KPFA - Hard Knock Radio

New Beginnings: 16-Year-Old Jayydon Debuts Bold, Reflective EP on Hard Knock Radio

A Rising Voice from Richmond

Debut EP ‘New Beginnings’ Drops Friday

Not Just an Artist—A Whole Human

Their first collaboration was a track on environmental justice created with Hip Hop Public Health, tackling issues like climate change and community health through a Black cultural lens. “That was my first time recording,” Jayydon recalled, “and Jahi helped me build confidence from the jump.”

Music with Purpose, Not Posturing

Tracks like Walls and Mirrors offer inner reflections about breaking mental barriers and silencing self-doubt. The closer, Gratitude, pays homage to the artists who paved the way without receiving their due, connecting today’s youth to Hip Hop’s deeper legacy.

Ownership and Integrity

Celebrating the Launch

Jayydon is the Future

Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson.

The post In Conversation with 16-year-old Richmond-based emcee Jayydon, a standout talent emerging from Kingmakers appeared first on KPFA.

Hard Knock Radio with Reverend Allison Tanner

In this powerful conversation, Davey D speaks with Reverend Allison Tanner about the upcoming Right of Return Pilgrimage, a 22-mile interfaith walk taking place Sunday, June 8, from 7 AM to 7 PM. The journey begins at the Islamic Cultural Center in Alameda and ends at the West Berkeley Shellmound, honoring Palestinian rights and connecting global struggles to local action.

Rev. Tanner explains that the pilgrimage is more than symbolic—it’s a bold act of faith-based resistance grounded in calls for justice. Rooted in the tradition of “praying with our feet,” the event echoes civil rights-era activism while directly confronting genocide, displacement, and the weaponization of religion.

Each of the seven walk segments will include distinct political calls to action, including:

Rev. Tanner also challenges the misuse of anti-semitism accusations to silence Palestine solidarity, especially as Christian Zionism—often driven by apocalyptic theology—co-opts both Christianity and Jewish identity. She points to Project Esther, a shadow campaign working to suppress pro-Palestinian voices under the guise of anti-hate measures, while ignoring actual antisemitism from high-profile political actors.

Throughout the interview, Tanner stresses that this movement is about reclaiming faith, standing against empire, and lifting up the right to return, remain, and migrate—for Palestinians and all displaced peoples.

Listeners are encouraged to register for the walk at bit.ly/RightOfReturnPilgrimage to receive a detailed guide with prayers, walking segments, and concrete actions to take—even if they can’t attend in person.

Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson.

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In this powerful and timely episode of Hard Knock Radio, host Davey D sits down with civil rights attorney, writer, and abolitionist Alec Karakatsanis for an unflinching conversation about his groundbreaking new book, Copaganda: How Police and the Media Manipulate Our News. Karakatsanis, founder of Civil Rights Corps and a long-time advocate against mass incarceration and structural injustice, joins us to pull back the curtain on how law enforcement agencies use media to shape public perception, distract from systemic abuses, and distort our understanding of crime, safety, and justice.

Drawing on years of legal advocacy and investigative work, Karakatsanis details how the police strategically push narratives that center individual crimes—often out of context or exaggerated—while obscuring the routine violence, constitutional violations, and economic exploitation that are part of the everyday machinery of policing in the U.S. He discusses how journalists, sometimes unwittingly and other times through cultivated relationships with police PR teams, amplify these stories without asking the critical questions that might reveal the deeper structural forces at play.

Davey D and Karakatsanis explore real-world examples of how “copaganda” plays out in newsrooms and headlines—from viral “feel-good” videos of officers doing charity work to fear-mongering coverage of so-called crime waves. They also break down the impact this media manipulation has on public policy, jury decisions, election outcomes, and marginalized communities—particularly Black, Brown, Indigenous, and low-income populations.

The conversation dives into the broader implications of media complicity in upholding carceral logic and offers strategies for both journalists and consumers of news to resist and challenge these narratives. Karakatsanis also speaks to the urgency of building alternative systems of safety and care, and why interrogating the stories we’re told about crime is crucial to building a just society.

Whether you’re a journalist, organizer, policymaker, or someone trying to make sense of what justice really looks like, this episode is a vital listen. Tune in for an honest, eye-opening dialogue that unpacks one of the most insidious tools of modern policing—and what we can do to dismantle it.

Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson.

The post Copaganda and the Crisis of Truth: Davey D in Conversation with Alec Karakatsanis appeared first on KPFA.

Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson.

The post Hard Knock Radio – June 3, 2025 appeared first on KPFA.

Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson.

The post Hard Knock Radio – June 2, 2025 appeared first on KPFA.

Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson.

The post Hard Knock Radio – May 30, 2025 appeared first on KPFA.

Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson.

The post Hard Knock Radio – May 29, 2025 appeared first on KPFA.

Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson.

The post Hard Knock Radio – May 28, 2025 appeared first on KPFA.

Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson.

The post Hard Knock Radio – May 27, 2025 appeared first on KPFA.

Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson.

The post Hard Knock Radio – May 26, 2025 appeared first on KPFA.