KEXP DJ Greta Rose on Australian producer and DJ HAAi

King Khazm - "Gone Away From Here (feat. Abstract Rude, Moka Only & Myka 9)" from the 2022 album Return of a MAD on Fresh Chopped Beats / MADK Productions. For over 25 years, King Khazm has been using hip hop as a means to amplify not just his voice but the voices of many in the Seattle community. A multifaceted artist, community organizer, performer, and educator, Khazm first rose to prominence in 1995 when he founded MAD Krew, a hip hop crew that quickly evolved into an influential multimedia production company. While his prevalence on the scene has been long-lasting, full projects from the emcee have been slow to be unveiled. His last record, 2016’s Diaries of a Mad took nearly a decade to drop which is what makes his most recent release, Return of a MAD, all the more thrilling. Our Song of the Day, “Gone Away From Here” is a posse cut featuring Canada’s Moka Only and Los Angeles-based rappers Abstract Rude and Myka 9 and produced by Third Eye Bling (an incredible artist name, if I’ve ever heard one). The quartet take their turns on the mic to speak on their experiences with oppression and struggles to live within a racist society. The song comes with a video directed by Will Lemke that sees the emcees in the studio while pulling their influences off the shelves. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

18 Maalis 20224min

Billi Free & The Lasso - "Thrive, Despite" from the 2022 album Holy Body Roll on Mello Music Group. Holy Body Roll, released this March, is a collaborative record between New Mexico vocalist A. Billi Free and Michigan producer The Lasso that leans into the duo’s love for funk, pop, hip hop, and R&B for a record that’s free-flowing and boundaryless. Joined by The Lasso’s studio team made up of saxophonist The Saxsquatch, cellist Jordan Hamilton, and pianist Grayson Nye, Holy Body Roll is meant to serve as a “groove-filled guidebook for healing, the soundtrack to help you move from tear-streaming breakdown to full-body boogie.” Our Song of the Day, “Thrive, Despite,” embodies this both in title and spirit. Led by a jazzy piano line from Nye, the song morphs into a downtempo R&B track that has incredible warmth as A. Billi Free croons, “I know you carrying this weight /This thang so deep can’t touch the base /After you take a little break, get up and face another day.” “We’ve been building this project since late 2020,” explained Free in an interview. “We used this record to process difficult personal/collective feelings and embody the celebration of little victories with honest lyrics, layered vocals and a unique sonic homage to R&B, funk, rock and pop using our shared love of hip-hop as a foundation.” Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

17 Maalis 20223min

Samora Pinderhughes - "Masculinity (feat. Immanuel Wilkins)" from the 2022 album GRIEF on Stretch Music / Ropeadope. GRIEF is more than just an album — it's a third of "The Healing Project," a multimedia effort from composer/artist Samora Pinderhughes, which also includes a forthcoming digital archive and an exhibition, opening on March 24th at the Yerba Buena Center For The Arts in San Francisco. (Watch the accompanying film below, directed by filmmaker Christian Padron, and inspired by the black-and-white photography of Roy DeCarava.) A Juilliard-trained musician, Pinderhughes wrote all the songs on the LP, inspired by artists from the '60's and '70s, like Nina Simone, Bob Dylan, and Curtis Mayfield. He tells Bandcamp, “What I love about Nina’s Pastel Blues, and Dylan’s first three or four records, is that when you listen individually, each song is a whole world about different ideas. But when you put them together, you get a picture of the time period.” Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

16 Maalis 20225min

K.ZIA - "JFMB" from the 2022 album Genesis on Groove Attack. Born in Berlin to a father from Martinique and a Belgo-Congolese mother (Marie Daulne, of the acclaimed Zap Mama), K.ZIA brings a worldliness to her debut full-length, Genesis. Not only does she adopt the alter ego of "Zia," a feistier version of her own self, but she sings for the first time in French, like on today's Song of the Day "JFMB" or "J’Fais Mes Bails." "So I’d translate J’fais mes bails into 'I do my thing,'" she told Essentially Pop. "Zia is someone that lives unapologetically. She knows her values and will not bend herself to try to explain or justify her ways to ignorant or close minded people who criticize and downgrade when they don’t understand the other. That’s the vibe of the song “des fois je fais des choses qui ne sont pas trop acceptés, je connais mes valeurs je ne vais pas m’éxcuser” – Sometimes I do things that aren’t quite accepted, I know my values I won’t apologize for it. While growing up in France very often I was perceived as strange, coming from an artistic background and having grown in foreign countries. Younger, i would try so hard to blend in, and detach myself from all these eccentric traits. Today, I no longer do that, this is what 'JFMB' is about." Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

