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Zoe Challenger

Check out Zoe Challenger’s photos of night 2 of Carbon Sound’s March residency at 7th St Entry.


Photos: Night 2 of An Evening with Carbon Sound

Carbon Sound hosted the first night of our March residency at 7th St Entry under the full moon on Tuesday, March 7.

Spread across two weeks, each night featured three great Twin Cities artists that are shaping the future of Black musical expression. 

March 7th featured Huhroon, sahn, and DJ Narcos, who couldn't make it due to an emergency and was replaced with Carbon Sound Content Director Julian Green DJing as ech0astral. March 14th will feature SYM1, Craishon, and Yasmeenah. 

Find more information on First Avenue’s website.

Liam Armstrong

Watch Carbon Sound Correspondent Liam Armstrong’s recap of Carbon Sound’s first-ever concert.


Awa Mally

An Evening with Carbon Sound - Night 1 (sahn, Huhroon)

Video: An Evening with Carbon Sound - Night 1

Each week, we add new music, older tracks, which are known as “Gold adds”, and tracks that might not fit our general format, but still deserve a place in rotation because they serve our mission of showing the depth, breadth, and influence of Black musical expression - These are known as “Variety adds.”

. If you make music and want it considered for rotation, 

 If you want to give feedback directly, reach out to me at jgreen@mpr.org.

Tune in to hear our host Sanni B. live on The Message from 10 AM to 1 PM Monday through Thursday!

Keep all these tracks in one place with the 

 Spotify playlist. This playlist is updated weekly with all the new adds. When that playlist is cycled with new tracks, the tracks live forever on the 

 playlist. That playlist contains all of the music that we've added since the week of July 11 in chronological order of when it was added. All of the tracks available on Spotify, at least.

Julian Green built and manages the music library for Carbon Sound and oversees content creation.  


Julian Green

All of the tracks added to rotation on Carbon Sound the weeks of March 13, 2023.


Image for New on Carbon Sound Spotify playlist

Natalia Toledo

New on Carbon Sound

New Music on Carbon Sound - Week March 13, 2023

On Tuesday, March 14th, local artists SYM1, CRAISHON and Yasmeenah will take the 7th St Entry stage at An Evening With Carbon Sound: Night 2

. I was able to talk to the artists about performing and what they’re excited to bring to the stage next week. Hope to see you there!

 “I’m Yasmeenah, a DJ with roots in Somalia by way of the Twin Cities”

 “I’m SYM1, a Minneapolis based pop artist, producer, and vocalist where dance music, alternative genres, and hyperpop aesthetics meet.”

 “Wassup, my name is Craishon I'm an R&B artist. Born and raised in Northside Minneapolis!”

 “Answering this question is hard because I have so many favorite performers but who I’m immediately thinking of right now is Doechii…She’s fresh!”

 “If I only get to pick one performer then it’s Hatsune Miku!”

 “Beyoncé and Usher. The way they both can command the audience while hitting all their counts and still sing. It's still mind blowing and plus the music itself is top tier.”

Which song are you most excited to perform? 

 “I’m not really sure what I’m going to play for this gig yet so I can’t answer that right now!”

 “I’m most excited to play my latest single, ‘Perfect and Pretend.’ It’s an absolute Eurodance bop.”

 “I'm mostly excited to perform every song on the setlist. This is my first solo set, so I'm grateful to be performing some of my own material. Usually I'm performing with the group I’m part of. Shoutout to Basement Gang, with Junethakid, Saiku, Righteous Emcee and Quasi Uno!”

What is your favorite venue to perform at? 

 “My favorite venue to perform at right now is the Red Sea! Shoutout to the West Bank!”

 “My favorite venue to perform at is the large stage at the Underground music cafe!” 

 “I haven't been to many places yet, but I'm so happy my first show is at 7th St Entry. Like, that's crazy, but I'm so grateful. This is just the beginning!”

What is the last concert you went to? How was it? 

