All showtimes listed below are Central Daylight Time (CDT).

MONDAY, APRIL 27

• Julius Rodriguez: 7 p.m. at Dakota, Minneapolis

• L.A.'s Monday Nights ft. L.A. Buckner: 8 p.m. at Icehouse, Minneapolis

TUESDAY, APRIL 28

• Chucho Valdés Royal Quartet: 7 & 9 p.m. at Dakota, Minneapolis

• International Reggae Allstars: 9:30 p.m. at Bunkers, Minneapolis

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29

• Kaleem The Dream, J’mere, Jandetha Rae, Yevrah, & Bosco: 7 p.m. at Underground Music Cafe, Minneapolis

• Vie Boheme + Some Friends of Mine Ft Theo Brown + Eric Mayson: 8 p.m. at Icehouse, Minneapolis

THURSDAY, APRIL 30

• Jaybee & the Routine: 9:30 p.m. at Bunkers, Minneapolis

FRIDAY, MAY 1

• YFN Lucci, Plies, Webbie, Big Boogie, Belly Gang Kushington: 8 p.m. at The Armory, Minneapolis

• Reventón Presents: PERREO360: 9 p.m. at First Avenue, Minneapolis

• ALTÉ COUPÉ TOUR: 10 p.m. at Gidi, Minneapolis

• MAY DAY Synastry : dazzle • cum stalker (CARs) • glitterdark • girlblunt • TERR the OM (live visuals): 10 p.m. at Uptown VFW, Minneapolis

SATURDAY, MAY 2

• Cornbread Harris and Friends: 3 p.m. at Animales BBQ, Minneapolis

• Leela James: 7:30 p.m. at Pantages Theatre, Minneapolis

• House Sessions: 10 p.m. at Mortimer’s, Minneapolis

SUNDAY, MAY 3

• May Day In The Park: 11 a.m. at The Bowl outside the Powderhorn Community Center, Minneapolis

• Isaiah Collier: Collier Plays Coltrane: 7 p.m. at Dakota, Minneapolis

• Obi Original and The Black Atlantics Residency: 9 p.m. at Icehouse, Minneapolis

• Dr Mambo's Combo: 9:30 p.m. at Bunkers, Minneapolis

Did we miss any upcoming shows? Let us know!

Mamé Bioh stopped by to talk to Carbon Sound’s host Sanni about all things Believe In What’s Possible: from community-forward events to youth-centered political activations and fellowships.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Sanni Brown

Carbon Sound family, we have another Carbon Sound Community Voices interview. I'm so excited about these, because I get to actually see the faces that create the Minnesota creative scene, the Minnesota music scene, and everything beyond. Mamé Bioh is a community organizer, creative, and co-founder of Believe In What's Possible. And we gonna get down to why we is believing in what is possible. So Mamé Bioh welcome, welcome, welcome. Ok, so just straight to it. What is Believe In What's Possible? How did it start?

Mamé Bioh

Believe In What's Possible is a youth-led and youth centered nonprofit based in the Twin Cities and outside of the Twin Cities a little bit. We are a collective of amazing young leaders, specifically in the realm of politics, who've been either doing campaign work for the past few years, who've either been doing city work for the past few years, government work to some capacities, or who have been doing really great community work within the community for the past, like three to four years. I'll give a little bit of like my entry into the team. It's a team of, including me, four beautiful women. It was around end of '22, early '23, we had just had a really big state election. I was doing some really, really awesome community work with other organizations, and I had met my other co-founder, Chelsea, and we were in this position where a lot of the spaces that politics runs, that nonprofit spaces run, that just really heavy institutional community spaces operate, have very little young people in them. Very little BIPOC communities, very little marginalized communities, and so we were at a point where the work I was doing wasn't speaking to anybody in my generation. I had just did a voting turnout event where I had brought a bunch of my college friends with me, and afterwards, they're like, "Oh, that was fun. But I wouldn't do that again. I wouldn't really want to engage in that type of work." And also, I think specifically within past, like, five to six years, it's been a lot of just disillusionment around the ways people engage in politics, and around the trust that we have with the government, locally and nationally. But specifically nationally, I think it has really shifted and jaded a lot of the communities that really need —

Sanni Brown

Politics.

