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 May 8, 2023.


Image for New on Carbon Sound Spotify playlist

Natalia Toledo

New on Carbon Sound

Old on Carbon Sound

New Music on Carbon Sound - Week May 8, 2023

Carbon Sound caught up with Femi Koleoso, band leader of Ezra Collective, before his concert at The Dakota in Minneapolis on Friday, March 31. Watch the full interview here and listen to his DJ set on Carbon Sound on Saturday, May 6 at 12 PM. 

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel for more.

Carbon Sound caught up with Femi Koleoso, band leader of Ezra Collective, before his concert at The Dakota in Minneapolis on Friday, March 31.


Carbon Sound

Femi Koleoso (Ezra Collective) talks Gorillaz, Faith, DJing, and more with Carbon Sound

Femi Koleoso of Ezra Collective talks Gorillaz, Faith, DJing, and more with Carbon Sound

 live for the first time was an experience. Decked out in sunglasses and diamond hoops, the local rapper strode out with little preamble to a packed 

 in January. At the time unfamiliar with his work, I watched with fascination as groovy, bass-laden cuts “Warrior” and “Settle Up” brought down the house, Shahid himself navigating the stage with singular cool. Unbeknownst to us all, this was Shahid’s first time performing with a live band, and he’s been on a roll since, dropping his new single 

 as well as playing stints all over, including at 

Despite this recent rise, Shahid (pronounced “shy-heed”) kept things humble during our phone interview, preferring to dissect his influences: “Music was literally the only way to calm me down [as a kid]. To put me to sleep, my dad would take me out on car rides. Out on the whip, listening to Scarface, Ice Cube, Jay-Z. My mom would sing me to sleep… songs from Donell Jones. Boyz II Men.” 

Having grown up around music, Shahid initially turned to songwriting and poetry as more of a cathartic exercise. After high school graduation, a friend asked Shahid to feature on a track, and Shahid realized he “was investing a lot in studio time. This was my first time creating, and it was all new, being able to both express myself and release it all on the mic. It was amazing. I fell in love with it all. Producing, editing, doing it myself.” From then on, the rest was history.

A self-professed alternative hip-hop artist, Shahid’s work dabbles with a vast array of sounds, be it jazz, psychedelia, or R&B. Though Shahid cites the greats Kendrick Lamar and Outkast as inspiration, much of his work recalls the best of 

 or the frank delivery of Vince Staples’ 

 play around with distorted, vaporwave-esque synths. Deep cut “Broken Dreams” interpolates jazz chords and faint woodwinds, lyrics cutting: “Community the ones that hold it down for their people / Fuck a tax bracket, after death we all legal.” 

Throughout our interview, Shahid was remarkably transparent about the recording process, going in depth about vocal effects and demo-making. There’s unseen, painstaking work in sifting through beats, arranging studio sessions, and setting up mixing and mastering. “I put a lot of pressure on myself. I get tunnel vision, sometimes I’ll be up until 4 AM recording, just doing all these takes, trying to get things right.” 

“He’s a self-starter for sure,” frequent collaborator and friend Connor Anderson shared over the phone. “The vision is always clear in his head. He’s always refining, he’s always strategic.” 

Performing, on the other hand, is less methodical. Shahid has a host of unorthodox shows under his belt, including performing on top of a frozen lake as part of the 

“It was sub-zero out, but it’s okay, they had heated areas!” he reassured me. “It’s weird for me because I’m not super outgoing, I’m not an extrovert… I started out with lots of garage shows, open mics. Now I feel super comfortable, like I’m at a place where I kind of blackout onstage, then snap back to reality when I’m off.” He laughed.

Outside of music, Shahid juggles a host of ongoing projects, including clothing line 

, which includes minimal, athleisure-type fits. An unintentional creation, Shahid revealed he started the line only after people began asking him where he got his merch samples. “It’s just another creative side to me. I want to create comfortable, high quality designs. Nothing too flashy, but it makes you feel nice.”

In the future, Shahid plans to get behind the camera. Having co-directed past music videos with friend Connor Anderson, including “Knock Knock” and “Come Home,” Shahid plans to delve into short film making. What else is next? “More shows! I’m planning on releasing an album sometime late this year or early next year. I will for sure release ‘Warrior’ as a single. And for sure continuing to join in on jam sessions.”

“If somebody doesn’t know RZ, they will definitely be hearing of him soon,” Anderson shared before ending our call. “He is definitely deserving of his flowers. He’s putting in the work. It’s time for him to take off.”