 “The last concert I went to was Flo Milli at the Amsterdam and it was soooo good! She’s one of the most exciting rappers out right now and her music is so fun!”

“The last show I went to was Rina Sawayama. It was iconic and fulfilling as I’d been waiting to see her since before the pandemic.”

“Y'all gone drag me, but the last time I been to a concert was like 2015. It was Ariana Grande . I was in high school and it was my first concert by myself, so I had a great time! But see y'all at Renaissance this summer!”

If you could have anything or anyone at your show what or who would it be?

 “If I could have anything/anyone at this show, it would be a supportive and warm energy from the crowd. Folks being present from the beginning to the end.”

“If I could have anything at a performance it would be a rising + rotating stage!”

“Marvin Gaye, because he's one of my favorite vocalists of all time. When he sang, you felt every lyric, every emotion, and not to mention the musicality. I would love to have a show and the set is a tropical garden. A waterfall, flowers...all that. It'd be super interactive as well. That's my theater background coming out, but that would be so dope.”

See these artists LIVE on Tuesday, March 14th at Carbon Sound’s 7th St Entry residency!

Joely Kelzer

Learn more about CRAISHON, SYM1, and Yasmeenah, who will all perform at night 2 of Carbon Sound’s March Residency a 7th St Entry on Tuesday, March 14.


First Avenue

Isaiah Stillwell

Get To Know Carbon Sound’s Residency Artists!

Hip-hop would not exist without the myriad contributions of women rappers. Historically, hip-hop has been a male-dominated landscape, rarely allowing more than one woman to shine at a time. Today, women rappers are sharing space on the charts simultaneously. The women that came before them not only paved the way for today’s women, they shaped hip-hop culture as we know it. Widely celebrated greats like Lauryn Hill and Missy Elliot, regularly receive their flowers. However, less-discussed greats like Gangsta Boo, Salt N Pepa, MC Lyte, and MC Sha-Rock deserve their own spotlight as well.

Gangsta Boo was important to my personal music listening journey aside from being influential in the hip-hop community. Hearing her rap, “Dope game, my game, hoes lame, it's a shame,” on “In Da Game” made me an instant fan. She was hardcore, she was goth, she was punk and she was a rapper. She has recently been in the hearts of many since her passing on January 1st, 2023, remembered as an icon in hip-hop. 

She hailed from Memphis and joined Three 6 Mafia, who pioneered the horror-core style of hip-hop, at the age of 14. Gangsta Boo’s verses are what drew me and many others to Three 6 Mafia’s sound. On Three 6 Mafia’s debut album, 

, she rapped over the album’s eerie beats with swagger and ease, helping to create the signature Memphis style we know today. At only 15, Gangsta Boo was already at her most menacing, rapping, “I thought you knew you can stay the fuck away from me” over the dark, evil beat of the song “I Though U Knew”. During Three 6’s breakout moment in the hip-hop mainstream, on their album 

, Gangsta Boo sets the dark and commanding tone with her opening verse on their closing song on the album, “Mindstate.” Continuing to solidify their horror-core sound, Gangsta Boo used lyrics like, “Feel the vengeance of Da Devil's Daughter/Horror all because they vomit up on sight so quick in sorrow.” She not only helped pioneer the horror-core Memphis sound, she helped to give the traditionally male gangsta rap image a female bent.

Gangsta Boo also had a solo career outside of Three 6 Mafia, spreading her influence. Boo released her first solo album, 

, which featured one of her signature songs, “Where Dem Dollas At!?” The title is self-explanatory. Boo raps about taking money from men, with lyrics like, “Thinkin' up a fuckin' plan, how to get you man/Damn I hope you understand money came with the scam”. This theme has influenced women rappers today, most noticeably, City Girls, with their song “Where The Bag At” with similar lyrics like, “Bad bitch, cute face, yeah, you like that/Don't be surprised if I ask where the bag at”. Gangsta Boo’s style was both nonchalant and aggressive, relaxed and hard-hitting. She went on to collaborate with artists such as Outkast and Blood Orange, with the songs “I’ll Call B4 I Cum”  and “Gold Teeth”.  The legacy of her style continues to show through in the women leading the hip-hop scene today. 

