Was This Iowa Bureaucrat Fired For His Love Of His Favorite Artist?
Plus moon tunes, the Kennedy Center honorees and a Puerto Rican protest song.
New York Daily News Archive/NY Daily News via Getty Images
Did you ever try to sneak your favorite band into a homework assignment at school? (Your newsletter editors may have.) Jerry Foxhoven, the former head of Iowa's Department of Human Services, knows how you feel. The public servant was forced to resign in June, and it just so happens that he was let go one business day after he sent an email to more than 4,000 agency employees that included an inspirational quote from the rapper Tupac Shakur.
Foxhoven, a superfan who regularly held "Tupac Fridays" in his office and once wrote to a fellow staffer that he “might seem a little down because today is the 22nd anniversary of 2Pac's death,” says he liked breaking stereotypes about who listens to rap. "I'm a 66-year-old white guy from the Midwest who likes rap music, who likes Tupac!" he told NPR reporter Tim Mak.
Foxhoven was aware that at least one colleague wasn’t a fan of his Tupac quotations. But the governor's office would not confirm or deny that Foxhoven's rap references were part of the reason for his dismissal, according to the Associated Press.
Ultimately, though, Foxhoven says he’s glad his emails about his favorite musician have now made national news, because it allows for a discussion about stereotypes and music.
Keep ya head up, Marissa Lorusso and Lyndsey McKenna
New Music
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Featuring
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This week, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announced the next recipients of one of the most prestigious U.S. awards for lifetime artistic achievement. This year’s class of honorees is eclectic as usual.
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Tiny Desk
Shuran Huang/NPR
Our team has long been fans of Priests, a fantastic D.C.-based, punk-infused art band. We’ve seen the band live a lot – but even we weren’t prepared for the gentler, starker (and piano-driven) performance Priests gave at the Tiny Desk.
Every time she performs live, Erin Rae transforms her quiet storms into different hues of squalling introspection. At the Tiny Desk, she showed off her ability to write songs that make you just sit in your thoughts for a tick longer.
Incoming
Several years ago, we published a series about music streaming, which, at the time, had finally achieved a seemingly irreversible momentum. Four years later, streaming is our central gateway for listening to music. Next week, we’ll roll out a series of articles that weed through the past, analyze the present and speculate on the future of streaming.
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