Freestyle’s mix of rap and dance hit hard then fell into obscurity.

From the fertile musical soil of Queens, a group of musicians called the Jamaica Kats perfected a modern fusion of jazz and funk under the tutelage of elders Weldon Irvine and Lenny White.

Long Island legends De La Soul broke onto the scene with a free-spirited aesthetic and an eclectically layered sound that would redefine the possibilities of hip-hop.

Fat Jack started an old-school nightclub in Harlem. The local kids made their rap scene the star attraction.

Dutch saxophonist Hans Dulfer melded jazz, psychedelic rock, and funk into an electric blend.

Headhunters drummer Mike Clark chops it up with Mackrosoft’s Aja West.

Icon of the ’80s New York City music scene, hip-hop linchpin and trendsetter, Monica Lynch tells her story to veteran industry insider Carol Cooper.

Actress/singer Meiko Kaji’s roles in Japanese exploitation films influenced writer-director Quinten Tarantino.

Bobbie-Jane Gardner and Brian Cross created Music of the Unseen.

The uniquely arranged vibrations of Chess Records producer Charles Stepney.

International Anthem presents Episode 2 of the documentary Out of the Shadows about Charles Stepney.

International Anthem presents the documentary Out of the Shadows about Charles Stepney.

Sign “O” the Times was recorded between 1986 and 1987—with older tracks added from the vaults—created from the ashes of aborted albums.

Excerpted from Traveling Soul: The Life of Curtis Mayfield.

Beppe Loda blended African, European, Brazilian, and American music and rhythms to create his special brew, a percussive-heavy sound that was dubbed Afro.

Kashif infused synthesizers into R&B and took the post-disco genre into a modern boogie wonderland.

Jean-Michel Basquiat dabbled in the 1980s NYC hip-hop scene.

Suzi Analogue’s Never Normal Records prioritizes representation and Black identity inclusive of the entire African diaspora.

Dayton, Ohio, native Steve Arrington came up watching the Ohio Players in the spotlight, spurring him to grind. 

German collective Jazzanova reworks the Strata Records catalog.

John Morales Presents Teddy Pendergrass started out innocently for the remixer and curator.

DJ Nuts, aka Rodrigo Teixeira, is arguably the best known Brazilian DJ internationally.

Multi-instrumentalist Derf Reklaw held a key position in the Chicago lineup.

Pieces of a Man is the the groundbreaking 1971 debut of Brian Jackson and Gil Scott-Heron.

London venue Brilliant Corners plays a classic jazz record on their impeccable sound system to a silent audience. Then a band replicates—or interprets—the entire album.

When James Mtume passed away on January 9, 2022, it took a mapmaker to craft an apt obit.

Lady Wray has a heartfelt rebirth on Leon Michel’s Big Crown Records.

Marcus Garvey was a powerful symbol of pro-Black pride and self-determination. After his death he acheived an almost mythical status, inspiring countless musical tributes.

Founder of Berklee’s Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice, drummer Terri Lyne Carrington is forging a new path forward from old-school mentalities.

Glasgow’s jazz scene emerges out from London’s shadows.

An old soul, DJ Koco brings a classic beat digger’s approach to his impeccable 7-inch selections but peppers them with new-school DJ tricks.

The Godfather of Soul, James Brown, died on Christmas Day, 2006.

Rahsaan Roland Kirk’s televised protest, the Jazz and People’s Movement.

Celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of Frank Zappa’s kaleidoscopic, surrealistic masterpiece film and soundtrack, 200 Motels.

Shintaro Sakamoto’s solo debut “sounds like a bunch of dead people, who for some reason haven’t figured out they’re dead yet, having a good time playing music.“

Chic created sophisticated dance music draped in mystery and anchored in the unison singing of a rotating cast of female vocalists.

The trio christened Gabriels met through fate, bonded through music, and creates their unique soul through a natural, pressure-free process of honest self-discovery.

Writer A. D. Amorosi goes Round 2 with the famous Philadelphia composer/arranger/producer Thom Bell.

An excerpt adapted from Elegant People: A History of the Band Weather Report (Backbeat Books) by Curt Bianchi.

