A Deeper Listen

Bam Bam was a Black woman-fronted grunge band in Seattle in the early 80s—before grunge was a defined genre. Larry Mizell Jr. tells the story of Bam Bam and the life of frontwoman Tina Bell. He also …

Adrian Younge is a multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer who has just released an album and a podcast for Black History Month. The album is called 'The American Negro' and the podcast is calle…

Femi and Made Kuti are the descendants of Fela Kuti—the pioneer of Afrobeat. They are carrying on the family tradition and have put out a double album together as father and son. They talk about thei…

February is Black History Month, but here at KEXP we're celebrating what we are calling 'Black History is Now.' Instead of relying on the music of legacy acts like those involved with Motown or the G…

London-based TV Priest recently released their debut record, 'Uppers,' through Sub Pop. Vocalist Charlie Drinkwater discusses the album's reflections on social media, misinformation, pandemics, gentr…

Langhorne Slim didn’t set out to write a record. He hadn’t written music in a year. At the end of 2019 he entered a program to tackle his issues with prescription drug abuse. Shortly after he came ou…

February 13 marks the 25th anniversary of the Fugees’ seminal album, 'The Score.' Fugees, short for refugees, was formed in New Jersey in the 90s and included Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean and Pras Michel…

Russian feminist protest band, activist and performance art group Pussy Riot has a new song out called "RAGE" that calls for the release of Russian political prisoners. Two of Pussy Riot’s members no…

Music has become an investment opportunity. Last month, we heard the news that Bob Dylan sold his songwriting catalog to Universal for more than $300 million. Since then, artists such as Neil Young a…

After years of negotiations following the 2016 referendum for the UK to leave the EU, a deal over Brexit was finally hammered out just before the new year. We’re now one month into that deal and many…

Australian group The Avalanches released their third album, 'We Will Always Love You,' at the end of 2020, twenty years after their debut. The record takes listeners on a cosmic journey inspired by t…

Matt and Rachel Wilson are ranchers and musicians by trade who live in the tiny town of Silver Lake in the high desert of rural Oregon. On a normal year, half of their income comes from performing li…

Entertainment attorney Dina LaPolt talks about her recent opinion piece in Variety titled, “Rap Lyrics Now Admissible in Court Evidence: A Dangerous Precedent.” 

LaPolt says, “If all of a sudden ever…

Karli Ingersoll, co-owner of Spokane's Lucky You Lounge, and Cedric Walker, musician and board member of Keep Music Live, discuss the recent passage of the Save Our Stages Act and what it will mean f…

Derrick “Vitamin D” Brown is a bonafide Seattle Legend: an MC, DJ, producer and engineer whose work has helped define the aesthetics and sensibilities of Seattle hip hop for over two decades.

KEXP's …

In part two of our series on Seattle hip hop, Larry Mizell, Jr. interviews Dr. Daudi Abe about his new book, ‘Emerald Street: A History of Hip Hop In Seattle.’ Abe talks about how Seattle’s geographi…

Seattle’s first rap group formed 40 years ago. They called themselves the Emerald Street Boys.

As part of Sound & Vision’s mini-series on the history of hip hop in Seattle, we look back at the Emeral…

DJ and professor Davey D along with KEXP’s Gabriel Teodros discuss how consolidation and the Telecommunications Act of 1996 drove out small, independent and Black-owned radio stations. The resulting …

As 2020 lurches towards a close, KEXP has been looking back at, and honoring, many of the music figures we lost in the last year. On Thursday, December 17th, KEXP DJs paid tribute all day long on the…

Emily Fox and Larry Mizell, Jr. discuss KEXP's top played album and top played songs from 2020. Plus, KEXP DJs talk about their personal favorite tracks of the year.

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