The themes Gangsta Boo explored in her lyrics are in line with what Salt N Pepa brought to the scene. In 1985, Salt N Pepa was formed, a hip-hop duo that flipped the script on what it meant to be a woman in hip-hop. They were among the first to embrace sex appeal, gaining popularity for their honesty and sex-positive message. 

“Let’s Talk About Sex,” a seminal sex-positive anthem, is a playful, bouncy song about safe sex. With lyrics like, “Let's tell it like it is, and how it could be/ How it was, and of course, how it should be”, ‘how it was’ meaning unsafe sex and ‘how it should be’ describing safe sex. They continued later in the song with, “Don't be coy, avoid, or make void the topic/Cuz that ain't gonna stop it”, proudly bringing their sex-positive message to radios at the time. It caught the attention of women all over, creating a positive dialogue on talking about sex from a woman’s perspective in music. 

Sex positivity is one of the main themes women rappers explore today. Rappers like Megan Thee Stallion, Flo Milli, and Doja Cat are continuing to show the influence of Salt N Pepa. Salt N Pepa led asex-positive revolution in the 90s with songs like, “Push It”, “Do You Really Want Me”, and “Shoop”. On their hit song, “None Of Your Business” they talk about autonomy and sexual freedom with lyrics like, “If I want to take a guy home with me tonight/ It's none of your business/ And she want to be a freak and sell it on the weekend/ It's none of your business”. They were frank, outspoken, and commanded respect through their music. They preached feminist values without being preachy. Their fun and playful sound gave them leeway to tackle more serious topics without alienating listeners. To say they were influential would be an understatement. 

Part of Salt N Pepa’s success was thanks to their amazing DJ, DJ Spinderella, who helped to create their sound. To talk about DJs, we must first discuss MC Sha-Rock, nicknamed the “First Lady Of Hip-Hop”. She was part of the hip-hop group Funky 4+1, which was the first hip-hop group to perform on television. Their SNL performance is credited by rappers like Jay-Z as a turning point in the culture. 

MC Sha-Rock is known for her ability to rhyme and is also credited with popularizing the echo chamber effect, a style of rapping where an MC repeats certain phrases and words for emphasis. This can be seen today in the form of ad-libs, which appear in many modern hip-hop songs. Sha-Rock has been awarded many times by the City of New York for her contributions to the culture, pioneering hip-hop through her time as an MC. 

MCs became a foundational component of hip-hop, MC Lyte built on the legacy of MC Sha-Rock and became the first solo woman rapper to release her own, full-length album. In 1988, MC Lyte’s “Lyte As A Rock” dropped. Her lyrical precision and refusal to self-censor gained her attention in the industry. MC Lyte became the first female rapper nominated for a grammy with her song, “Ruffneck” in 1993. 

Women have made hip-hop a place to showcase their strength, style, and swag. They’ve made it a space to express their opinions, beliefs, and their values. They’ve brought new techniques and themes to hip-hop. Thanks to the contributions of Gangsta Boo, Salt N Pepa, MC Sha-Rock and MC Lyte, and many more, hip-hop has become what it is today. Hip-hop history is women’s history. 

Explore the contributions of seminal women in rap with Carbon Sound Correspondent Joely Kelzer.


Series of portraits of a woman wearing sun glasses

Al Pereira

A woman raps into a microphone on a stage

Karl Walter/Getty Images for Coachella

Courtesy of the artist

Hip-hop history is Women's history

Check out Awa Mally’s photos of night 1 of Carbon Sound’s March residency at 7th St Entry.