Mamé Bioh

You know what I mean? And so we all came together at a mentor's house, and we were just kind of ranting, like just talking the talk. I think we got to a point where we're like, "We don't want to be put in a position where it's so difficult for young people to come into these spaces." Whether it's leading a campaign, whether it's speaking at a hearing, whether it's showcasing artwork, whether it's even building your own campaign. And specifically, one of the things to know about the way politics works, is specifically when it comes to voting, voting operates off a reliability resource. So a lot of the databases that come into voting rely heavily on your consistency. And so, you become a reliable constituent based off of your consistency engaging with the system. Now, to the understanding, who definitely is not going to be the most reliable?

Sanni Brown

Young people.

Mamé Bioh

Young people, single mothers, Black people —

Sanni Brown

Disabled people.

Mamé Bioh

Do you see what I mean? Who's going to be the most reliable? Older white people. And it became this thing where the minute you didn't engage in the system, the minute you didn't engage in voting, it was another reason to just say, "Okay, we don't need to listen to you. We don't need to go into your neighborhood and actually speak to you." It's systemically utilized in that way. It's a cycle. They make it difficult, you back out, they use that exact reason to make it more difficult.

Sanni Brown

Okay, so gaslighting, political gaslighting.

Mamé Bioh

Oh, absolutely.

Sanni Brown

Gotcha. So, y'all got together, y'all having this conversation. You like, "Ok, we need to do something." And so you are now in this conversation, you're realizing certain trends that are used in politics and what's holding these communities back. So then who decides, "Look, we got to put boots on the ground. We got to get this moving."?

Mamé Bioh

So what happened was we wanted to do something extremely different. We really wanted to create a bridge for young people to have a level of connection building, community building, but do it in a way that brought them to the polls. We launched our kind of first year programming. Did a couple events, we did a sip and paint, we did a day party, which was really beautiful.

Sanni Brown

And what age group do you work with the most?

Mamé Bioh

So currently, the age group that we work with is 14 to 29.

Sanni Brown

Because you said sip and paint. I want to be clear.

Mamé Bioh

It's like matcha. You know what I mean?

Sanni Brown

Ok, cocoa. Talking about cocoa.

Mamé Bioh

So it's 14 to 29, specifically because until you turn 30, you are not deemed reliable yet.

Sanni Brown

Wow, I didn't know that.

Mamé Bioh

It's much more complicated than that, but in that retrospect. Even when my co-founders has been voting since they were able to, has been engaging, has been going to polls with their parents, but is not seen as a reliable constituent. Has been working campaigns, but isn't fully looked at from that —

Sanni Brown

It's also interesting that that data is being collected, and analyzed in that way I should say.

Mamé Bioh

It's specifically analyzed because, again, candidates want to — I don't say take the easy way, but they want to make sure that they're getting a bang for their buck. And so like, majority of the work that they're doing when it comes to young people, is going to college campuses, maybe a couple weeks, maybe not even the last week before voting, and saying, "Hey, here's my pamphlet. You should come." Not doing anything. And so we wanted to create more of a nonpartisan, very much community-centered way of operating where we hosted events. So since then, we were able to kind of launch Believe In What's Possible through a variety of programming, one called Scheme Space that created kind of like a thought space, and a thought space and a building space for young people to come share their thoughts, share resources, share understanding and grow as a collective. Then we had Turn Up to Turn Out, which was our community-led, community-forward, kind of like event program where we hosted drag shows, we hosted day parties, and we're doing some really cool stuff this year. I can't say yet, but just some really fun event spaces for people to just feel like a political space is actually for them. And then the other thing that we currently just launched, it's going to be coming in our second year, is the People's Studio.

Sanni Brown

What's the People's Studio?

Mamé Bioh

The People's Studio is one of my favorite things. It is a fellowship program for young creatives and aspiring community organizers —

Sanni Brown

To get involved in the political process?