{"type":"doc","content":[{"type":"paragraph","content":[{"text":"","type":"text"}]}]}

Fatima Rahman

A self-professed alternative hip-hop artist, Minneapolis-based rapper RZ Shahid’s work dabbles with a vast array of sounds, be it jazz, psychedelia, or R&B.


Man in blue beanie and black vest poses 9

Awa Mally for MPR

Get to Know RZ Shahid

 to talk about what it was like to be an older member in the crowd of tweens and their parents at Yeat's concert at The Armory in Minneapolis on Saturday, April 15.

Liam Armstrong

Carbon Sound linked up with Kelvino of WaterWaveTV to talk about what it was like to be an older member in the crowd of tweens and their parents at Yeat's concert.


Liam Armstrong for MPR

going to the yeat concert as a 24 year old

Minneapolis-based artist XINA visited Carbon Sound's studio for an interview and live performance of three tracks. Watch the full video above and visit our YouTube channel for videos of her performances of “Lullaby by Whitenoise,” “Runnin,” and “Emotion.”

Background Visuals: Rhianna Hajduch and XINA

Subscribe to our YouTube channel for more!

Watch Minneapolis-based artist XINA do an interview and live session in the lab with Carbon Sound


XINA in The Lab with Carbon Sound

XINA - "Lullaby by Whitenoise" (in The Lab with Carbon Sound)

XINA - "Runnin" (in The Lab with Carbon Sound)

XINA - "Emotion" (in The Lab with Carbon Sound)

Awa Mally

View Awa Mally’s photos from redveil’s sold-out show in St. Paul


Photos: redveil brings fire to St. Paul

Joely Kelzer

The fairytale theme, costumes, and each performer made the night one to remember. A wish come true.


bearBOI Photo for MPR

Review: Once Upon A Time at Ratchet St Entry was a Fairytale

“What You Gonna Do? // arts & metiers”

All of the tracks added to rotation on Carbon Sound the weeks of April 24, 2023.


New Music on Carbon Sound - Week April 24, 2023

“I am the originator, I am the emancipator, I am the architect. Rhythm and blues had a baby, and somebody named it rock ‘n’ roll.”

So announces Little Richard in a pivotal moment in the new Lisa Cortés documentary, 

. Cortés and the people interviewed in the film make it abundantly clear Little Richard was the spark that ignited the Big Bang that gave us rock ‘n’ roll. And the universe where that spark ignited may change everything you thought you knew about the origins of rock music.

Little Richard: I Am Everything - official trailer

 follows a linear progression of the artist’s life. From his birth as Richard Penniman in Macon, Georgia, in 1932, to his death in 2020, Cortés tracks Little Richard’s artistic evolution, including pivotal moments, triumphs, and pitfalls. We also get a portrait of Little Richard the person: the loving son and sibling, the supportive friend, and the conflicted soul. To help interpret the story, Cortés hands the mic to a deep roster of musicians and, vitally, of LGBTQ+ people of color who provide insightful commentary informed by both first-hand experience and studied knowledge.

Cortés lets her interviewees and a treasure trove of archival footage tell the story. At pivotal moments in Little Richard’s artistic development — which reverberated throughout popular music — Cortés emphasizes the innovation by focusing on dust dancing in the light, then using effects to add a shimmer of stardust to the scene, connecting Little Richard’s personal magic to the Big Bang of rock ‘n’ roll. As Mick Jagger says, “Little Richard is the first thing I remember as far as rock and roll is concerned.”

Despite the adulation of people like Jagger, Paul McCartney, and 

’s Dick Clark, Cortés shows the racist policies and attitudes that pushed Little Richard to the fringes of a genre he was a principal designer of. For example, in the late 1950s when Little Richard was turning out hit after hit, industry executives forced the repackaging of Little Richard’s songs by white artists like Elvis Presley and Pat Boone. Cortés illustratively juxtaposes Little Richard’s performance of “Long Tall Sally” with Boone’s bowdlerized cover; set starkly against Little Richard’s original, Boone’s take is not only stilted and soulless, it’s nearly nauseating. These covers were produced in an effort to rein in Little Richard’s success and to keep his music away from white teens — even as Little Richard’s concerts were effecting real change by integrating audiences.