15 Maalis 20223min

Yugen Blakrok & Kanif The Jhatmaster - "Pedestal," a 2022 single on I.O.T. Records. Hailing from the Eastern Cape, rapper Yugen Blackrok shot to stardom with her 2013 debut album Return of the Astro-Goth, landing three nominations in the South African Hip-Hop Awards for Best Lyricist, Best Newcomer, and Best Female Artist.​ Here in the States, she was a stand-out on 2018's Black Panther: The Album, appearing on the track "Opps" alongside heavy-hitters Kendrick Lamar and Vince Staples. Earlier this year, she returned with the single "Pedestal," which finds her reunited with long-time producer Kanif the Jhatmaster. In a press release, she states: Concepts. Idols. Civilizations. We build and we destroy. ‘Pedestal’ is about building oneself and breaking the mould. Growing, expanding and still remaining true to the spark. The pedestal is a physical framework for the senses. Civilization after civilization, it carries the weight of great symbols and the foundation of cultural and social edifices. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

14 Maalis 20223min

Arlo Parks - "Softly," a 2022 single on Transgressive. This week's Song of the Day were selected by KEXP DJ Kevin Cole, host of Drive Time, in honor of International Women's Month. Re-listen to our kick-off day of programming, and explore articles and live sessions from some of our favorite female artists here. Last year, Arlo Parks - the musical nom de plume of Anais Oluwatoyin Estelle Marinho - released her highly anticipated debut record Collapsed in Sunbeams. The intimate, compassionate lyricism combined with earworm pop musicality made the album an instant classic that was a KEXP favorite of 2021. Parks recently returned with the single “Softly,” which while bubbly and upbeat in tone, is, in reality, a heartbreaking story of a relationship on the verge of cessation. “‘Softly’ is a song about yearning, about how fragile you feel in the dying days of a relationship when you’re still desperately in love,” the Grammy-nominated singer - who’s up for Best New Artist and Best Alternative Music Album - explained in a statement. “The song is about how it feels to brace yourself before the blow of a break up and reminisce about the days where it all felt luminous.” The song was released alongside a video by Zhang and Knight that sees a cityscape disintegrate behind Parks. The directorial duo had this to say about the video: “For us ‘Softly’ explored the idea of wanting something that was once perfect to end in a gentle way, and we wanted to express this using the world surrounding Arlo. We were instinctively drawn to the warm toned, hazy nostalgia of the 1960s, as we loved the idea of something universally romantic being slowly stripped away throughout the film. We based the colors of the bricks, trims and doors on mid-century painting in order to bake this romanticism into everything. The production itself was a huge challenge, as everything was captured in-camera with each piece of the set built on wheels operated by several production crew. However, we knew it was all worth it when we saw the skyscrapers dancing around Arlo for the first time.” Arlo Parks will be in Seattle on Wednesday, March 23rd to play the Paramount supporting Clairo. The 64th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony will be held on Sunday, April 3rd. Watch the video for “Softly” at the link below. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

11 Maalis 20223min

50 Foot Wave - "Staring Into the Sun," a 2022 single on Fire Records. This week's Song of the Day were selected by KEXP DJ Kevin Cole, host of Drive Time, in honor of International Women's Month. Re-listen to our kick-off day of programming, and explore articles and live sessions from some of our favorite female artists here. Two years after the long-awaited 10th studio album from Throwing Muses, frontwoman Kristin Hersh is back with a new record from her heavier side project 50 Foot Wave. Titled Black Pearl, the record is out April 15th and follows the 2016 EP Bath White. Our Song of the Day is Black Pearl’s lead single “Staring Into the Sun.” Joined by Throwing Muses member Bernard Georges on bass and drummer Rob Ahler, Hersh creates a massively lush and gloomy soundscape for their first new music in six years. Featuring throbbing, droney, distortion-filled riffs, “Staring Into the Sun” is 50 Foot Wave at their most metal. Kristin Hersh is doing a long run of solo shows starting this March at SXSW and then jumping over to the UK and Europe into early Summer. Check out a full list of dates here and watch Hersh’s KEXP in-studio session from 2017 at the link below. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

10 Maalis 20225min

Adwaith - "ETO," a 2022 single on Libertino Records. This week's Song of the Day were selected by KEXP DJ Kevin Cole, host of Drive Time, in honor of International Women's Month. Re-listen to our kick-off day of programming, and explore articles and live sessions from some of our favorite female artists here. Post-punk trio Adwaith have announced their sophomore full-length Bato Mato will be out July 1st via Libertino Records, their eagerly-awaited follow-up to their Welsh Music Prize-winning 2019 debut Melyn. The album's first single (and today's Song of the Day) was written the day after performing at the UU.Sound festival in the city of Ulan-Ude, Siberia in 2020. “We really wanted to write a heartfelt song about being infatuated with someone," the band said in a press release. "This isn't something we normally write about and we wanted to approach this song differently to our other ones. We felt inspired to write a big pop song." In fact, the entire album is colored by that impactful trip. Vocalist Hollie Singer shared in a press release, "Our journey through the Siberian and Mongolian wilderness influenced the writing and sound of the album to be as open and big as the limitless sky around us there." Bassist Gwenllian Anthony added, "It was a life changing trip that really inspired us to write this album. The barren landscape and brutalist architecture really seeped into these songs and the use of world instruments was heavily inspired by this journey." Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

9 Maalis 20224min