Mamé Bioh

So what we want to do is we want to bring in the two worlds of creative curation and political action and civic engagement and community organizing and bring them together. So we had a great group of around like eight to nine young people who joined our fellowship and became fellows. And we taught them the fundamentals of what it means to be a community organizer, from understanding mobilizing, from understanding influence to understanding power, really, and understanding what does that what does that power look like? How do you understand it? How do you understand it from the power that you haven't used yet? How do you understand it from the power that someone actually has? And how do you understand the power from how you influence in the spaces that you have, the social settings that you have. Cool, you're a musician and you have a fan base, you can easily create art that pushes that fan base, you know what I mean? And so really creating young leaders in the city who can truly start utilizing their voices a lot more strongly.

Sanni Brown

And the tools that they naturally have.

Mamé Bioh

Exactly, exactly. So it was a beautiful program, and I'm really excited to launch it this year.

Sanni Brown

If other young people want to be a part of this, this sounds really exciting — to me, because I'm nosy. I got a nosiness, and I know that there are young people who are listening, who are also nosy, and they have their ear to the ground, but they might feel like, "I don't know, I didn't grow up around that dynamic." How could they get in touch with you? How can they follow you?

Mamé Bioh

Follow the Believe In What's Possible page, @believinwhatspossible.

Sanni Brown

When you say page, what social media?

Mamé Bioh

Instagram, go to our Instagram. We have our website there as well. You can join our email list. You'll always get the emails from us. We're always posting on Instagram, always reposting stuff. You can even DM the Instagram page and we'll respond back. And then also, I'm a community organizer, so if you want to have coffee, want to sit down, talk more, get to understand how to do that, hit me up. Heyitsmame on Instagram.

Sanni Brown

It's such a big undertaking that you're doing with this, so I'm glad that we can use our platform to support you, and I'm hoping you can come back out here and tell us more about the events that you're doing.

Mamé Bioh

Of course.

Sanni Brown

Mamé Bioh in studio, Carbon Sound. Thank you so much.

Mamé Bioh

Thank you.

Carbon Sound ticket giveaways include Baby Keem, and more!

• Baby Keem at The Armory in Minneapolis on Wednesday, May. 20.

Carbon Sound has access to your favorite artists and local events through ticket giveaways.

LIMIT ONE (1) ENTRY PER EMAIL, PER EVENT

Baby Keem at The Armory in Minneapolis on Wednesday, May. 20.

Enter for your chance to win a pair of tickets to Baby Keem at The Armory in Minneapolis on Wednesday, May. 20.

Winners will be drawn at random and notified via email. Winners will pick up their tickets at will-call on the day of the show.

Please fill in the form below to enter for your chance to win. Please use an email address you check regularly, winners will be notified by email.

Visit Live Nation’s website for more information about the show.

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Carbon Sound’s DJ sessions started back in late December of 2023. We’ve invited DJs from the Twin Cities and beyond to share their unique style in our studio. New mixes air Wednesday at 8 PM Central. We’re happy to announce that mixes will now be made available for playback online and in the Carbon Sound app for 24/7 listening. Check out the full collection of DJ mixes here.

Carbon Sound stands as a platform to highlight past and present generations of DJs, the tastemakers in the community that get us moving, introduce new tracks, and lead events. There’s so much talent based in the Twin Cities and coming through here on a monthly basis. It’s an honor to be able to highlight that.

There’s a rich history of electronic music and hip-hop in the Twin Cities, and it’s still being made today.

Stay tuned for new mixes on Carbon Sound. If you’re a DJ and want to be considered for the series, email a mix of yours to carbondigital@mpr.org.

Download the Carbon Sound app on iOS and Google Play.