Meanwhile, Little Richard faced struggles with how to own his sexuality in public for his entire life — sometimes publicly saying disparaging things about or completely turning his back on the LGBTQ+ community. Nevertheless, he was a friend and supporter of people like transgender artist and activist Sir Lady Java. Some of Little Richard’s inner conflict stemmed from his vacillation between a faith based on love and compassion versus one of judgement and condemnation that came out of the spiritual, emotional and physical abuse he suffered as a child. Commentator Dr. Zandria Robinson says, “I know he knows when he is fully himself, he is closest to God.”

And as Cortés shows, whenever Little Richard felt safe and supported, he could embrace and be his true self — and in those times, Little Richard soared. Those are the moments Cortés sprinkles with stardust. 

 shows us rock ‘n’ roll emerged not only from Black communities in the South, but also from queer spaces. That’s the power of Little Richard’s legacy, and it is supported throughout the film by LGBTQ+ commentators including Billy Porter, who says, “The reason I can show up and do whatever I want is because of him.” The influence of Little Richard continues to reach widely into music; we see it in past performances by Prince and David Bowie, and in today’s acts like Lizzo, Janelle Monáe, Harry Styles, and countless others.

In archival clips from the 1970s and 80s, Little Richard is seen onstage calling out for recognition; there’s some biting humor to it, and audiences laughed. “On one hand they might be laughing at him,” critic Tavia N’yongo observes. “They also might be laughing because they’re uncomfortable. He’s speaking truth to power.”

 plumbs history, its themes remain relevant today, particularly in the inequities faced by people of color and by LGBTQ+ people. At a time when many states in the U.S. are advancing legislature to further those inequities, 

is available to stream starting April 21 on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play, Redbox and many other platforms.

Luke Taylor

‘Little Richard: I Am Everything’ shows us the Big Bang of rock 'n' roll.


Little Richard: I Am Everything - Official Trailer | Documentary by Lisa Cortés | Opens April 21

Alamy Stock Photo/courtesy of Magnolia Pictures

The new Little Richard documentary is 'Everything'

The elusive R&B star Frank Ocean, known for avoiding the spotlight, performed on the largest stage at Coachella on Sunday night.

Ocean was a headliner this weekend alongside Bad Bunny and BLACKPINK — forming one of the most diverse line-ups in the music festival's history. 

In his set, Ocean performed reworked versions of some of his most iconic songs like his debut hit "Novacane," "White Ferrari," and "Bad Religion" — giving a rock or electronic spin to fan favorites. 

Ocean's show was long-anticipated — in part because the singer-songwriter was scheduled to headline at Coachella in 2020 when the music festival was postponed due to COVID. 

There was also some suspense that Ocean may use the platform to debut new music like some artists have in the past. While that was not the case, Ocean did hint at the possibility of a new album.

"I want to talk about why we're here because it's not because of a new album, it's because — not that there's not a new album," Ocean said.

As the crowd cheered in excitement, he clarified: "But it's not right now."

Fans had other disappointments in the set — which closed out the opening weekend of Coachella. Ocean, who performs live sparingly, came onto the stage late and had to cut his performance short because of "curfew," he told the audience. His show was also not streamed online, unlike other performances.

Still, the mounting hype over a possible new album shows Ocean fans still have an appetite for more music — regardless of the wait.

The singer-songwriter has not released new songs since his 

"Dear April" and "Cayendo" in 2020. His last album, called 

, dates back even further, to 2016. That album was an immediate hit, reaching 

 on the Billboard 200 albums chart in the week it was released.

On the biggest stage that Coachella has to offer, Ocean also used the opportunity to pay homage to his younger brother, Ryan Breaux, who 


"My brother and I came to this festival a lot," he said on Sunday night. "I know he would have been so excited to be here with all of us."


Juliana Kim

Frank Ocean closed the opening weekend of the music festival Coachella. He was originally slated to headline in 2020, but the show was postponed due to COVID.


Man in durag performs with video background

Stories

New Music on Carbon Sound - Week May 8, 2023

Femi Koleoso of Ezra Collective talks Gorillaz, Faith, DJing, and more with Carbon Sound

Get to Know RZ Shahid

Get the Carbon Sound app

going to the yeat concert as a 24 year old

XINA in The Lab with Carbon Sound

Photos: redveil brings fire to St. Paul

Review: Once Upon A Time at Ratchet St Entry was a Fairytale

Connect with Carbon Sound

New Music on Carbon Sound - Week April 24, 2023

The new Little Richard documentary is 'Everything'

Why Frank Ocean's long-anticipated Coachella performance was a mixed bag

See more stories →