Photos: Night 1 of An Evening with Carbon Sound

Last month, when Beyoncé became the winningest musician in the history of the Grammys, the prize that put her over the top was in the category of best electronic/dance album. And when she stepped onto the stage at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles to accept the award, she put her album, 

, into a very particular lineage. "I'd like to thank the queer community for your love and for inventing the genre," she said. "God bless you."

That "genre" is house music, and it was indeed invented by Black and primarily gay DJs in Chicago in the late 1970s and 80s. Since that time, house has evolved; it has gotten bigger, it has gotten whiter, it has made a lot of people a lot of money. But the story of house's roots is one about finding joy and making community even when that feels impossible. So when we decided to tell the story of its history, we knew we needed to go to some of the people who were there when it started, some of the musicians and DJs and dancers who filled little Chicago clubs and basements decades before house music's influence took off in Europe, before it caught the ear of major labels, before it drew millions to festivals, before it made it onto the world's biggest stages, including the one where Beyoncé accepted her record-breaking Grammy. 

Here are some of the experiences of the people who were there at the beginning, who helped to create house music, in their own words. 

(Unless otherwise attributed, the quotes in this article were collected in interviews by 

's hosts and producers. They have been edited for length and clarity. You can hear more of house music's history in the 

Listen to Throughline: 'Dance Yourself Free'

Frederick Dunson (worked and danced at the Warehouse; executive director, Frankie Knuckles Foundation):

 I was living on the west side of Chicago, in a working class neighborhood. Some people would say it was ghetto, but you know, it was what we knew. The reason that the underground clubs evolved was because most of the gay clubs gave most of the minorities a really hard time in getting in. And so as a result of that, people just said, "Oh, well, we can do our own thing and start doing underground parties." So it was a solution to a problem that wasn't getting better.

Vince Lawrence (house music promoter and producer): 

I mean, it started out in basements. You know, somebody would throw a party in their basement, play music, charge like two dollars to get in and 50 cents for soda. And we would be in there until the cops came.

In the 1970s, Frankie Knuckles moved from NYC to Chicago from NYC to DJ at a new club called the Warehouse. Knuckles helped innovate the genre by blending disco, funk and German electronic pop, playing obscure records, sound effects and drum machines. "I was in a car with a friend of mine, going to his house on the South Side and we were at a stoplight. There was a tavern on the corner with a sign saying, 'We play house music.' That was the first time I heard of it," Knuckles recalled in a 

 with Jeff Mao in 2011. "I asked him what it was, and he said, 'It's the music that you play down there at your club.' I was like, 'Excuse me?' He's like, 'That's house music.' I was like, 'Oh. I didn't realize it had a name.' 'Well, it's the House, that's everybody's nickname for the place.' That was the first time I really felt like I belonged in Chicago, that I was part of the city."

 He wasn't from Chicago, but Chicago soon accepted him. It took a couple of years. You had to remember, the Warehouse was an after hours private club, so you had to know somebody to get an invite in or to even attend.

There were nights that he played at the Warehouse, there were maybe 10 people there, and then all of a sudden, like a switch, people started coming. Just to see this influx of people start coming in, you're like, oh, okay, well, I guess everybody's catching on to what's going on?

Lori Branch (DJ, house music historian, and co-host of the 

 I think about when I went into the Warehouse and I was a 17 year old kid sneaking in, you actually had to be 18, so I wasn't sneaking in that hard, but they let me in. It was mostly gay men there, you know, a few women. Uh, a smattering of white people and others, mostly black.

 You walked up a long landing stairs and then you walked toward the back of that room and there was a long stairwell downstairs to the dance floor.

 I remember the feeling more than I remember the music, the way that the sound was presented, how it engulfed you when you walked, descended into the dance floor, down the stairs, and that there was no pause, that you just experienced it all night. It was like a story, you know, like there was a beginning and a middle and the end. You just wanted to be there for the whole thing.

We were open to six, seven, eight, nine, and then some days, maybe midnight the following night because there were marathon parties.

