. I called her, like, “Listen, this is it. This is the only time we don't have. Let's make this record.’ So we flew to New York and we did it. It's the record I was personally trying to make when I made Black Tea: The Legend of Jessi James. Like, I made a jazz soul project because the rock world record wasn't sounding right. It’s purposely written so that the poetry verses are shorter than what my poems normally would be so it can have this punk rock feel. And then Steffanie is just wailing on the f**king hooks. It's a political record on purpose. It's an album that I want to come from more black women in general. It's an album I want to hear more from us. We are out here, and it's hard for us to get record deals. The record's good. It's a headbanger.

BET: Can you guys talk more about the politics behind the album?

Moore: I mean, “Rock & Roll N**ga” is a song on the record. Anything Black women do is political, for one. But it's a very on-purpose album. Me and Steffanie were like, “Let's come for some heads.” So lyrically, I'm talking a lot of s**t. You know, I'm just personally tired of music that denigrates women only, and that doesn't put us in the power position. And this record puts us in the power position lyrically and vocally. We got a song called “Jim Crow” on the record and that's about dealing with the colorism that’s going on today. “Rock & Roll N**ga” is about being a Black women rock artist. It's a homage to Joy, Kimberly Nicole, Steffanie, and Nona Hendryx, Betty Davis, Tina Turner, Rosetta Tharpe, Grace Jones, and Militia Vox. These are our sisters. The song is saying that we're kind of tired of being treated like niggas in the rock and roll industry. We created this music. We didn't make it great, we actually made it. We created it from the womb. It's our music and we don't get celebrated enough in the genre. I’ve been pushing poetry into music spaces for a long time.

BET: What are some struggles you face as Black artists in the rock and roll genre? 

Christi’an: For me, personally, it's been very difficult because the offer to me has always been, “We'll work with you, but we want you to sing something different. We want you to sing R&B.” I sang rock and roll my entire career. It's not a gimmick. This is what I do. And while I find support with other musicians, there's just no support within the industry. And that's been very difficult because Jessica and I both do this all on our own. We don't have managers. Well, Jessica might have one now, but, I've been doing this all on my own. It’s not an easy job, and I'm still not as far as I want to be. 

Moore: There's not a lot of people I can use as a model. I use this white woman Patti Smith as a model because she is a poet who was a rock artist. She was very famous from the 60s and had some Detroit roots as well, who I found a kinship with just that she was doing rock. But I'm saying, if I was a white girl doing punk rock they would know how to put me in context. They don't say my name and her name in the same sentence, but I do. I know how to put myself in contact. I know what the f**k I'm doing. Everyone else is just catching up, girl. ‘cause we're futurists. Is what it is. 

BET: Talib Kweli co-produced this new project. What was it like working with him?

Christi’an: He’s family.

Moore: Oh gosh, he's been my friend since 1995. I met him and Yasiin Bay in 1995 when I moved to Brooklyn. When I met him he was not a famous rapper. He was working at a bookstore that he would eventually own. He's truly my brother. He's one of my closest friends. He's crazy as s**t, man. We bump heads. We have little debates sometimes about things in the world. Black men and brothers in general in the industry, most of them just trying to f**k you. They're not trying to help you. They're not trying to put your voice out there. They might say, “Oh, Jess, you're dope.” But don't really put any investment into it. And they have the opportunity, they have the stages, they can find some radio play, they have distribution. So when I took my first record to Brooklyn, I let him hear, and he's like, “What you about to do with that?” And I was like, “What you about to do with that?” And that was it. He later called me when I was in Atlanta. He's like, “I want to put your record out.” He was the first male artist, the first person, really, to support my art in that way. I've been an independent poet and book publisher for a long time and have been doing stuff on my own for most of my career. So that was my first push. He got me my first meeting with Pandora. Working with Talib has been positioning. He gives us space. 

BET: Jessica, you’ve been fighting for the Grammy’s Best Spoken Word Poetry Album category for a while. Do you guys care for one when it comes to this project?

Moore: We’re going to snatch up a fucking word Grammy. We plan to be nominated. We're not playing. We're not like pretending like we want it. We actually want it. My friend J. Ivy won it two years in a row. I love you, J. Ivy. Detroit coming to get a Grammy. We hope humbly to be nominated. So if we're just nominated, we'll be happy.