What's Good Podcast

What's Good Podcast

Stretch & Bobbito

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Breakdances with Wolves

Breakdances with Wolves Podcast
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One of my favorite listens on the net...Check out Gyasi Ross, Wesley B Roach, & Minty LongEarth speaking on Indigenous culture, life, current events, Hip Hop, music, politics...just about everything.  

((The Listening))

Tape Decks Podcast Dial

Tape Decks Podcast Dial

Introducing the top Tape Decks podcasts ...Edge of Sports with host Dave Zirin and producer Dan Bloom connects listeners to a deeper understanding of what's going on in the sports world and its connection to society and politics. This podcast presents the voice of the athlete in a way that challenges listeners to think, read, and consider where they stand on various issues. Its bigger than sports and always on time. The most authentic, uncompromising voice in sports related broadcasts listeners can count on Dave to know the ledge...its all real on Edge of Sports podcast. Stay tuned at soundcloud.com/edgeofsports. Southern Vangard Radio is my go-to for what's new in the world of Hip Hop. The best Hip Hop podcast on the net broadcasts twice a week with hosts DJ Jon Doe and Eddie Meeks aka Cappuccinomeeks. These guys take me back to when I worked college radio and first discovered a promotional CD titled High Risk by the group Prophetix, made up of DJ Jon Doe, Mello and Meeks. Aside from the Dungeon Family sound I came up listening to in high school, years later I found out about an eMCee that went by Truth Universal out of New Orleans. Prophetix was my introduction to a whole other network out the South...projects like High Risk catered to listeners that recognized originality and the art of rhyme. Its one of those records you remember listening to the first time...one of those pieces of "fine art" that Marc Spekt from Broady Champs talked about on his Southern Vangard interview session. The Southern Vangard podcast is a sonic goldmine. Finding Southern Vangard felt brand new...a throwback feeling similar to discovering underground Hip Hop on the radio dial or stumbling across a stash of untapped vinyl. What Southern Vangard puts together is difficult to describe to someone who doesn't recognize the value or understand what it was like before music became so easy to access. In addition to the seamless blends and scratches of some of the best Hip Hop are countless hours of interviews with many of Hip Hop's unsung microphone and beat making masters...stories I'd never heard before...voices I'd never heard outside of the tracks they were featured on. The preparation of the program on a weekly basis is something to appreciate and pass on. The details is what makes Southern Vangard the top Hip Hop podcast on the net.  The roster of interviews is unrivaled. No other podcast archive can compare. Its also a beat makers storycore...forreal. Listen in for the new and scroll back in time to catch past episodes at soundcloud.com/southernvangard. The first time I ever discovered a "podcast" was when I found Bill Burr's Monday Morning Podcast on MySpace. There was a stretch of time when the the first 20 minutes of my morning drive to work was spent listening to Bill Burr. The routine since has changed to scattered moments when I remember to revisit Burr's Soundcloud...Each time though I'm reminded how much a fan I am of Bill Burr...definitely on my #Top5DOA comedians. He was my introduction to the podcast world. To listen to the Monday Morning Podcast on Soundcloud check out soundcloud.com/themonday-morning-podcast. Next up, the Bruce Lee Podcast. This one's invaluable. I was born into my admiration for Bruce Lee through my father who practiced martial arts since before I came into the world. I was hooked on karate flicks as a kid and credit that to the Karate Kid and my intro to Nintendo video games in the late 80s...Nintendo games like Double Dragon had me open to flicks like Bloodsport, Kickboxer and animated shows like Karate Kommandos with Chuck Norris. It was The Last Dragon though that really caught my attention (Laura Charles!). It may have been a silly comedy to some, but along with flicks like No Retreat, No Surrender these films pointed kids like me to a primary source...Bruce Lee. As a child it put me on a mission to find everything and anything Bruce Lee...like