Susumu Yokota brought international attention with his deeply personal forays into techno and ambient music, leaving behind a vast oeuvre of music that is only just being rediscovered.

A new generation of independent musicians with the DNA of downtown NYC are tearing up conventions and building new futures in the process.

We Almost Lost Bochum tells the story of RAG (Ruhrpott AG), the best German rap group that never rose to mainstream-level recognition. 

KRS-One is as important to the rise of hip-hop as hip-hop is to the rise of KRS-One. He is now on a crusade to change the perspective the public has on music's role in the genre. 

As part of Brazil’s mid-’60s bossa jazz scene and a session player in Rio’s numerous studios, pianist Dom Salvador played with that country’s best.

Singer-songwriter Nia Andrews turned away from her musical family to find herself.

The agonizing emotional depth of Moment of Truth was unlike anything in Gang Starr’s previous work.

Emma-Jean Thackray’s eclectic music blends her trumpet-based jazz esthetic with strings, hip-hop, and EDM.

As front man of the beloved Delfonics, William Hart brings an unmistakable falsetto and uncanny songwriting about love and heartbreak. 

Bunny Lee is one of the key figures of Jamaican popular music. An active force in one form or another during the last four and half decades, Lee started out as a record plugger....

Mikey Dread was one of those unique artists that Jamaica produces every so often—his musical creations and nonconformist personality indicating a man cut from a different cloth.

“It was clear. It was fresh,” replies GZA, when asked how his head was while making Liquid Swords.

The story of how two influential musicians joined forces with Coretta Scott King to secure a national holiday to memorialize her husband, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 

“Wake Up Everybody” was the mood on that record. These jokers weren’t playing.

Some thought Gene McDaniels disappeared for five years. Former fans thought his first album in five years was on some new shit; they didn’t recognize what they heard in Outlaw.

Harry Whitaker arranged one of the most infamous albums of 1970.

In 1958, pianist Ahmad Jamal recorded a show tune entitled “Poinciana” at a hip, Black-owned venue called the Pershing Lounge in Chicago’s South Side. 

The funky ballad of David Bowie’s time in Philly, the making of Young Americans, and his transition into Station to Station.

New York’s gay landmark the Continental Baths was a DJ incubator for Larry Levan and Frankie Knuckles.

“The greater hip-hop community is starting to realize they can’t do this shit without us—and we as Queer women aren’t going to compromise who we are any longer.”

The U.K. jazz-funk movement, often misunderstood, was hugely influential and continues to echo in today’s sounds. Part 3 of our story...

Motown engineer Bob Olhsson discusses Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On.

Daymé Arocena is a burst of light energy—an interstellar body in the constellation of Afro-Cuban world music.

DJ Muro’s arrival heralded the coming of another king to claim his crown in the lineage of hip-hop royalty…the King of Diggin’.

Schifrin is a musical chameleon with a sense of drama so heightened, an expertise and scope so wide-angled, that some cinematographers he has worked with had to have been jealous.

You couldn't ask for a better guide to New York club culture than Danny Krivit. He sits with Wax Poetics to share twelve influential records.

Of all the musical acts that have referenced tropicália, the Brazilian art/film/music movement of the late ’60s, Chicano Batman most embody its key concept: cultural cannibalism.

Although Odean Pope has performed alongside everyone from Jimmy Smith to James Brown, perhaps the wisest decision of the saxophonist’s career was to stop playing.

The second of a four-part interview that gets to the heart of the talent and charm of the late, lamented Gregory Jacobs, aka Shock G.

The last of a four-part interview that gets to the heart of the talent and charm of the late, lamented Gregory Jacobs, aka Shock G.

From its psychedelic black and white cover by David Stahlberg to its perfect 1968 production by Gary McFarland, Dreams has remained one of my most treasured LPs.

New York City’s roller-disco scene in the 1970s rivaled long-established DJ clubs and introduced a new outlet for breaking current music.

A chance meeting thousands of miles from home led to a one-off recording session and the creation of Disco Jazz, cult favorite. Singer Rupa Sen tells her story.

It took many months and twice as many phone calls to get Quincy Jones on the line. Once he called back, the man was everything you could have hoped for.

“He is a beautiful cat,” I was told about celebrated Brazilian drummer and percussionist Ivan “Mamão” Conti, and I could hear it in his voice.