Effygasm (3/25/26)

Tarik Thornton (2/18/26)

The Mayor (2/4/26)

Sophia Eris (11/7/25)

Kwey (10/31/25)

Angel Beloved (9/3/25)

UNBOTHERED Presents: Yasmeenah (6/25/25)

echo's final mix (6/18/25)

Büttäh (6/11/25)

Truly Humble Under God (6/4/25)

UNBOTHERED Presents: D Untethered (5/28/25)

BYZARRA (5/21/25)

Urban Lights Presents: Big Reece (5/14/25)

Tekk Nikk (5/7/25)

DJ Advance (4/30/25)

UNBOTHERED Presents: Yasmeenah (4/23/25)

Lonefront (4/16/25)

Urban Lights Presents: DJ IntenZ (4/9/25)

Omari Eternal (4/2/25)

UNBOTHERED Presents: Yasmeenah (3/26/25)

DJ Sci-Fi (3/19/25)

Urban Lights Presents: DJ Layz T (3/12/25)

Ori The Ghost (3/5/25)

Rimarkable (2/26/25)

DJ Slugo (2/19/25)

Urban Lights Presents: Mickey Breeze (2/12/25)

Girl Blunt (2/5/25)

echo (1/15/25)

DJ TNA (12/11/24)

kaya (11/27/24)

DJ McShellen (11/20/24)

echo (11/13/24)

Luzia Fuchsia (10/30/24)

Real Girl (10/16/24)

El Niño Indigo (10/2/24)

TaliaKnight (9/4/24)

Sasha Bangz (8/28/24)

echo (8/21/24)

Ronnie Loko (8/7/24)

Jeff Swiff (7/24/24)

Nola Rave (7/10/24)

Blackmoonchild (6/26/24)

Entrañas (6/12/24)

AKKO (5/29/24)

DJ JEN-E (5/15/24)

DJ Etta (5/1/24)

Alexis Rose (4/17/24)

Kwey (4/3/24)

Sophia Eris (3/20/24)

Yasmeenah (3/6/24)

Dazegxd (2/21/24)

Dazzle (2/7/24)

echo (12/29/23, 1/10/24, 1/24/24)

DJ PEACEBOII is a DJ and event curator based in Minneapolis. He first started DJing because he felt a need to explore more diverse sounds he thought were missing from the Minneapolis scene. This solo endeavor soon became one built with other community members and creatives, leading to events like Battle for the Belt and various club appearances.

In his mix for Carbon Sound, DJ PEACEBOII celebrates 5 years in the game with Afrobeats, R&B, and more.

We chatted with DJ PEACEBOII about his background and intentions for the mix. Read a transcript of the interview edited for length and clarity below:

Who are you?

I'm DJ PEACEBOII, I feel like I DJ for the people. I like to read the rooms, see the vibes, see what's going on. I don't like to be put in a certain box. I feel like I could do Hip-Hop, R&B, Dancehall, even EDM, like, whatever the vibes is, I'm able to do it.

When did you first start DJing?

I started DJing five years ago. I just came up on five years.

What made you want to start DJing?

I just felt the need for it. It wasn't a lot of diversity as far as music in the Minneapolis scene, and that was something that I felt like I brought to the table. Just playing different stuff, not the same set, not the same music all the time, and giving people actual vibes.

Over the course of these five years, have you had favorite spots to DJ at?

I really don't have a favorite spot, because I pretty much DJ everywhere. As long as they got a good sound system, it works for me.

Do you have any highs and lows when it comes to DJing over that time?

Yeah, I mean it was one point where I was doing my own shows, I was killing it, doing my own thing, and then the venue that I was doing my stuff at had shut down for like a year. So that kind of messed me up, because I was known for having my own stuff. So it kind of switched my mindset to not just doing my own thing, but tapping in with other people, building relationships with other people. So if I do ever get in that type of situation, I won't just be stagnant, and not moving around and DJing.

You were mentioning how certain sounds in Minneapolis weren't being covered. Do you feel like that's changed?

Yeah, for sure. It's just right now we have a shortage on clubs, because a lot of clubs have shut down, but I feel like it's a lot of dope DJs out there that bring a lot of diversity now to the scene.

What can you tell us about Battle for the Belt?

