Linda Sol didn’t plan on being a rapper. The twenty-six-year-old Humboldt Park native had always liked to sing, but in her early years, she turned to writing poetry and playing the guitar instead. As she started to find her voice, though, those lines began to rhyme—and in time, those rhymes became raps.
In high school, Sol found her footing in poetry slams and music programs such as Louder Than a Bomb, where she developed her craft around the city under different mentors and emcees. By the time she began her first year at Stanford University, she’d come into her own as a songwriter.
In 2022, Sol released her debut album, Growing Pains, and in 2025, she dropped her sophomore album, MOTH (Matters of the Heart). For Sol, the album signified two major things for her: a time in her life where she explored the darker sides of herself, and that served as “a flip side of [her] that she was exploring.”
The Weekly caught up with Sol to discuss her musical journey, the inspiration behind her sophomore album, and what’s next.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
How did you get started with making music, and how has it fit into your life over the last few years?
I wanted to sing at a young age, but I developed an insecurity around singing because there was somebody who told me I couldn’t sing. I stopped singing, but I was still very creative. I started writing poetry and playing guitar, and that poetry evolved into music. By high school, I was around a lot of emcees. In the summer programs I was in, my mentors would call out that I would rhyme a lot, and by the next summer, the program grouped me with rappers. I grew up with many musical influences, [but] I didn’t know I was really rapping until it was brought out of me. It was like a seed that was watered by the emcees and mentors around me.
By the time I went to Stanford, I had one song out [but I] considered myself a poet. People would call me a rapper on campus, and I’m like, “I’m not a rapper, I’m a poet.” It makes sense, because I would sit at a bench, put on a beat, write, and rap, but it was more of a fun thing that I wasn’t taking seriously. In freshman year, it started to snowball when I did a little rap of sixteen bars at the pregame party.
Then, I had a bit of a low-key college scandal. Long story short, I got into an altercation with the Stanford College Republicans, and this situation landed me on Fox News, CNN, Washington Post, and other outlets, where they were pressing charges on me for assault and battery. I didn’t do it, so they dropped the charges, and I dropped a diss song. It was my second song I had dropped, and I didn’t mean for it to kick off my rap career, but what I knew was that I processed [all of that], musically and was like: “When they drop the charges, I’m dropping this shit and using it to my advantage.”
So I did, and it solidified my identity as an artist on campus—because at that point in time, I didn’t even have my stage name yet. I started opening for people, doing poetry mixed with covers, and rapping the two songs I had. So, I was making music to try to keep up with the shows I’m getting booked for, and then I was like, “I need a stage name!” so then Linda Sol was born.
I want to move to MOTH now. Can you tell me more about the storytelling on that album and its overall production and creation?
I created a lot of songs from mid-2023 to mid-2024, but I didn’t realize I was writing a project until I sat down and said, “Maybe I should drop a project.” I looked at all these unreleased songs and realized what I was going through at the time was naturally coming out of my music in a sonically cohesive way.
MOTH stands for “Matters of the Heart,” and it’s special to me because it signifies the time in my life when I had to explore the darker sides of myself to re-emerge as a stronger woman. I went through a lot that made me realize I had too low standards. I was putting up with people, jobs, and situations that didn’t benefit me, and I dealt with a lot of people-pleasing. I felt like I was always up against the grain in this uphill battle, no matter what I did. MOTH was my experience in that.
What else can you tell us about the production of MOTH?
Wrapping up this project was me trying to get to the last stage, re-emerging from this cocoon. While I was making MOTH, I was in my room recording and writing these songs—and, I looked around one moment and realized: This is my cocoon, this is my comfort zone, and I am ready to break out and move on to the next phase of my life. Also, your mid-twenties are [this time] where you’re going on this roller coaster, where things don’t really make sense. You’re shifting within yourself, and the ground doesn’t feel solid beneath you. So this project is processing that and setting a direction—by the end of the project, when I’m doing “OTW” and “Too Fresh,” I was channeling who I wanted to be coming out of the cocoon.
It’s also about the dark feminine and the shadow work. I chose the symbolism of a moth because moths represent your intuition, and specifically focused on the Luna moth—because, first, it’s beautiful, and second, it represents divine femininity within those darker powers. I also realized I had chosen that moth specifically without realizing luna to moon, sol to sun, and it being this flip side of me I’m exploring. There are so many little intricacies.
I recorded most of the project in my room, and then I re-recorded a lot of it in a studio to do it the right way. What I found was I couldn’t always recapture that moment that I had in my room in my own element, and I ended up using a lot of home stems and studio stems to make the final masters. It was a frustrating process, in the end, trying to get the masters of each song.
The production was led by a mix of producers that I know in Chicago and one from Atlanta. A few of the beats are from YouTube Beats—which, I hate that I’m still buying basic leases on YouTuber beats, and I’m hoping to build more connections with producers as I’m finding my sound. When you’re finding a beat online, they don’t make that with you in mind, and you’re fitting in their world!
What message do you want to convey with MOTH? How does it stand out from your previous works?
Most of my projects and songs always tell the same story. It’s always some sort of self-evolution and introspection. I would say the main message of MOTH is to recognize when you’re in a cocoon, and when it’s time to come out of it. Although when it comes to music and art in general, I like the message to be left up to the audience. What it meant for me was the process of experiencing my own highs and lows in that part of my life. And what I want people to take away is whatever resonates in their process of self-discovery.
How do you stay grounded and motivated in your career as you produce and create new music?
I’m a mentor and teaching artist with different youth organizations, like Collaboraction [Theater Company], and Guitars Over Guns, and will be working with [Roberto] Clemente Community Academy. Working with high schools is a full-circle moment for me, because it was around that age that I stepped onto the stage. At fourteen and fifteen, I ended up in Louder Than A Bomb, slam poetry, and open mics, so being able to cultivate and help guide the voices of young artists is really inspiring to me. When I see that fire sparking in them, it re-sparks my fire in a way I could lose in the day-to-day.
Now, for more fun questions, what’s the most unexpected place you’ve found inspiration for a song?
I like being solo at the beach, but I mostly write in my bedroom. I do like to write in spaces that have a social buzz, like I would write here [Soho House] with people talking around in the cafes. Right now, I’m trying to focus more on the discipline of writing daily. I get a lot of creative bursts, and I’ll pull up my voice notes and put them in a flow, so I need to work on that more. Wherever there’s a creative buzz, it’s easy for me to write because something about drowning other people out helps me focus.
What’s your go-to song in karaoke? Are there any songs that have been stuck in your head recently?
For karaoke, “Before He Cheats” by Carrie Underwood… And on the flip end of the spectrum, uh, “Dani California” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. For a song that’s been stuck in my head, “MR. MEDIA” by Tyla.
Lastly, what’s your favorite hip-hop era?
2010 to 2018 was a dope era. For Chicago specifically, it was an amazing era for hip-hop. We had drill and bop music that took globally, but then on the flip side, the open mic and more creative scene saw more of that conscious space. You had Kanye, Chance, Saba, and Pivot Gang. The momentum in the city at the time was amazing to witness, especially as a creative.
Stay tuned with Sol’s journey by following her on IG, X/Twitter, and TikTok at @_lindasol to keep up with the latest updates on her performances and new releases.