Producer Jneiro Jarel has followed a path of faith, experimentation, and artistic expression that has helped him create both a cache of original music and peace of mind.

Cynthia Robinson was a single mother when she joined Sly and the Family Stone as a trumpeter and vocalist in 1966. Her story winds from the very start of the band into the next century...

Keyboardist George Duke had his ecclectic beginnings playing with Frank Zappa’s band. Then he conquered the funky jazz scene on Germany’s MPS label.

Amoeba Music opened on November 17, 1990, in Berkeley, California, offering an eclectic palette of music...

Premier is passionate and deadly serious about what he does, and on this evening he was relentless in articulating his philosophy of hip-hop.

First-call funksters, the Meters have provided the backbone to countless classics. But the story of the band remains seldom-told.

Jazzy Jay has been digging since day one. Peeking into his basement studio in the heart of Brooklyn conjures up the dusty ghosts of crates past. 

Kamasi Washington received worldwide recognition for arranging and playing saxophone on Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly. 

Back in the early ’60s, my sister’s hipster boyfriend used to bring his Herbie Mann albums over to our house, along with a couple Modern Jazz Quartet and Mose Allison records....

Welcome to the world of Daniel Dumile, whose youthful nickname of “Doom,” a phonetic abbreviation of his last name, has come to describe one of the most masterful rap artists.

Willed into being by one man, Earth, Wind & Fire became one of the biggest acts of the 1970s. 

Meet Kool DJ Red Alert, part of the trinity of DJs that fostered the Zulu Nation during the early days of hip-hop, along with Afrika Bambaataa and Jazzy Jay. 

Shuggie Otis sits down for a conversation to discuss his early life, main guitar inspirations, turning down a gig with the Rolling Stones and much more. 

Sure, tropicália is more than one band, but Os Mutantes encapsulated the movement’s reckless cultural cannibalism, absurdist humor, and innovative music like no one else.

In an arena where MCs seldom have extended careers, Wu-Tang’s Ghostface Killah has increasingly improved through two decades after his 1996 solo debut, Ironman.

The streets of New York City weren’t very pretty in the 1970s. Littered throughout once welcoming communities, an influx of heroin junkies, many broken young brothers home....

“The wildness is exquisitely wholesome. Furious dancing. Gentle laughter. Crepe paper and tinsel. Body energy shakes the room…”

Although enlightened music fans the world over were saddened by the passing of organist Lyman Woodard, the relationship that Wax Poetics had formed with the gifted musician and composer....

The Hot 8 Brass Band is a juggernaut of sweat, breath, metal, and drums, a powerhouse that lets nothing get in its way.

Hiatus Kaiyote is four uniquely talented individuals whose musical alchemy creates a whole that is more magical than its parts.

Lamont Dozier was a natural-born hitmaker. His famed songwriting team of Holland-Dozier-Holland gained unparalleled success in the R&B world...

9th Wonder chats with Wax Poetics about the records that influenced him and discusses his mission to teach hip-hop history to the next generation.

That Teena Marie has authored several of the most enduring classics of modern funk is undeniable.

Barrington Levy, the most important and best-admired vocalist to emerge from the early dancehall movement, discusses his past, present and future. 

It was winter of 1994, and I had just scored a sweet assignment to interview the king of “champagne soul,” Barry White, in Europe. 

L.A. bass beast Thundercat mixes jazz intricacies with sweeps of forward thinking electronic inspiration.

When Nasir Jones released his 1994 debut Illmatic, his use of several superstar producers on the same album set a hip-hop precendent that forever changed the game.

Following in the footsteps of Double Dee & Steinski, Prince Paul, and the Dust Brothers, DJ Shadow would push the boundaries of sampling...

Growing up with a roller-disco mom and drummer dad, Kon has been chasing the perfect beat his entire life.

Brazilian singer Ed Motta channeled his lifelong love for well-produced AOR groups like Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers and delivers a slick and melodic ode to yacht rock.

The Roots first hit the national spotlight as a live hip-hop act with their 1993 indie debut, Organix...

Take a journey through Questlove’s mind as he argues thirty-three reasons why Prince is hip-hop.