That was something I came up with, I think it was last year, because I wanted to bring like, that competition to the Minneapolis scene. And I felt like we got a lot of dope artists, and everybody feel like they the best. So I'm like, "Shoot, let's see who gonna be the best." And then my boy Rick from Water Wave TV, he reached out to me for the last one we just did, and me and him collabed on it, and it was a great turnout.

What observations did you make about putting competition on display like that?

If I'm being honest, you actually see who take it serious and who don't. You actually see who's just taking it as a hobby and who's actually trying to make it. It's like a big difference.

Knowing you take it seriously, what can we expect from this set today?

I'm energy, man. So it's just a lot of energy, a lot of dope vibes, I'm gonna try to get into some like transition, I'm gonna try to take it around and then bring it back, we just gonna travel everywhere, man.

Duol Chut of Diesel J's and Smokin on the Runway stopped by to talk to Carbon Sound’s host Sanni about starting his own business, his upcoming events, and more.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Sanni Brown

In studio, I've been talking about it all week, organizer of Diesel J's, a rolling paper company that hosts community events based around business education, fashion shows, and artist showcases — and honestly, I just met you last year, and you was hustling, Carbon Sound family, Duol Chut.

Duol Chut

Thank you for the introduction, Sanni, and it's a pleasure.

Sanni Brown

So first and foremost, what is Diesel J and how did that come to be?

Duol Chut

So there was a time where my nickname was Diesel. I have, like especially in college, I was just known to have good bud. I'm a connoisseur. I'm just very connoisseur minded.

Sanni Brown

When he say bud, he mean weed?

Duol Chut

Yeah, cannabis. I don't know, what terminology should we be using?

Sanni Brown

I mean, it's legal.

Duol Chut

Yeah, exactly, right? That's what we trying to preach. But that's where the name Diesel J's came from. So we're an organic, all-natural rolling paper brand, and we host community events, mainly cannabis inspired, but we also do a few other ones too.

Sanni Brown

How do you put on community events? Because I feel like marijuana is legalized now, but I just grew up most of my life it was illegal. I don't know, I feel like I'm still in the dark ages of it being illegal, and I'm even still scared to say it on air.

Duol Chut

Honestly, it was like right after COVID, I just stopped drinking. So I just went California sober. So it's been about, really, five years.

Sanni Brown

Pause. What is California sober?

Duol Chut

California sober just means that I don't drink alcohol, or if it's just a special occasion, I'll have a glass of champagne. But for the most part, I just consume cannabis.

Sanni Brown

What was the thing that made you decide to do that?

Duol Chut

Honestly, I had a drinking problem. It was college, but just for a small town and things like that, I just saw what it really did to me and did to like, friends and family. And it was just one of those situations I saw how I was doing without it, and I'm like, "I can't go back." And so that's why I've been California sober for so long. And I just felt like cannabis has helped me be more creative, be more disciplined, and really just kind of figure out what I want to do, and I'm just going at it.

Sanni Brown

You just said that was what you was doing as a part of college life. And then you pivot into Diesel J's, into this company, what was the moment in COVID that made you be like, you want to go from consuming it, to "I want the community to be able to consume, as well as the culture" and coming together and creating this whole experience around it?

Duol Chut

Honestly, it was for representation. In 2020 when COVID happened, I lost my job. So I was figuring out a lot of different things, I started doing reselling of electronics, and I wanted to get into business for sure, 100%. And by 2022, I wasn't drinking, I stopped smoking backwoods, I got the tobacco out of my system, and I just went through all the rolling papers that's out there, all the major brands, and I just didn't really like the experience with them. And I'm like, "Okay, let me just start my own." But what really made me go full out on it was, I have a best friend, he passed away in 2020, and it was kind of due to alcohol. I stopped drinking before that, but after that, I'm like, "Okay, I'm just gonna launch it." I can't really think on it. I'm a person who likes to plan so I had everything written out. It's like, "Okay, I just have to do it, and I'm gonna figure it out. I'm just gonna really apply what I know in business and really figure this out." Because that's the only thing I could do.

