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NPR’s third annual celebration of Black Music Month begins on Monday. Tiny Desk host and producer Bobby Carter tells us about what’s in retailer this 12 months.
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Forty-five years in the past, President Jimmy Carter deemed the Month of June African American Music Appreciation Month, Black Music Month for brief. Our NPR music workforce has been celebrating the event on the Tiny Desk since 2022. That is when Usher wrapped up our first Black Music Month with a present that turned a viral meme.
USHER: Drop it.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
USHER: Hey. Oh. Hey. Watch this.
(LAUGHTER)
SHAPIRO: Nicely, our third annual celebration begins on Monday, and to inform us about what’s in retailer this 12 months, we welcome NPR Tiny Desk host and producer Bobby Carter to the present. Hey, Bobby.
BOBBY CARTER, BYLINE: What up, Ari – good to speak to you once more.
SHAPIRO: You, too. All proper. Final 12 months’s Black Music Month on the Tiny Desk ended with this raucous live performance from hip-hop star Juvenile that set a Tiny Desk file for probably the most views on its first day – appears actually tough to high that. What do you have got in retailer?
CARTER: It’s. It is laborious to high. It will get more durable to high yearly, however Chaka Khan may assist with that, I believe.
SHAPIRO: (Laughter) Oh, sure, positively.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “AIN’T NOBODY”)
CHAKA KHAN: (Singing) Ain’t no one loves me higher, makes me completely satisfied, makes me really feel this fashion.
SHAPIRO: Ain’t no one like Chaka Khan.
CARTER: That is proper. We’re doing our greatest to maintain the dialog going, and we’re stepping it up once more this 12 months. So this 12 months we’ve an all-women lineup…
SHAPIRO: Cool.
CARTER: …All-female lineup. We’re giving Black ladies their flowers this 12 months. Final 12 months I assumed to myself, like, the place are the ladies? And to provide our viewers credit score, they have been asking, too. The place are the ladies? So I instantly knew this 12 months that we have been going to do our easiest to stack this lineup with all ladies, and right here we’re.
SHAPIRO: All proper. So who’s it stacked with, past Chaka Khan?
CARTER: Oh, my God. We now have my favourite all-Black woman group, SWV, this 12 months.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “WEAK”)
SWV: (Singing) I get so weak within the knees I can hardly converse. I lose all management, and one thing takes over me.
CARTER: Sisters With Voices. Aside from ladies this 12 months, the theme is singing. Everyone seems to be singing down. The mics are on, and we do not have to show them up. So we received younger Kierra Sheard, who represents the gospel sector. Within the hip-hop space, we’ve Flo Milli and Tierra Whack, who each present one thing very distinctive and recent to hip-hop proper now – talking of recent, Brittany Spencer, who’s bringing one thing so particular to nation music proper now.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “BIGGER THAN THE SONG”)
BRITTANY SPENCER: (Singing) Makes you need to be fancy like Reba, a queen like Aretha, in love like Johnny and June, get mad like Alanis, scream like Janet, do all of it like Dolly would do.
CARTER: I believe that is – yeah, I believe we received it lined this 12 months, Ari. What do you suppose, man?
SHAPIRO: I really like the vary of that lineup…
CARTER: Yeah.
SHAPIRO: …From, like, nation to hip-hop and past. That is a whole lot of flowers. You’re actually giving the Black ladies their flowers in…
CARTER: That is proper. Yeah. Talking of flowers, we’re giving their flowers actually and figuratively. We have requested every artist or their groups, like, what their favourite flower is, and we’re greeting them. We accomplice with a younger florist by the identify of Kiki (ph), and we’re greeting them with their favourite flower as they stroll into the door. We will by no means give Black ladies in music their flowers sufficient. So we’re making an attempt to do our half to allow them to know, like, we hear you, we see you, and we love you.
SHAPIRO: That is so cool. Now I need to know, like, what’s Chaka Khan’s favourite flower? What’s Tierra Whack’s favourite flower?
CARTER: I do know, proper? Like, you realize, Tierra – you realize, you are going to see a whole lot of inexperienced. I believe – what did Chaka need? She loves roses. what I imply? So – which – that is Chaka, in fact…
SHAPIRO: She looks like a roses type of girl.
CARTER: Yeah.
SHAPIRO: All proper. So who ought to we search for when the sequence launches on Monday?
CARTER: We’re beginning off with Tems…
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “ESSENCE”)
TEMS: (Singing) You do not want no different physique. You do not want no different physique.
CARTER: …One of many greatest artists on the planet proper now within the Afrobeats section. And he or she is simply – she’s form of strolling that line of Afrobeats and simply simple R&B. And we’re kicking it off with Tems on Monday, so ensure you’re tuned in.
SHAPIRO: That seems like an incredible lineup – cannot anticipate it to launch. Thanks, Bobby.
CARTER: Thanks a lot, Ari.
SHAPIRO: Bobby Carter is host and sequence producer of NPR Music’s Tiny Desk live performance sequence. You possibly can see all of the Black Music Month Tiny Desks and greater than a thousand others at npr.org/music.
(SOUNDBITE OF WIZKID SONG, “ESSENCE (FT. TEMS)”)
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