At First Listen

Our guest, comedian Larry Dorsey, Jr., introduces us to Afrobeat innovator Fela Kuti.

We discuss how Kuti exported Pan-Africanism to the world through his music. We talk about his musical roots, his political activism and his *check notes* ... 27 wives???

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(Episode 44.)

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Andrew and Dominique look back at their first year cohosting the At First Listen podcast.
 
We did 43 episodes this year. It was a lot of music to listen to and far too much to remember! So we have to ask: What did we love? What did we forget about? What do we wish we could forget?
 
Dominique admits that she still listens to Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet weekly. Andrew comes clean about his renewed enjoyment of brutal death metal and deathcore, and he shouts out some of the bands that have come into his orbit this year.
 
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Dominique brings in a new song by rapper Fatmowf called 'Copycat," as an epilogue to last week's B.B. King episode, where we asked questions about the legacy of the blues in modern music.

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Why don’t people care about the blues anymore?
 
We applaud guitarist Joe Bonamassa’s heroic tribute B.B. King Blues Summit 100, celebrating what would be the King of the Blues’ 100th birthday, but have to ask, ‘Why?’
 
We parse through our conflicted feeling about the state of the blues; is the blues a dead genre and did white people kill it?
 
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We check out a new song called "Thick Neck" by rapper/guitarist Ando San.

We're intrigued by Ando San's whole vibe, his metal vocalist-turned-rapper transition and whether or now he's a cat guy.

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We break down a pair of tracks from a relatively unknown but charismatic Queens, New York-based rapped called Young Cardamom.
 
This Indian-American emcee dropped a flurry of songs with great-looking visuals about a decade ago. Two, in particular, “#1 Spice” and “Nani,” caught our attention this week.
 
But it’s been years since Young Cardamom released any new music. What happened to him?

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Andrew and Dominique know almost nothing about D’Angelo, so if they didn’t do a D’Angelo episode now, they might never learn.
 
We enlist LiteFM midday host and National Black Radio Hall of Famer Helen Little to help fill in the gaps in our knowledge.
 
Helen has worked at heritage R&B radio stations in both New York and Philadelphia since the '90s. She was in on the proverbial ground floor of D'Angelo's pop career, met him numerous times and has a strong connection to his first two studio albums.

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(Episode 42.)

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We discuss the anomaly that is the 1993 stop-motion animated film The Nightmare Before Christmas — a gothic Halloween musical comedy for children that hinges of themes of death, depression, belonging and the Christmas spirit.
 
Extraordinarily offbeat and original, Nightmare has inspired generations of people with its music, aesthetic and lesson of embracing what makes each of us unique.
 
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This bonus episode is a loving tribute to the greatest and one true Halloween song.
 
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(NOTE: Andrew is of course referring to “Superstition” by Stevie Wonder when he says “Supernatural.” He is humiliated.)

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We dive into John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s powerful 1972 statement on political violence, “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” which has just been re-released in a gigantic (potentially evil capitalist) box set.
 
Dominique rants about commercial art versus performance art, and we discuss Yoko Ono’s immense impact on the latter.
 
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