Sanni Brown

What does ownership and Black entrepreneurship mean to you, and how did that tie into you creating this business?

Duol Chut

Ownership is huge to me. Have you heard of Earn Your Leisure?

Sanni Brown

I have heard of that, yeah.

Duol Chut

So 2020, 2021 is when they launched, I watched one of their first three episodes on YouTube, and so I literally have been following their story since then. From what they were doing and who they were bringing on, and watching them literally start off a podcast just like this, using their phones just like this to kind of get where they're at now, I took that as inspiration and really watched them and took that into consideration with what I'm doing.

Sanni Brown

Okay, so when does the fashion show come in? How did you tie this in to that? Because I feel like a fashion show is so formal and everybody's got to be on they point, and this seems more like laid back and relaxed. How do you merge them two vibes?

Duol Chut

I guess I'm kind of both. I'm from the military background, I've been doing sports since like sixth grade, so I'm very disciplined, detailed-oriented. I also like to smoke weed and kick back. Before I started even doing our own fashion show, I was a photographer for Black Fashion Week, so I was doing fashion shows, helping them put it together. We'd do seven shows a season, so I did that for a full year. One thing I always recommend to people, if you're really trying to get into a space, and if you're really trying to grow your skills, I just gave my photography for free. Like, this is a great way for me to step in, I was able to do that, they loved the work, I was able to meet a lot of people from there, really able to connect with a lot of different models, different artists. And they called me back the next season. Like, "Hey, we want you to do photography again, and this time we'll pay you. We really loved what you did last time." And plus, I was setting up, still kind of getting my name out there, and so I appreciate Black Fashion Week and Natalie Morrow for that. It was her, Shamika and Ambers Foundation. So that's kind of how I got started into fashion, like, actually working there. But my cousin, she's actually a designer, she was involved in New York Fashion Week. She was the very first fashion show I went to back in like, 2017. I just went out there with my cousins, one of my homies from high school, he was a model. So I'm like, "Okay, cool, this is pretty dope." I just came back from the military, so I was just chilling. Like, I'm about to go to college, it wasn't really anything I was in tune with, but that was my first experience with that. I came back to it once I started my business, because I'm like, "Let me do photography, because it'll save me money, I'll learn the skill, and I could use that as well." And that's kind of where it took me from there, and kind of seeing the lack of it, because I was going to fashion shows and I was going to cannabis events, a lot of them were still underground feel, even though it's kind of legal. And so what came to be was Smokin on the Runway, which was the fact that I have a cannabis brand, mainly rolling papers, but we have some apparel. People didn't really look at cannabis apparel, except for drug rugs, or Cookies, that was like the only major brand people know.

Sanni Brown

I'm telling you, I'm trying to figure out, where does the fashion come in? I have never thought of the cannabis community being known for fashion.

Duol Chut

But there is designers, because guess what? All these same designers, artists, and models love cannabis. They never actually got to experience the actual events because —

Sanni Brown

It was illegal, too.

Duol Chut

They just, "I'm trying to just smoke weed. I'm not trying to get locked up." And so that's still that same stigma. So we're just trying to change that by bringing those two things together, and really showcasing these designers and these people who are cannabis advocates, and some of these designers, they don't have to be a cannabis brand. They're just incorporating cannabis themes into their designs, if that's symbolism, if that's materials like hemp and sustainability. So we do upcycle, so sustainability is a huge part of that. And then we also add a lot of color.

Sanni Brown

So you got a fashion show coming up on May 3. Is the hemp folks gonna be in the building?

Duol Chut

You know it's going to be, you're gonna see some great designs. And additionally, from the fashion show, we're gonna have a limited-edition collaboration with KelsTheGawd. It's going to be his album release as well. Keep that on the hush. I'm just kidding, tell everybody! We trying to have you guys come out. So it's gonna be a limited-edition release of the cones, they're going to be available there. We're gonna have some preorders, so I'm excited for that. This has been one of our goals, and there was just so much synergy coming up for it, and it just felt great.

