“My message is for music to be a ministry,” Ebonie Smith tells Ebro in the latest episode of The Message. “What we do as artists, as creatives, as music producers is so fundamentally important to how our society functions. To how people, all people, all human beings understand themselves, their identities, and their creativity. And for me, music making is serious business.” As a producer and engineer, the Los Angeles-based Smith has credits on career-defining albums by Janelle Monáe (Dirty Computer) and Cardi B (Invasion of Privacy). With her own On Imagination, Smith showcases the voices of women from varying disciplines who have inspired—and continue to inspire—her, such as Angela Davis, Roberta Flack, Valerie Simpson, Lori Lightfoot, and Maxine Waters. “They represent lineage,” Smith tells Ebro. “Even though some of them are not necessarily musicians, they're lyrical. They're orators. When you listen to Representative Maxine Waters, she always has a good word. Mayor Lori Lightfoot always has a good word. Valerie Simpson has written a soundtrack of our lives. And it's not just for Black folks, it's for all of humanity. Even some of the younger artists like Flyana Boss, Dawn Richard, Tank from Tank and the Bangas—these [are people] taking the baton and moving the culture forward musically, artistically, with a type of effortless integrity.” For her The Message playlist, Smith has placed tracks from On Imagination alongside selections from Nikki Giovanni, Nina Simone, Solange, and The Beatles—a collection of songs she believes will help listeners blossom into their truest selves. “I encourage any young person to build the spaces where you feel like you can actually be yourself,” Smith tells Ebro. “You have to be able to show up as yourself, because that's the only thing that's going to get you from point A to point B. If you're looking to build a career, authenticity is the thing that's going to get you there. If you don't even feel comfortable in the space, you can't be confident.”