My sweet spot is music culture: how music shapes culture and vice versa. As I get older I am less interested in describing a sound than being able to convey how it makes us feel at a particular time and place. One person enriching the discourse, and with great nuance, is poet, author and cultural critic Hanif Abdurraqib.
I was very impressed by his Lost Notes: 1980 podcast on KCRW, where he revisits a critical year from several vantage points including Grace Jones, Ian Curtis, Minnie Riperton and Stevie Wonder.
It's such a visceral and insightful ride, Hanif picking up the trail and unearthing discoveries like an archaeologist. And it’s inviting. There's room to breathe, contemplate, deviate. It's not about showing off how much you know about an artist or genre.
Never standing still, his latest aural escapade is Object Of Sound on Sonos Radio. Fusing the intimacy of late-night radio with the topicality of a talk show, he opens our minds as to what music reveals about human experience and personal history – either by reappraising the familiar or celebrating the obscure.
Hanif is such a skilled interviewer, so poised and eloquent. This guy does not do umms and errs, only revelations as he casts his third eye and invites guests to look deep within themselves. He makes a playlist to accompany and expand on each show – that fan's urge to compile and geek out is definitely part of his appeal. He might even confide in us or set a fun exercise.
Here are a few clips from his chat with Moses Sumney. The musician is talking about artistic freedom and how our incessant urge to describe and categorise has shackled black musicians in particular, the ones who have "operated under so many different modes of creativity that they have had no choice but to pursue them all at once," as Hanif points out.
There are also fascinating conversations with Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy on the art of the cover song, its potential to reveal what that track means to the interpreter and how it can be an unexpected gateway to their own work. Also, his talk with Sudan Archives, Kimberly Drew and Jenna Wortham on Afrofuturism as a vehicle to creating the world they want to inhabit.
By the way, Hanif has another book coming out called A Little Devil in America, which meditates on the significance of black performances throughout history – from Josephine Baker to Merry Clayton on The Rolling Stones’ 'Gimme Shelter', Beyonce at the Superbowl and Dave Chapelle skits. A wonderful premise. Looking forward…