Briston Maroney - Under My Skin

Sa-Roc - "The Black Renaissance (feat. Black Thought)" from the 2020 album The Sharecropper's Daughter on Rhymesayers. The first time Sa-Roc met Black Thought of The Roots, he was pulling her up on stage at the 2014 A3C Hip Hop Festival in front of tens of thousands of people. “We had a mutual friend who’s close to him and had been sharing music or whatever," the Atlanta-based MC remembered to HipHopDX. "He was anticipating meeting us there and Thought, being the Hip Hop icon who went through the fire and came up doing cyphers and freestyles, he completely believed in making sure an MC is up to par with going through that cold trial-by-fire thing. The impromptu performance set the stage for the collaboration on today's Song of the Day. She told ABC Australia: "I knew as soon as I started writing this album, I wanted Black Thought to feature and when [producer] Sol Messiah showed me this track, I was like, 'This is the one.' I have such high regard for Black Thought as an MC and how he elevates lyricism to an extent that's really not seen within the mainstream industry. So, we got on the track, we recorded in the studio, and just went crazy: back and forth bar for bar. So, this is lyricism at its finest." Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

2 Nov 20204min

Rell Be Free - "Paythefeee" from the 2020 self-released album P.T.F.D. Rell Be Free (real name: Jerrell Davis) is a self-described "musician, underground educator, and multifaceted entrepreneur" from the South End of Seattle. A rapper since the age of 12, Davis utilizes his skills to speak out for social justice. He's the Restorative Justice Director and co-founder of the youth organization WA-BLOC (Washington Building Leaders of Change), serves as a Corner Greeter Coordinator for Rainier Beach, and was named one of Seattle’s Most Influential People by Seattle Magazine in 2018. "I’m very comfortable with who I am and so I’m not trying to perpetuate a false image," Davis told the South Seattle Emerald. "When you front, you’ve got to keep it up and I’m not prepared to keep up a façade. I’d rather keep up who I really am. No matter how popular my music gets, I’ve got to remember that it’s really not about me. Honestly, I use music as art, but I really see music as a tool toward revolution – a way to change the material conditions of our people." Watch Rell Be Free perform today's Song of the Day from an event held by Decriminalize Seattle. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

30 Okt 20203min

Harleighblu & Bluestaeb - "Queeen Dem (feat. Janne Robinson)" from the 2019 self-released album She. British R&B vocalist Harleighblu teams up with German producer Bluestaeb on the collaborative album She. On today's Song of the Day, the duo find inspiration in the poetry of Janne Robinson. Harleighblu told Highsnobiety in an email: I wrote the track Queeen Dem (pronounced like ManDem), after being inspired by a poem called 'This is for the women that don’t give a fuck' by Janne Robinson. The poem reads ‘this is for the women who drink too much whisky, stay up too late and have sex like they mean it — it really spoke to me. I tried to capture the strength of the poem, with a nod to Janne and then elaborate with my own take on completely owning your own womanhood. Within writing the first few lines, I entitled the piece 'Queeen Dem.' Queeen gets 3 E’s to accentuate the fact you are a queen. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

29 Okt 20203min

Fugazi - "Burning Too" from the 1989 album 13 Songs on Dischord Records. We have a responsibility / To use our abilities to keep this place alive / Right here right now / Do it. Now. Do it. Since forming in 1986, DC punk band Fugazi have become synonymous with DIY ethics and progressive political perspectives. “I was born in 1962 and I was here in Washington right through the civil rights stuff, the anti-war stuff, gay rights," frontman Ian MacKaye said in a rare interview with Loud & Quiet. “My parents and I went to a church that was radical liberation – very, very left, it had a woman saying mass in 1972, gay marriage in 1974, the Black Panthers spoke there, rock bands played there – it was radical. I was raised in that environment so I thought that’s how society would be. Then the ’70s came along and you had this period of people partying and disco music and such obsolescence, it was such a bummer and I felt so disconnected from it. I was like, ‘where’s the counter-culture?’ It seemed so real to me as a child but as a teenager it was gone.” MacKaye was able to revitalize a conscientious way of life through music. And while the now-legendary group are reticent when it comes to the meaning behind their lyrics, frontman Ian Mackaye's call to action in today's featured Song of the Day is undeniable. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

28 Okt 20202min

Stella Donnelly - "Beware of the Dogs" from the 2019 album Beware of the Dogs on Secretly Canadian. Following the breakout success of her debut EP Thrush Metal, Australian artist Stella Donnelly knew she wanted to use her first full-length, Beware of the Dogs, to address larger issues in the world. "My generation had this 'enough is enough' kind of feeling and a lot of the women I was working with were finding their ways of expressing that," she told Under the Radar last year. "Whether it was my friends who were artists, or in punk bands, or were poets, it just felt like I was part of a community that was speaking out at that moment." With the title track of the album, Donnelly sums it up, telling DIY Magazine: This song is about the historic and continuing racism that flows through the Australian media and government. As a white Australian I am extremely privileged to have the platform that I do and whilst I occupy this space that in my opinion is far too often occupied by white people, I am going to use it to speak up. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

27 Okt 20203min

Noname - "Song 33," a 2020 self-released single. With her first single of 2020, Chicago artist Noname works with producer Madlib to craft a track referencing the murder of George Floyd, Black Lives Matter activist Oluwatoyin Salau, and to, well, call out fellow rapper J. Cole, whose own single “Snow on Tha Bluff” seemed to criticize her social media presence. "i've been thinking a lot about it and i am not proud of myself for responding with song 33," she tweeted. "i tried to use it as a moment to draw attention back to the issues i care about but i didn't have to respond. my ego got the best of me. i apologize for any further distraction this caused." She added, "madlib killed that beat and i see there’s a lot of people that resonate with the words so i’m leaving it up but i’ll be donating my portion of the songs earnings to various mutual aid funds. black radical unity." Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

26 Okt 20201min

Sango - "Eu Vou Passando (feat. Jé Santiago)" from the 2020 album Da Rocinha 4 on Soulection Records. Former Seattleite, current Michigander, Kai "Sango" Wright continues his Da Rocinha series, described as his "love letter to Rio De Janeiro Funk Carioca.” “I’ve always been a person of culture through connecting dots and bridging gaps,” Sango says via a press release. “With the Da Rocinha series, it is about highlighting the history of Funk Carioca and paying homage to the creation of the funk sound. With this fourth installment, I wanted to reach out to the community of Rocinha, local areas in Rio de Janeiro and Brazil to give and receive support while I push this North American & South American sound.” On today's featured track, he teams up with São Paulo-based artist Jé Santiago, known for soulful trap-influenced hip hop. It's “from the people, for the people,” he concludes. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

23 Okt 20203min

Working Men's Club - A.A.A.A. from the 2020 album Working Men's Club on Heavenly Recordings. Yorkshire band Working Mens Club was formed by a bunch of Working Teens last year. Eighteen-year-old frontman Sydney Minsky-Sargeant explains in a press release, "We grew up in northern towns trying to get in to pubs in social clubs because that's all we had. The name is an ode to that. Our surroundings and their differences has influenced us a lot on these tracks." Their self-titled debut album was produced by Ross Orton (The Fall, Arctic Monkeys). Minsky-Sargeant elaborates, “There’s not much going on, not much stuff to do as a teenager. It’s quite isolated. And it can get quite depressing being in a town where in the winter it gets light at nine in the morning and dark at four.” Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

22 Okt 20203min