Bruce Leroy in search of that "glow"...These moments prepped what was coming when it was time to sit down and watch Enter the Dragon. Early on it helped me separate what I believed to be real from fake. As the 90's approached it also introduced me to Bruce Lee's son, Brandon Lee. When my friend and I saw Rapid Fire, by the next day we discontinued our ties to anything Van Damme. Our time from that point forward followed Brandon Lee with the hope we'd better understand his father's influence. These are my earliest recollections of following something other than basketball, football, or baseball. When Brandon Lee was killed it raised a lot of questions creating a dark cloud above those first years of the 90s. At the same time cinema and literature introduced me to the demise of past leaders like Malcolm X, MLK, Huey P. Newton, and the tragedy experienced a couple of years later when we lost one from our generation...Tupac Shakur. It was a time for questioning mortality and exacerbated a sense of insecurity in a world that promoted and exploited senseless violence. The next couple decades of my life would be riddled with Bruce Lee moments. I discovered literature about Bruce Lee that went beyond just film and explored his philosophy and family life. Shortly after I discovered the Bruce Lee website. Social media would later connect me to news on Shannon Lee's development of the Bruce Lee enterprise, new documentary films, other authentic items, and scholarship opportunities through the Bruce Lee Foundation. Upon the 40th anniversary since Bruce Lee's death, I was inspired to create a mixtape project dedicated to Bruce Lee's life titled the Lee Jun Fan Tape. In 2016, I discovered the Bruce Lee podcast.  The program is hosted by Bruce Lee's daughter Shannon Lee and her co-host & creative officer Sharon Lee. The Bruce Lee podcast has become the soundtrack of my garage workout regimen.  Moments I save specifically for tuning into the podcast. You can check out the Bruce Lee podcast at soundcloud.com/brucelee. I discovered The Combat Jack Show driving between New Mexico and Texas. One night I searched and searched for some audio to cover the 60+ mile trip ahead. At random I pressed play and got introduced to the can't stop won't stop hilarity of Dallas Penn, Combat Jack, and Premium Pete. The podcast produced a lot of memorable listening moments which inspired me to see specific films, listen to albums, read books, or simply follow guests of the Combat Jack Show. This podcast is the King of New York podcasts and today is headed by Combat Jack himself. Check out Combat Jack Show podcasts at soundcloud.com/thecombatjackshow. Next up is a podcast I never saw coming...the Fearless or Insane podcast with host Chris Webber. Before anything I've been a basketball fan first and foremost. As a kid I stayed in the trading card shops working my memory into a mental register of sport figure names and numbers from every roster in the league. This included the alumni of Michigan's Fab 5 who saved a lot of us young kids from the embarrassment of the short short era during junior high basketball. When Chris Webber touched down in the league I set aside a special sheet specifically for his cards starting with my college Classic #4 of him jamming down a dunk in his blue Wolverine jersey. While we all remember the infamous game that would conclude his college years before transitioning into a professional, I remained a fan of Webber even living out my fandom through video games like NBA Live especially during his tenure with the Sacramento Kings. Upon retirement, I became an even bigger fan of CWebb when he got together with my main man The Glove to analyze b-ball games on television. Their analysis was unlike anything I'd ever seen...an uncut, unscripted litany of roasts with so many moments that reminded me of the comedy that duos like Martin Lawrence and Will Smith brought to the big screen. It was through a recent guest appearance on the Edge of Sports Podcast that introduced me to CWebb's footprints in the podcast world. When the Edge of Sports cosigns something I don't hesitate to follow up. I was able to catch the podcast early enough to tune in to every episode within a couple of months. Listening to the Fearless or Insane podcast will be worth every minute of your time as CWebb graciously points out before introducing listeners to featured guests. Listeners can find the Fearless or Insane archive at the Podcast One link podcastone.com/fearless-or-insane-with-chris-webber.  