Sanni Brown

I know you got your show on May 3, but do you have anything else that you could give us like a Carbon Sound exclusive about?

Duol Chut

So we have the NECANN afterparty May 14. And so NECANN, they are the Northeastern Cannabis Association. They do conferences like CHAMPS Trade Show, they do that all across the country, and they came to emerging markets. What I love about NECANN is they're very socially focused, so they work with the community to put this together. They have a percentage of their booth space set aside for social equity applicants. And then additionally, they try to make sure to highlight a lot of the different artists that are coming through. They have like an art basil. So we're doing the official afterparty for them. And it's just another way for us to really kind of grow, connect with different professionals across the country, and also kind of just introduce them to what Minnesota is about. So we're gonna do what we do already, and kind of do that for the conference afterparty, and show them what to expect of our Minnesota cannabis. And the teaser right here is we're trying to put together a free community event at the end of May and early June, and have it become a running series. Because one thing that we've talked about is during all this time and isolation with the cold, with Metro Surge and everything going on, there's a lot of trauma. Psychologically speaking, you need at least four to six positive experiences to kind of get over that negative experience in all relationships. And when I say relationships, I mean community as well. We're trying to put together these free community events, and these events in general, it's just kind of bringing back joy, like you need that so much, especially during this time. And the best way people feel that is through the arts. So we're definitely trying to bring that together.

Sanni Brown

How can we follow you? How can we keep up with you and support what you're doing, so that you can further continue to support the community with your projects.

Duol Chut

You can find us on IG at smokinontherunway, and you can find us on Instagram at chief.diesel for our rolling papers. You can also find us at www.dieseljpapers.com, and at www.sotrmn.org, which is abbreviations for smokinontherunwaymn.org.

Sanni Brown

Thank you so much Duol, thank you for coming out. What makes your rolling papers different than other people's rolling papers?

Duol Chut

I'm glad you asked. So what makes our papers different from most of the papers that you see, is ours is not made out of hemp, it's not made out of rice paper, which is predominantly what's used. We use wood pulp. So ours are called brown paper, so they have a browner tint to them, so it's still all organic, all natural, wood pulp is. But it has like, thicker fibers, so it just burns slower, less likely to canoe. And I enjoy that texture and that consistency better, because if it's dry, or if it's kind of a little bit more moist, it still burns well, and it doesn't just flame out or burn unevenly.

Sanni Brown

Well, thank you. I really appreciate you coming into Carbon Sound fasho.

Duol Chut

I appreciate it, Sanni.

All showtimes listed below are Central Daylight Time (CDT).

MONDAY, APRIL 13

• L.A.'s Monday Nights: 8 p.m. at Icehouse, Minneapolis

TUESDAY, APRIL 14

• Sosocamo with Thirteendegrees: 8 p.m. at 7th St. Entry, Minneapolis

• International Reggae Allstars: 9:30 p.m. at Bunkers, Minneapolis

• POPUP!:AVRIL14th: 10 p.m. at Mortimer’s, Minneapolis

THURSDAY, APRIL 16

• CHE: 7:30 p.m. at First Avenue, Minneapolis

• CURREN$Y: 8 p.m. at The Cabooze, Minneapolis

• Snapped Live Band Open Mic: 8 p.m. at Green Room, Minneapolis

• Jaybee & the Routine: 9:30 p.m. at Bunkers, Minneapolis

FRIDAY, APRIL 17

• Big Daddy Kane: 6:30 & 9 p.m. at Dakota, Minneapolis

• Late Night Lounge: Sophia Eris: 10 p.m. at Berlin, Minneapolis

• No Limit Fridays: 10 p.m. at Gidi, Minneapolis

• REVENTON RAVE: 10 p.m. at Green Room, Minneapolis

SATURDAY, APRIL 18

• CHALIE BROWN — LIVE IN THE UPRISING: 7 p.m. at Urban Lights, St. Paul

• The Twin Cities Best Kept Secret: Monroe Wright III: 7 p.m. at Hopkins Center for the Arts, Hopkins, Minn.

