She released her first nationally distributed album, Even Closer, featuring the single 'Closer,' through Hieroglyphics Imperium Recordings. With the help of her family, she formed her own independent label, Skyblaze Recordings, to oversee her musical career. In 2002 she reworked Closer, adding five new songs. 63 on Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. At the same time, she was building a devoted audience through her popular live performances in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2001, she self-released her debut album, Closer, which sold 5,000 copies.

Goapele returned to Oakland after her time at Berklee College of Music, where she concentrated on writing and recording songs. Goapele and Theo Rodrigues have a daughter together, Bahia Osun (born May 2007). She also became involved in various groups and organizations that combated racism and sexism. She attended the Berkeley Arts Magnet School, where she led a pre-teen peer-support group. īoth of her parents inspired Goapele to become very involved in community affairs at a young age. Goapele and her older brother DJ Namane Mohlabane were raised in a California South African exile community. Noa attended Friends World College and was studying in Nairobi, Kenya, where she met and married Douglas. Goapele's New York-born Israeli Jewish mother Noa had been attending protests since the age of 12. Goapele's South African father Douglas Mohlabane was an exiled political activist who struggled against the Apartheid System.

Goapele closer to my dreams