Lady D (aka Darlene Jackson, Chicago native and house DJ):

 [The sound of a] train and house must go together. They do because it is that type of energy, like nonstop. When you have the two turntables together and the mixer in the middle, and you're able to keep that going all night long, it was like, literally, you couldn't get enough. Full speed ahead and, like, full steam.

House music wouldn't be confined to the underground scene at the Warehouse for long. Some of the teenagers who were sneaking into the Warehouse and listening to house music on local radio shows were bringing house music to the places they could party without needing to sneak in.

 You know, beyond the Warehouse, house was everywhere, right? There were other venues along the South Side where you could go and hear DJs playing house music. And the high schools were populating those places. It was like kids from the South Side — two parent house, professional, you know, or working class parents. And we had disposable income, right? We had cars, we had transportation. Our parents let us move about the city freely.

 I want to be the guy who throws the party, that way I for sure get in free. And we put together a little group. We had our DJs and promotion people and we had group members that went to high schools all over the city, so everybody would take some flyers and pass 'em out at their school.

 People wanted to dance. It was all about the music. It was all about the DJs, and it was all about getting together. And, you know, Jack. Jacking is a type of dance, this motion — you bend your knees and you pump your hips. That was like, if you went down, but if you went up, you went like flying, almost like running in air in place. And then two people could do it together. So a guy and a girl, a girl and a girl or a guy and a guy. Basically, you're just like doing this pumping, running, like frantic, frenetic movement just to the beat of the music, to the rhythm.

: One weekend we had, you know, gotten a little drum machine, and we said, let's, you know, go make some music. And we came up with a bunch of songs, and we started playing the songs on cassette at the party, and people kept dancing just like it was any other record, like a regular ole record. We were like, Hey, wait a minute, hold on. We could make these records.

In 1984, Vince and his friend Jesse Saunders made a song called "On & On" that many consider the first real house record.

 We were playing it at the party and it was going over like gangbusters. So we said, forget it ... I know where the pressing plant is. And we pressed up "On & On" and we started playing it and giving it to our friends and some of our friends. One of our friends was Farley "Jackmaster" Funk, And he played a record on the radio [and] you know, it became really, really popular. Everybody would recognize it.  ...  He says, "OK, I'm gonna make it perfectly clear: You guys are gonna make a good record with me or I'm gonna stop playing all of yours." So I wrote this song and I said, I said, okay, well look, when you like somebody and they don't like you back the same way, you still keep liking them. Like even though you try to say, "OK, that's over," really, love can't turn around. 

The single "Love Can't Turn Around," credited to Farley "Jackmaster" Funk and featuring vocals by Chicago gospel singer Darryl Pandy, was released in 1986. House scenes were growing in other cities like Detroit, Philadelphia, New York and Washington D.C., but the song exploded in England, eventually making it to the top 10 of the U.K. singles chart.

By the mid-1990s the house music from Chicago and other American cities had morphed into electronic dance music styles like acid house, trance and drum and bass. These styles came back to the American mainstream as the millennium approached, now packaged as "electronica." Soon, artists like Madonna, Rickey Martin and Jennifer Lopez were singing over tracks you could dance to at a club. Electronic music festivals popped up and grew into huge events. By the early 2010s the electronic dance music genre had grown from its roots in these tight-knit, marginalized communities in Chicago to become a massive industry, generating billions of dollars.

Meida McNeal (Director of Honey Pot Performance and Chicago Black Social Culture Map): 

I think, when you start to really look at the landscape of folks who are part of the scene, making the music — the promoters, the folks holding down the parties, you begin to see a lineage. A lot of them grew up either in the church or had parents, uncles, aunts, whatever, who were in kind of like the black lounge, blues, whatever scene here in Chicago or had their own kind of lounges or taverns or mom and pop record stores. People grew up in these earlier forms of Black social music and ways of gathering.

 It gave you the strength to carry on, you know, to make it from week to [week]. Because, you know, people would look forward to, oh God, next Saturday. See you next Saturday. Cuz it was their release. It was their way of letting their hair down. So they came out on Saturday night to have a good time and go back and assimilate to whatever lives they were living the following week.

