PODCASTS

Kendrick Lamar Will Be Breaking Down ‘To Pimp A Butterfly’ In A New Podcast

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Kendrick Lamar podcast
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Kendrick Lamar had a huge weekend at the Super Bowl, crushing it an all-timer halftime show performance with Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Mary J. Blige, and Eminem. And while Kendrick didn’t debut the mythical new single on Sunday that we’ve all been waiting for, he did just announce a new podcast today about To Pimp A Butterfly, debuting tomorrow on Spotify.

In the second season of Spotify’s The Big Hit Show, Kendrick will be the focus of the five-part series that takes a look at the creation of the groundbreaking collision of hip-hop and jazz. “Going back into the album it was me explaining my experiences and what emotions it brought up from that experience,” he said in a trailer for the new show. “And tell them like, ‘Yo, it’s something bigger than Compton and where we from.’”

The show is hosted by music journalist Alex Pappademas and the first season was all about the Twilight saga. If that sounds a bit off the hip-hop spectrum, it’s because the podcast is an all-encompassing look at pop culture that dubs itself “an epic journey that spans genres, mediums, and generations to explore what happens when a wildly successful piece of pop culture gets so big that it changes the world. This show is about how big hits get dreamed up, how they get made, and what happens when we make them our own.”

It’s rare to have Lamar actually be a part of interviews and media about himself. Even arguably the definitive look at Lamar, journalist Marcus J. Moore’s excellent book, The Butterfly Effect, was an unofficial biography that didn’t feature an interview with the star. The Big Hit Show on TPAB will have Lamar front and center, as well as guests like George Clinton, Rapsody, and more.

The show debuts on Wednesday, 02/16 for free on Spotify, and you can stream it here.

Open Mike Eagle’s ‘What Had Happened Was’ Podcast Returns For A Third Season, Featuring Dante Ross

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In the thick of the pandemic, modern day hip-hop renaissance man Open Mike Eagle gave hip-hop heads an incredible treat when he debuted the What Had Happened Was podcast with super producer Prince Paul. Mike had a knack for setting Paul at ease and it resulted in incredible stories about Paul’s work with De La Soul, Gravediggaz, Handsome Boy Modeling School, Chris Rock, and more. The hits kept coming with Season 2 in 2020 featuring none other than El-P of Run The Jewels. Much like the first season, each episode was a chapter in the subject’s career focusing on a specific album or project, and guided by the benevolent host, El-P took listeners through the ins and outs of RTJ, Company Flow, and everything in between.

The newly announced third season promises even more hip-hop geekery, as it features famed hip-hop exec Dante Ross. A mercurial figure in the Golden Age of hip-hop, Ross was responsible for ushering along acts like Digital Underground, Queen Latifah, and De La Soul while with Def Jam and Tommy Boy Records. Then, as the hip-hop A&R man at Elektra Records, Ross signed legends like Busta Rhymes, Pete Rock & CL Smooth, Del The Funky Homosapien, and a whole lot more.

Suffice it to say, Ross is a hip-hop treasure trove of knowledge and he makes for a spectacular guest alongside the equally spectacular host. Open Mike Eagle’s Stony Island Pods network is now distributed by the much larger Talkhouse network and this season represents a well-deserved big step up for the very excellent show.

What Had Happened Was Season 3 with Dante Ross premieres Wednesday, February 9. Listen/subscribe here.

Dave Chappelle Is Launching His First-Ever Podcast, Along With Talib Kweli And Yasiin Bey

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“Last summer, Yellow Springs [Ohio] was what Hollywood is supposed to be,” says Talib Kweli about the much mythologized “Chappelle Summer Camp” of 2020, which has now given birth to Dave Chappelle’s first podcast. “What we realized is that Hollywood and all that stuff is fake. The real dopeness is where the people are. If someone like Chappelle says, ‘Well, I’m in Yellow Springs.’ Then that’s where the people are going to be.”

The show, co-hosted by Kweli and Yasiin Bey and called The Midnight Miracle, will air on the subscription podcast network Luminary, will reveal the inner workings of Chappelle’s covid rapid tested events (along with the even more legendary after-parties), held in Ohio through the summer and deep into the fall. The first episodes are set to drop “in the coming weeks” and will feature wide-ranging conversations as well as sketches, archival clips, and impersonations from Chappelle, along with a roster of his incredibly famous friends.

“The constant isn’t fame,” Kweli says, “it’s contributions to the culture. Chappelle, one of his many talents, is curating great rooms, so what people will hear on the podcast is essentially what they would hear if they were in the room with us. It’s very organic, very free-flowing, it’s non-linear… we just happen to associate ourselves with greatness.”

“The Midnight Miracle” was recorded in a retrofitted mechanic’s garage turned clubhouse, and the trio has already banked over 100 hours of content recorded with a jaw-dropping list of guests from Common and Tiffany Haddish to Questlove and Chris Rock (plus a soundtrack that includes Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonius Monk, and D’Angelo).

As for where the seed of the show first blossomed, Kweli credits his longtime Black Star partner in rhyme, Yasiin Bey. The trio’s friendship has endured since the Chappelle’s Show days.

“We speak often and the last few years we’ve spoken more, as we’ve gotten older,” Kweli tells us. “It was actually Yasiin’s idea to do this type of podcast, when he and Dave first heard people talking about my show, The People’s Party. [People’s Party is produced by Uproxx] Yasiin said to Dave, ‘you should be doing a podcast, too’ and Dave said ‘well the only way I’m doing it is if I do it with ya’ll,’ It was just that simple.”

“Making a podcast isn’t the obvious next move for me, but it’s the right one,” Chappelle said in a press release announcing the show. “The Midnight Miracle gives you a look into how me and my friends process the world around us, and I think it will change the way listeners think of what a podcast can be.”

Look for The Midnight Miracle to drop on Luminary in the weeks to come.