On the next Tape Decks Podcast dial, I got the illest crew on YouTube Sway, Heather B, and Tracy G...Sway in the Morning. Sway's history is really something...Sway's story and his presence in our lives as a Hip Hop Alumni and media visionary going back to the MTV days...he's an important piece on the chess board of Hip Hop journalism. While I wouldn't classify Sway in the Morning as a "podcast" in the sense of the other programs I've referenced above, I do access Sway's interviews the exact same way. The interviews are structured just the same, and while the program can be heard live through satellite radio, its the YouTube uploads of interviews I feel connect to the podcast world. Beyond only listening to Sway in the Morning, this is a program you can watch.  Sway's creative versatility includes classic "5 Fingers of Death" moments and even the most memorable Robert Glaspar set where he took on 5 fingers on the keys. Its this in the moment type content that makes this of my favorite free access programs to listen to.  If I had satellite radio, Sway would be the first program I'd set.  His interview catalog has no boundaries giving fans access to celebrities of all genres. And the story gets deeper considering the connection to the Wake Up Show alongside King Tech. Its what gives this story so much more meaning to Hip Hop history and its threads across the country in the Bay Area. Every once in a while I think about how ill it would be to revisit the Wake Up Show archive, from beginning to end. Like Sway & Bobbito's documentary I can only hope for the day we can celebrate the Wake Up Show's story and maybe even have access to its archive. Listeners (and watchers) can tune into interviews and more from Sway in the Morning at youtube.com/user/SwaysUniverse. On my list for true social justice radio is the International Media Project's station Making Contact. While not a podcast platform, its another program I access like any other podcast on Soundcloud  via its main site at radioproject.org. This is a community centered broadcast with a wide perspective on issues that impact people around the world.  Its a site any social justice minded instructor with objectives to broaden student's world views should have listed on their syllabus. On to the next is the most creatively produced youth radio podcast I've ever heard out of California, Soul Rebel Radio. The program is brilliantly produced and brings the voice and creativity of youth into key happenings in society and youth culture around the world. Layered with unforgettable skits, music clips, an assortment of audios, and spoken word, Soul Rebel Radio is a classic blend unlike any other broadcast you'll ever hear. Soul Rebel Radio is a birth place of tomorrow's media creators and a true outlet for the voices of young people. I track the latest updates from Soul Rebel Radio at facebook.com/soulrebelradio. Next to last on my Tape Decks Podcast dial for Spring 2017 is The Collision with hosts Etan Thomas and Edge of Sports mind Dave Zirin. Broadcasting outta WPFW, listeners can access the latest recordings off Etan Thomas Twitter handle at twitter.com/etanthomas36 or Dave Zirin's twitter handle at twitter.com/edgeofsports or directly from KPFA. When I hear that intro to the ((Bridge is Over)) beat and the clip of Barkley saying, "I don't wanna be like Mike..." I know its time! Between the two host you're guaranteed honest dialogue on sports, and politics and a range of topics these think champs bring to the listening audience. While not classified as a podcast, I'm basing this off how the program can be accessed and its availability online. Finally, I want to end out with a note on 900AM WURD, an online independent platform for Black media broadcasting out of Pennsylvania. My father put me on to this program which streams online all the time anytime. It's a connection to my father's Philadelphia roots and sets an example for the kind of media access I can only wish for all communities. It stretches the idea for how we can define "podcast" especially when a broadcast such as WURD is able to extend its reach over the world wide web. I recently started tuning into WURD and look forward to learning more about what's going on in the tri-state area. You can easily tune in hassle free at 900amwurd.com. 