 For me, house music is the definition of the word intersectional. House music knows no race, it knows no social economic status. It knows no sexual preference, no religion. House brings everything and everybody together despite any so-called or perceived differences. When you're one with house music, it's all about that beat and the release and the spirit of music moving through you and all of the things that separate us kind of fade away underneath the boom, boom, boom, boom.

It has to start with the persistence, resistance and ingenuity of both Black and brown queer folk and young people. They innovated and catalyzed this genre into being and, again, it is telling a similar story just through what became popular culture, you know, social culture in that moment of kind of Black resistance.

There are all these ways in which the world and society cuts off access, discriminates, is anti-Black, is racist. And culture is a space where folks of color, Black folks, have really loudly resisted all of these efforts to silence, to make less human, to make less complex.

You know, when you really listen to the range of what is in house, like musically, sonically, but also in the lyrics, you know, it is telling stories of love.

This story includes contributions by Taylor Ash, Julie Caine, Jacob Ganz, Otis Hart, Casey Miner, Yolanda Sangweni, Anya Steinberg, Yordanos Tesfazion, Daoud Tyler-Ameen, Kevin Volkl and Lawrence Wu.

Rund Abdelfatah

Ramtin Arablouei

Cristina Kim

Devin Katayama

For the people who were there when it was invented in small clubs and basement parties in Chicago in the 1980s, house music was a force of nature. Four decades later, its impact is bigger than ever. 


Raymond Boyd

Daniel Boczarski/Getty Images

Farley Jackmaster Funk - Love Cant Turn Around TOTP (HQ) 1986

From the Warehouse to the world: Chicago and the birth of house music

We are starting a new opportunity to get YOUR feedback – 

the Carbon Sound Listener Advisory Boards (LABs)

. Carbon Sound LABs will meet once a month for an hour. Tell us what you think about events, newsletters, music, and more! 

To see if you qualify for a spot in the LAB, 

The LABs will begin in March and go for 6 months. The time and day of the week have not yet been determined. The sessions will be on Zoom, so you can join wherever you are. 

Get paid while shaping the future of Carbon Sound by joining the Listener Advisory Boards.


Carbon Sound

Join the Carbon Sound Listener Advisory Boards!

All of the tracks added to rotation on Carbon Sound the weeks of February 27, 2023.


New Music on Carbon Sound - Week February 27, 2023

BabyTron, XXL Freshman, wordplay king, and a self-confessed scam addict touched down in Minneapolis on Monday, Feb. 13.

Carbon Sound went to Fine Line in downtown Minneapolis to speak with the fans about what makes him special.

Starting the night with “Jesus Shuttlesworth” and going breathlessly through his eclectic, sample-filled discography, BabyTron and DSM delivered a show worth trekking out in the tundra on a Monday night.

Fans were excited to see the BabyTron and shared their thoughts before and after the show with Carbon Sound, a few even sang the songs themselves.

Tune in to Carbon Sound to hear tracks like 

 to watch more fan reviews and future in-studio performances.

 We took video of BabyTron’s performance, too. Scroll below for videos of his full performance, “Jesus Shuttlesworth”, and “Mr. Hanky.”

Carbon Sound went to Fine Line in Minneapolis to talk with the fans about what makes BabyTron special.


Stories

Photos: Night 2 of An Evening with Carbon Sound

Video: An Evening with Carbon Sound - Night 1

New Music on Carbon Sound - Week March 13, 2023

Get the Carbon Sound app

Get To Know Carbon Sound’s Residency Artists!

Hip-hop history is Women's history

Photos: Night 1 of An Evening with Carbon Sound

From the Warehouse to the world: Chicago and the birth of house music

Connect with Carbon Sound

Join the Carbon Sound Listener Advisory Boards!

New Music on Carbon Sound - Week February 27, 2023

BabyTron LIVE - Fans Review

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