‘Louder Than A Riot’ digs deep, one last time

Plus, a lost John Coltrane recording resurfaces and a Foo Fighters album finds joy in the aftermath of great loss.

View this email online June 3, 2023 by Stephen Thompson This week, we look back on Louder Than A Riot’s remarkable second season; plus, a lost John Coltrane recording is found in the NYPL and Foo Fighters’ tremendous new album finds joy and anguish in the aftermath of two destabilizing deaths.  Amanda Howell Whitehurst for NPR  Shortly after kicking off its second season, Louder Than A Riot’s staff received notice that NPR would not be renewing the show — a result of budget cuts eliminating 10 percent of the network’s workforce. In the weeks that followed, the Louder team kept producing brilliant episode after brilliant episode. Each one examines a different facet of how hip-hop — a cultural force and institution celebrating its 50th birthday this year — limits opportunity for some within the genre, particularly women and queer people. The purpose of Season 2, as explained in the tagline of its first episode, was to examine “how the double standard became hip-hop’s standard.” On Friday, Louder's podcast team took its victory lap. In the season’s 10th and last episode, the show locates a common thread that runs through hip-hop’s unwritten rules: a mindset centered on “the belief that access and resources are so scarce that they have to be fought over, tooth and nail.” That idea extends well beyond hip-hop, of course — you could write a persuasive masters thesis about how the scarcity mindset seeps into every phase of American politics — but it also neatly encapsulates so many of the reflections at the heart of Louder Than A Riot. This is a show that doesn’t just ask hard questions — about whose voices are centered, about masculinity and queerness, about a half century of hip-hop history and the advances and retreats contained therein. It actually attempts to answer those questions through big ideas, personal reflections and voices we don’t always get to hear.  I highly recommend consuming this season from start to finish, if you haven’t already. Its 10 parts are packaged together on this page, which makes this as good a moment as any to marvel at the gorgeously evocative episode illustrations by Amanda Howell Whitehurst. (Seriously, that Rico Nasty image stares into your soul.) But in case you want to try the show piecemeal, here’s a quick rundown of Season 2’s component parts: Episode 1: “Megan’s rule: Being exceptional doesn’t make you the exception.” How the shooting of Megan Thee Stallion resulted in a backlash against her. Episode 2: “Baby girl, you’re only as funky as your last cut: MC Sha-Rock.” How the first female MC has had to fight for her rightful place in hip-hop’s canon. Episode 3: “Beauty is in the eye of the male gaze: DreamDoll, Doechii and Baby Tate.” How three artists have worked to reclaim their bodies. Episode 4: “It ain’t trickin’ if you got it: Trina, Trick Daddy and Latto.” How a verse Trina recorded in 1998 set the stage for a new wave of raunchy women in rap. Episode 5: “If you see something, say nothing: Kim Osorio v. The Source.” How much it costs to speak up in a culture where it's always been safer to keep quiet. Episode 6: “Real N****s go hard (pause, no homo): iLoveMakonnen.” How hip-hop has affected perceptions of Black masculinity. Episode 7: “Stay in your lane, shawty: Saucy Santana.” How queer artists have pushed back against stale standards in hip-hop. Episode 8: “What doesn’t kill you makes you a strong Black woman: Rico Nasty.” How one rapper helps her fans release their anger. Episode 9: “Like poppa, like son: Rodney Carmichael.” How hip-hop shaped one man’s definition of masculinity. Episode 10: “Watch the queen conquer: MC Lyte, Quay Dash, the cast of ‘Rap Sh!t.’” How a scarcity mindset comes for everyone — including this podcast. Thankfully, hosts Sidney Madden and Rodney Carmichael are staying at NPR Music, where I look forward to hanging on their every word. As for the team members who are leaving, I look forward to following their work, too — it’s too stellar to keep them down for long. Hats off to everyone who endeavored to make this show vital, hard-hitting, fascinating and beautiful to listen to, even as it revealed hard, stinging truths: editor Soraya Shockley; producers Gabby Bulgarelli, Sam J. Leeds, Mano Sundaresan and Rhaina Cohen; engineers Josh Newell and Gilly Moon; production assistant Jerusalem Truth; interns Jose Sandoval, Teresa Xie and Pilar Galvan; and fact-checkers Will Chase, Zazil Davis-Vazquez, Jane Gilvin, Sarah Knight, Candice Vo Kortkamp, Greta Pittenger, Brin Winterbottom and Julia Wohl. Newsletter continues after sponsor message More to read, watch and hear This week brought major jazz news, reported by the magnificent Nate Chinen of NPR Music and WRTI: A lost 1961 recording of the John Coltrane quartet, featuring Eric Dolphy, recently turned up in the New York Public Library and will be released next month with the title Evenings at the Village Gate: John Coltrane with Eric Dolphy. Nate describes the recordings as “not only a welcome new find, but also a link in a chain” for “Coltrane admirers, jazz historians and anyone intrigued by the experimental end of improvisational music.” Foo Fighters’ new album, But Here We Are, mourns the death of the band’s drummer, Taylor Hawkins. But an even greater presence — or, more to the point, absence — is Dave Grohl’s mother Virginia, who died last summer. These songs ache with loss, even as they explode in full-bore rock mayhem, and that loss extends beyond the death of a loved one: They’re songs about the loss of memory, the loss of comfort, the loss of the past, the loss of home. It’s a fantastic record full of riffs and reflection; read my review on the NPR Music website. Singer-songwriter Arlo Parks recently spoke to Morning Edition host Leila Fadel about her new album, My Soft Machine, and her work to promote mental health. Ivan Neville — son of Aaron, nephew of the other Neville Brothers — recently performed a live set at the Analog in Nashville’s Hutton Hotel. His set celebrated the release of Neville’s new album, Touch My Soul, and was captured on video by our pals at WMOT in Nashville. All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen gave the world a great gift by taking this week off, but a fresh episode of New Music Friday just dropped. In it, host Robin Hilton helps guide you through a batch of albums by McKinley Dixon, Bully, Aisha Badru, Ben Folds and W.I.T.C.H. If you’re not already, you should be scrolling through and otherwise arranging your life around NPR Music’s #NowPlaying blog. This week, we added new songs by the haunted Americana duo The Handsome Family, the great guitar innovator Bill Orcutt, Canadian electro-pop musician Jessy Lanza, hazily psychedelic singer-songwriter Kassi Valazza and Alaska singer-songwriter (and long-ago NPR Music intern!) Annie Bartholomew. Tiny Desk Elizabeth Gillis/NPR Last month, we announced the ninth winner of our Tiny Desk Contest, which every year finds a mostly distinguished panel choosing one great unsigned act from among thousands of entries. Past winners have gone on to win Grammys and sign big label deals, and each year’s selection process puts many new artists on our radar. This year, our winner is a band from Utah called Little Moon, whose Tiny Desk debut just published this week. Imagine the elastic eccentricity of a Kate Bush or Joanna Newsom, set against the delicacy and force of a late-’00s indie big band, and you’ll start to get a sense of the magic on display as Little Moon performed its contest-winning song “wonder eye,” as well as two as-yet-unreleased new tracks. Also this week: The Indonesian singer-songwriter Nicole Zefanya (a.k.a. NIKI) brought a tiny toy piano and sleek songs to her Tiny Desk debut. And the indie rock band Unknown Mortal Orchestra loves to surprise — as it demonstrated when its members decided to forgo songs from their new album, V, in favor of a set list that highlighted the group’s early material. One More Thing In 1966, Otis Taylor was expelled from high school for refusing to cut his afro. Now, 57 years later, he’s got his diploma. Listen to your local NPR station. 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