Dope Saint Jude

South African rapper and producer Dope Saint Jude builds her own instrumentals, supplying an ideal foundation for her singular delivery. Catherine Saint Jude Pretorius entered the world in Cape Town and encountered obstacles immediately. Refusing to yield, she spearheaded activity in the local drag circuit by performing as Saint Dude, a drag king loosely modeled on Lil Wayne. The moniker Dope Saint Jude surfaced in 2013. After initially testing tracks from outside producers, she chose instead to handle all production duties herself in order to maintain complete artistic authority. Evidence of that effort surfaced in 2017 with the debut EP Reimagine, which drew notice from an international audience; M.I.A. subsequently selected Jude for an H&M campaign. The follow-up EP, Resilient, reached a still-broader listenership in 2018, propelled in part by the track “Grrl Like.”