There are so many other podcasts out there. These are my primary listens which have long replaced anything worth tuning into on local radio outlets which I find restricting and contrived. Its what I value most about having access to a mobile device that in my imagination is like an upgraded transistor radio that connects me to the way I imagine broadcasts to be. These podcasts tell a story about who I am and my views on edutainment and its benefits to how we connect with people and the community.  What's interesting is how new podcasting is and how we're experiencing the beginning of this broadcasting platform and essentially writing the rules for what it can be.

You'll find a list of links to other broad+podcasts to the left of this blog under ((The Listening)).

Peace.

Lee

2016

2016 was a year to remember. 

Ever since hosting college radio in 2000, I thought about new music through a perspective of my own top 10 charts. It's how I distinguished the new music I was listening to from the old.  A few times I wrote blogs listing my top Hip Hop albums of the year and  reported weekly to College Media Journal (CMJ).  Some of it was based on promos the radio station received and most based on music I was checking for on my own. The last time I hosted a radio show was in 2008, a week before finishing school and moving on. The fun of being inundated with new music, listening to the unknown, rotating music live on air, and sharing my thoughts about music for eight years straight is how I continued to imagine music I accumulated post radio dayz. Its also what I wrote about from time to time on this blog under the #LHHSCharts and #HHbeAtz10 tags. In 2017, its time to let that go. 

There is so much music out there. Every morning I turn the ignition in the ride and connect the auxiliary cord to listen to Southern Vangard radio, other podcasts, or a CD...or whenever I setup my iPOD for a run around the track or gym...Its a process free from my routine on radio to now as a casual listener. Especially when I discover music I want to replay a few times. It could be a record I pull from neglected crate...some mp3 files lost in folders disorganized after years of CD burns and downloads. I'm interested in being more patient with my music. More time to explore the details and remember the process I fell in love with before music and our access to it became an all-you-can-hear affair. Back to a time when I'd look through my father's record collection...to a point where a Weather Report album cover would came alive in my dreams.  

I've conducted a lot of interviews with eMCees, beatmakers, writers, poets, and groups for radio and web.  The same way I remember charting music is the same way I imagine questions I would ask today if I could.  I'm a big fan of interview shows and podcasts and getting the chance to understand the interviewer and the kind of story they're trying to pull from the interviewee. I love that process and the preparation and research that goes into it. I'd like to find ways to channel that interest more and research what I'm listening to. Not just when something new comes out, but for any record at any given time. I look forward to using this blog to take time and document the stories of music, including some of my own.  A process that's free from any sort of structure, time frame, and any order of charts, real or imagined...a process more conducive to someone who simply loves music.

With that said its time to close the book on #LHHSCharts. The collage of records above that pretty much defined my 2016 is the last of this idea of imagining top 10s inspired by the radio dayz...

Before the new year, I finally listened to A Tribe Called Quest's We Got it From Here, Thank You 4 Your Service.  A line from Nate Denver off Grimm's American Hunger album came to mind..."there's no Tribe Called Quest if there is no Phife". I was only able to listen to the new ATCQ once wondering what it took to finally happen.  It made me wonder if everything happened when it was suppose to or if we simply ran out of time at the dawn of a new era in this country. It made me wonder more about a Phife record than anything else and what he envisioned beyond the Ventilation LP...free from the anticipation and constant expectations of an ATCQ reunion that maybe was never meant to be in the first place. 

Nobody hits on Hip Hop nostalgia and life to me like Junclassic. The ((Father's Day)) song he composed in 2016 to Wun Two's production had the emotion and power of a ((Dear Mama)) Pac track to me...to me it spoke for sons who grew up watching their fathers put in work and stand up to the insurmountable responsibility and resilience of doing their part to hold a family together through struggle, tragedy, set backs, and success.  Better than Fiction Too is the kind of record that's gonna last my whole life which is how I've gotten to know Junclassic's music since day one. Better than Fiction Too is soul music with the poetic grit of of the Hip Hop we've come to love out of NYC since the beginning.

