Rhythm and Rhymes

What happens when a party starts at 9AM? AJ recaps 9AM Banger, from the music and open bar to the ticket prices and the crowd. He and Antonio also talk about Spotify’s intimate Lagos show for selected Premium listeners, Seyi Vibez’s streaming-led No. 1 in Nigeria, NoCap’s Heaven on Mars, what they’ve had on repeat, and Asake’s bars.

Listen everywhere: https://linktr.ee/RealRandR

AJ and Antonio go from COINTELPRO to the hip hop police to rap lyrics on trial, and ask who decides what gets pushed. Plus the debunked 1991 "secret meeting" letter, where conscious rap went, and a review of Tiakola's WpointM.

0:00 Cold open

0:45 COINTELPRO and the hip hop police

2:40 Lyrics on trial: Young Thug and Lil Durk

5:30 Do the cases build the careers?

11:50 The 1991 "secret meeting" letter and SoundScan

14:40 What happened to Mos Def, Talib Kweli and Common?

18:10 Is anybody putting money behind positive music?

22:00 LaRussell

23:50 Tiakola's W.M. review

R&R is Modern Radio for global black sounds.

Is Afrobeats’ global rise a story of talent, label investment, political influence, or overlapping forces? AJ and Antonio debate the Chocolate City/CIA claim, what counts as evidence, and how soft power might operate through music. Plus: AI tributes to deceased artists and a BXKS discovery.

CHAPTERS
00:00 Cold open and introduction
01:00 The Spearhead video and its claims
02:00 Chocolate City: connections versus evidence
08:00 Can soft power work without political lyrics?
11:00 CKay, label promotion and “industry plants”
13:00 Tems and connecting the dots
15:00 Who is Afrobeats being made for?
17:00 Soft power wrap-up and AI tributes
19:00 Discovering BXKS
22:00 Final thoughts and music recommendations

Rhythm & Rhymes is modern radio for global black sounds.

Antonio breaks down UMG's licensing deal with ElevenLabs for a fan remix platform, what it could mean for DJs, and whether AI is a boost or just ease. Then: Rick Rubin's Jay-Z In 8 and whether song by song beats start to finish, AJ plays Antonio his first Bouyon, Jhené Aiko's Westside Whimsy, Rio The Young OG, and Unknown T's Listen.

Subscribe + listen everywhere: https://linktr.ee/RealRandR

R&R is Modern Radio for global black sounds.

Join the R&R newsletter: https://open.substack.com/pub/rhythmandrhymes

We wanted to be at Afro Plus Fest. Then we saw how the weekend unfolded.

AJ and Antonio discuss the storm, entry problems, and attendee reactions—and why criticizing one festival shouldn’t become an indictment of Black-led events.

Also: Kanye West’s Chicago reunion, why Big Sean keeps catching strays, and whether Nemzzz’s Locked In would work better as a shorter project. We unpack the NAACP’s new African award categories and revisit Beyoncé’s B’Day at 20, including Antonio discovering the Spanish version of “Irreplaceable.”

Modern radio for global Black sounds

00:00 Cold open & introduction
01:00 Afro Plus Fest: expectations vs. reality
08:00 Did Afro Plus grow too fast?
11:00 The devil or poor project management?
12:00 Kanye West’s Chicago reunion
17:00 Why does Big Sean keep catching strays?
19:00 Nemzzz’s Locked In & the case for shorter projects
23:00 NAACP’s new African award categories
26:00 Beyoncé’s B’Day at 20 & Spanish “Irreplaceable”
31:00 The Beyoncé AI debate
33:00 Closing

Subscribe to R&R on Substack: https://substack.com/@rhythmandrhymes

Dolly Parton refused to give Elvis Presley’s team half the publishing rights to “I Will Always Love You.” Years later, Whitney Houston transformed the song into a global phenomenon—and reportedly made Dolly roughly $10 million in royalties.

AJ and Antonio break down the ownership decision behind “the house that Whitney built” before discussing Kelvin Momo’s dispute with Kabza De Small and what it reveals about Amapiano’s economic ecosystem.

