NPR Music

From our friends at Pop Culture Happy Hour: What makes for an unshakable rap verse — the kind that shifts your world view and sticks around years after the first time you encountered it? This month marks 50 years since the birth of hip-hop, so we reached out to some NPR colleagues and a few hip-hop luminaries and asked them what hip-hop verse changed their lives.

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Singer Paul Simon surprised fans earlier this year by releasing Seven Psalms, his first album since 2018. It was surprising not because so much time had passed, but because he had originally said his previous album, In the Blue Light, would be his last. In an interview with All Songs Considered's Bob Boilen, Simon said he was ready to retire from music and pursue other creative projects, like painting. This week, we go back to that 2018 conversation when Simon first announced he was done making new music. He talks about his dreams, the creative process and life's biggest questions. "We don't have the capacity to understand the great mysteries of life and God or no God or infinity," Simon says. "We just can't get it. It's beyond us, but that's fine."

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NPR Music's picks for the best albums out this week include new releases from Jon Batiste, Hozier, Rhiannon Giddens, Cautious Clay and more.

Featured Albums:
1. Jon Batiste — World Music Radio
Featured Songs: "BOOM FOR REAL," "Hello, Billy Bob," "Be Who You Are (feat. JID, NewJeans & Camilo)," "Uneasy (feat. Lil Wayne)"
2. Hozier — Unreal Unearth
Featured Songs: "Anything But," "De Selby (Part 1)," "Eat Your Young," "Butchered Tongue," "Who We Are"
3. Genesis Owusu — Struggler
Featured Songs: "Leaving The Light," "Stay Blessed," "Freak Boy," "That's Life (A Swamp)"
4. Rhiannon Giddens — You're the One
Featured Songs: "Way Over Yonder," "You Louisiana Man," "If You Don't Know How Sweet It Is"
5. Cautious Clay — KARPEH
Featured Songs: "Fishtown," "102 Years of Comedy (Intro)," "Karpehs Don't Flinch"

Lightning Round:
DeYarmond Edison — EPOCH
Quavo — Rocket Power
Reneé Rapp — Snow Angel
Talking Heads — Stop Making Sense (Deluxe Edition)

Other notable releases for Aug. 18:
Alana Springsteen — Twenty Something
Birdy — Portraits
Bobby Rush — All My Love For You
Fiddlehead — Death is Nothing To Us
Grace Potter — Mother Road
Margaret Glaspy — Echo The Diamond
Mick Jenkins — The Patience
Panda Bear, Sonic Boom & Adrian Sherwood — Reset In Dub
Russ — SANTIAGO
Shamir — Homo Anxietatem
Tash Sultana — Sugar EP.
Teddy Thompson — My Love of Country


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This week, Anamaria Sayre and Felix Contreras round up their favorite music from the last few months, including Mexican bedroom pop from Bratty, jazz from Argentinian composer Dario Acosta Teich, a new song from rising regional star DannyLux and more.

To hear more of Alt.Latino's favorite music, follow our Spotify and Apple Music playlists.

Audio for this episode of 'Alt.Latino' was edited, mixed and produced by Janice Llamoca. Our show editor is Hazel Cills and our project manager is Grace Chung. Our VP of Music and Visuals is Keith Jenkins.

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Robbie Robertson, lead guitarist and songwriter for The Band, died Aug. 9 at the age of 80. For this remembrance, we're sharing an encore presentation of a conversation Robertson had with All Songs Considered's Bob Boilen in 2018, on the 50th anniversary of The Band's seminal album Music From Big Pink.

Note: This interview originally published Aug. 8, 2018.

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NPR Music's picks for the best albums out this week include Noname's long-awaited Sundial, Karol G's Mañana Será Bonito (Bichota Season), a long-lost Neil Young release and more.

Featured Albums:
1. Noname — Sundial
Featured Songs: "Oblivion (feat. Atyoni & Common)," "Beauty Supply," "Namesake"
2. Jungle — Volcano
Featured Songs: "Us Against the World," "Candle Flame (feat. Erick the Architect)," "Dominoes," Every Night"
3. Neil Young — Chrome Dreams
Featured Songs: "Will to Love," "Like a Hurricane," "Look Out for My Love"
4. Joell Ortiz & L'Orange — Signature
Featured Songs: "Uncle Chris Car," "Therapeutic," "OG," "One Day"
5. Son Lux — Alternate Forms
Featured Songs: "Ransom (All Innocence)," "Alternate Worlds (Alternate Life)," "Easy (Fight to Forget)," "No Crimes (New History)"

Lightning Round:
Bonnie "Prince" Billy — Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You
G Flip — Drummer
Karol G — Mañana Será Bonito (Bichota Season)
Tash Sultana — "Bitter Lovers (feat. BJ The Chicago Kid)" (Single)

Other notable releases for Aug. 11:
K.A.A.N. — The Death of a Rapper
Lawrence English & Lea Bertucci — Chthonic
Les Imprimés — Rêverie
Louis Cato — Reflections
Peter McPoland — Piggy
Public Image Ltd. — End of World
Spencer Zahn — Statues I
$uicideboy$ — I No Longer Feel The Razor Guarding My Heel (V)
Suzi Quatro & KT Tunstall — Face to Face
Trippe Redd — A Love Letter To you 5


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When DJ Kool Herc spun records at a small party in the Bronx in August of 1973, no one would have predicted his unique style would give birth to the most influential and dominant music in the world: hip-hop. In this special episode, we're celebrating the 50th anniversary of the genre by looking at how and why the music has managed to remain a local phenomenon, even as it's taken hold of the world, and what's happening in some of the country's most vibrant scenes.

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This week, Son Lux returns with Alternate Forms, the band's first new album since releasing its beloved score to the film Everything Everywhere All At Once. To mark the occasion, we're sharing an encore presentation of our interview with Son Lux frontman Ryan Lott about how the band managed to score one of the most awarded — and bonkers — films of all time.

This interview originally ran on Feb. 20, 2023.


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Felix Contreras and Anamaria Sayre sit down with the Puerto Rican hip-hop artist Eladio Carrión to discuss what drives him, learning Spanish through music and how he's changing the game of Latin rap.

Audio for this episode of 'Alt.Latino' was edited and mixed by Cher Vincent, with production support from Suraya Mohamed and Robin Hilton. Our show editor is Hazel Cills and our project manager is Grace Chung. Our production assistant is Sofia Seidel. Our VP of Music and Visuals is Keith Jenkins.

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NPR Music's Lars Gotrich joins All Songs Considered's Bob Boilen to share their favorite new tracks of the week.

Featured Songs And Artists:
1. Meurtrières: "Ronde De Nuit," from Ronde De Nuit
2. Sally Anne Morgan: "Awake," from Carrying
3. Mitski: "Bug Like an Angel," from The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We
4. GUJI: "I Like to Hang Out in China," from GUJI
5. Irreversible Entanglements: "Free Love," from Protect Your Light
6. Activity: "Careful Let's Sleepwalk," from Spirit in the Room


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