ScHoolBoy Q...The Blank Face LP is brilliant. Many of us that came up on Hip Hop in the early 90s in the Southwest were hit by that \/\/est Coast influence before anything else. For me it came by way of Ice Cube, Eazy E, NWA, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, DJ Quik, Warren G, Too Short, E-40, Rappin 4 Tay, MC Eiht/CMW, Cypress Hill and others. Much of it channeled through some of our favorite films, Boyz in the Hood, Menace II Society, etc.  The mayhem of Pac's demise made me realize that the \/\/est went beyond what made it popular in the early 90s...the void of losing Pac introduced me to eMCees like Ras Kass, Hiero, Cali Agents, Paris, everything out of Stones Throw a few years later, Dilated Peoples, Sevin from Sacramento, and many more...through their sound I thought about styles differently and learned to appreciate the ground work of groups like Freestyle Fellowship, the Pharcyde, J5, Souls of Mischief and other eMCees/groups I never would've known about if I didn't search. I love thinking about what TDE records means in that context now and what they'll mean later. Especially since I'm more preoccupied enjoying TDE's music than trying to decipher the wordplay and beat production. The beats are an ill anomaly to me and makes me reflect back on Organized Noize production, the Dungeon Family, and ATLiens. I wonder about the magic of sampling listening to TDE...a scrapbook of what the \/\/est coast has experienced and what it has to offer today. Beyond the state of California, TDE makes me think about what Marc Spekt of Broady Champs said on a Southern Vangard interview session describing Hip Hop as fine art.

When I hosted radio and worked as program manager, I decided to do two things when it came to Soul music. One was set aside a slot specific to Soul music (shout out to Mz. Soulshine) and also bring everything together during my own slot...Soul, Hip Hop, Blues, Jazz, Funk, everything...whether released generations prior or present...only rule was that it go together real smooth and connect. I called my time slot The Representation Show/Soul Session and together it turned into 4 straight hours of all the music I could gather in time to go on air. Also the playlist always had to be unique, never duplicated. I also collaborated with fellow radio djs combining music slots and crashing concepts together for an unexpected marathon of anything we felt like rotating and talking about (shout out to the Moleman Rawk$hop). This year no record reminded me of the Soul Session days more than Maxwell's Black Summer's Night.  Especially when I discovered Stuart Matthewman was involved with the sound. Its one of those records that I'll revisit often.  A reconnection to everything I loved about Amel Larrieux rotations, Carl Thomas, D'Angelo, Sade, Dwele, Goapele, Alice Smith, and many other voices.  Maxwell is one of a kind.

With The Greatest X by Reks, we're talking about the best Hip Hop record to drop in 2016, period. Its appropriately titled and reflective of all the unsung-blue-collar-hard-hat work that Boston eMCees like Reks have put into the game over the past many years.  This record got anthems and is a collaborative case of organized rhyme. It goes beyond what you can burn on just one CD...a double disc respectively with enough weight to equal any three 2016  album releases combined. The Greatest X reflects the competitive lyricism with undeniable beat production that comes with having the right to stake claim to the crown. Beyond that its tied together with the storytelling of a for real eMCee....the King... Reks...the greatest unknown.

I'll wrap it up talking about four other records that made 2016 what it was for me.  While Young Roddy's The Kenner Loop got me through the start of 2016, it was Isaiah Rashad's The Sun's Tirade that got me through a summer of decisions and time I needed to regroup.  Masta Ace's The Falling Season is easily up there for one of 2016's best records and one of my favorite records of all time. Its what Masta Ace does...one of Hip Hop's greatest storytellers of Top 5 caliber rhyme... a music man of many scripts...his songs are definitely films in my imagination.  J Cole's 4 Your Eyez Only is how I actually started 2017 but the track not included on the record ((False Prophets)) is how I made sense of the remaining weeks in December reflecting on 2016.  It definitely gave me a chance to organize many faces, stories, and situations experienced throughout the year. I still need to reflect on what Cole's album means to me so I'll let time do its thing.  As for the last album on the collage, I included a record I've written about already...Elzhi's Lead Poison.  The last no. 1 album to grace the top of LHHS Charts.

With that said, here's to a new beginning of the Tape Decks blog. A new way of thinking of what I feel like writing about next when it comes to music. This is an end to the LHHS Charts and the HHbeAtz10 days and the beginning to responding to this simple question more often..."what are you listening to?"

Sincerely 2016,


Lee

p.s. This one is for the vinyl, CDs, digitals, & cassettes.

In Memory of Sharon Jones

It's A Holiday Soul Party

Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings

My last purchase of 2016. In memory of Sharon Jones.

Daptone Records