They also ask how old is too old for undergraduate homecoming parties, investigate Ty Dolla $ign’s mysterious hair transformation, explain the difference between sampling and interpolation, debate whether Rod Wave needs more collaborators and discuss how AZ Chike capitalized on Kendrick Lamar’s co-sign.

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 Dolly Parton, Whitney Houston and “I Will Always Love You”

03:20 When do you become “unc” at homecoming?

06:50 Kelvin Momo and Kabza De Small’s dispute

12:20 Is Amapiano bigger than its economy?

25:20 The Ty Dolla $ign hair investigation

30:45 Rod Wave, Boosie and interpolation

36:35 Has Rod Wave’s independence become a limitation?

39:00 AZ Chike and the Kendrick Lamar co-sign

Modern radio for global Black sounds.

What allows Black music and cultural institutions to last?

AJ and Antonio discuss Notting Hill Carnival’s 60th anniversary, Machel Montano’s new Brooklyn exhibition, Victony avoiding the sophomore slump, Ransom’s late-career consistency and whether Anderson .Paak and Cordae have lost creative momentum.

Does Afrobeats still describe a musical genre, or has it become an umbrella for nearly every globally visible African artist? AJ and Antonio discuss Ayra Starr’s StarrGirl, a controversial Dominican-Haitian collaboration, Erykah Badu’s return, and the Ghana-Jamaica connection on Junction.

0:00 – Afrobeats and the “urban music” comparison

0:28 – Does music really have no borders?

1:00 – The Dominican-Haitian collaboration controversy

3:00 – The history behind Haiti and the Dominican Republic

4:42 – Can music ever be apolitical?

9:35 – Is Ayra Starr’s StarrGirl really Afrobeats?

13:47 – What does traditional Afrobeats sound like?

15:42 – Why today’s biggest African artists sound completely different

17:48 – Is modern music becoming genreless?

20:04 – Erykah Badu returns with The Alchemist

22:22 – Junction connects Ghana and Jamaica

25:18 – This week’s playlist selections

25:53 – Where you’re from matters more and less

Subscribe: https://linktr.ee/RealRandR

AJ and Antonio dig into who really owns African music that Western labels and collectors traveled in to digitize and distribute — walking through Analog Africa in Benin, the Éthiopiques series, and PMG in Nigeria — then argue out what "fair" even means when the preservation is the only reason the catalog has value at all. Plus Snoop's biopic through Death Row Pictures, and Tyla's APOP.

0:00 – When did you last buy a record?
1:00 – The $10 Marvin Gaye record that started it
2:10 – Analog Africa: hiring a cop to find artists and pay them
3:20 – Éthiopiques: preserving a decade, buying the rights
4:00 – PMG in Nigeria and the unpaid-artist accusations
5:00 – Who gets paid, and what does "fair" mean?
9:00 – Does the artist always deserve the majority?
11:00 – "If a tree falls" — distribution as the real leverage
13:30 – Is an archiver a creator too?
16:00 – Finding a "different don"
18:00 – Snoop Dogg's biopic (Death Row Pictures, 2027)
20:30 – Tyla, APOP, and the "whitewashing" question
22:45 – One for the playlist: "Trouble"

R&R is Modern Radio for global black sounds.

See where music's going, and why: https://substack.com/@rhythmandrhymesGenres are getting harder to define.Artists like Don Toliver, Rico Nasty, Playboi Carti and Ken Carson are pulling from rap, punk, metal, electronic music, R&B and hyperpop, sometimes within the same record.But the bigger shift may be happening in how we listen.Mood, aesthetics, playlists, algorithms and DJ culture are increasingly becoming the way listeners discover and organize music. So what happens when the feeling matters more than the genre?In this episode, Antonio breaks down how we got here, the artists pushing the shift forward, and what genreless listening could mean for the future of music.TIMESTAMPS00:00 — Music is getting harder to categorize01:00 — Why electronic music and DJ culture are surging01:30 — Don Toliver and psychedelic Houston rap02:15 — Rico Nasty: trap, metal and hyperpop03:05 — Playboi Carti, Ken Carson and rage03:35 — How algorithms are changing music04:00 — Are moods replacing genres?R&R is modern radio for global Black sounds.Watch more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqaDSTXcRQU&list=PLvQ6HdlN59e7TjcSOBH_BxiEFZTizDN6I