• Underground Saturdays: SPRING BASH: 9 p.m. at Underground Music Cafe, Minneapolis

• GIDIPOLIS: 10 p.m. at Gidi, Minneapolis

• SATURDAY NIGHT VIBES: Afropiano Experience: 10 p.m. at The Bazemnt, Minneapolis

• Late Night Lounge: Ebony & Ivory: 10:30 p.m. at Berlin, Minneapolis

• FIERCE: A Queer Dance Party: 10:45 p.m. at ESCape Bar at Eat Street Crossing, Minneapolis

SUNDAY, APRIL 19

• Urgent Emergent Performance Art Series, Volume Four: The Poet’s Circle: 4 p.m. at Icehouse, Minneapolis

• The Blog Era: 7 p.m. at Zhora Darling, Minneapolis

• Washington Express: Mississippi: 7 p.m. at Berlin, Minneapolis

• YASMIN WILLIAMS with Nathan Graham: 7:30 p.m. at The Cedar, Minneapolis

• Snow Tha Product: 8 p.m. at First Avenue, Minneapolis

• Dr Mambo's Combo: 9:30 p.m. at Bunkers, Minneapolis

• GLOBAL GROOVE PRESENTS: ZIM 46 🇿🇼: 10 p.m. at The Bazemnt, Minneapolis

Did we miss any upcoming shows? Let us know!

Righteous Emcee stopped by to talk Carbon Sound’s host Sanni about his new album, A Legendary Run.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Sanni Brown

It's The Message, Carbon Sound Music for Life. An independent hip-hop artist, curator, community builder rooted in the Twin Cities, and just recently came out with one of the dopest hip-hop albums I've heard in 2026 so far. The name of the album is called A Legendary Run, Carbon Sound family, please welcome Righteous Emcee. Thank you so much for coming in, man.

Righteous Emcee

Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here.

Sanni Brown

So just straight out the gate, this album, A Legendary Run. Where did that come from? It dropped February 23, 2026, we ain't too far removed.

Righteous Emcee

So initially, I started recording another album. I started recording that, maybe, like, two years ago. And the producer of that album, he had a baby. So he was like, "Yo, I ain't gonna be able to really move around and do a lot of things." So, you know, I kind of took that opportunity just to create something new. And I started making songs, and literally, it just start forming itself, and it turned into A Legendary Run. And as independent artists, a lot of times, we don't look at our journeys as careers, right? We tend to think it's just something that we do, and we love it or whatever, but no, this is a career. And you put a lot of time and effort and energy and money into this craft. It's a career. So I had to take a step back and kind of look at all of the things that I've done, and really just give myself a round of applause. We don't tend to do that so often. A lot of times, we just so stuck in like, survival mode, and I just gotta get it, I gotta get it. But sometimes it's cool to celebrate the wins, and look back at all of the things that you've gone through and say, "Wow, look where I'm at." I think about all of the times when I was a kid, and I would stand on the front porch of my mama's house in Chicago and pretend like I was on a stage and be rapping and doing all the things. And to look at my life now, I've touched all the stages that you can probably touch in this city. So yeah, that's a beautiful thing. I look at A Legendary Run as me looking at it from the standpoint of like, "Wow, I've done a lot," but also, "I got more to do."

Sanni Brown

What would you say are the top three things, real things, that make up Righteous Emcee that you poured into this album?

Righteous Emcee

I would say vulnerability is probably the number one thing that I put into it, just being okay with saying certain things, right? Being ok with talking about what you've been through, being ok with telling your best friends that you love them. Just being ok with certain things because we live in a society where, especially for Black men, we're taught, "Hey, all that crying, check that at the door." But it's like, nah, it's okay to deal with things and go through emotions and feel certain things. So vulnerability was definitely one of them, I would say just knowing who you are. And I know for me personally, I won't speak for anybody else, but for me, I've always kind of been ok with playing the background, because I look at it as everybody has a role to play, right? Everybody has a position. And I've always just said, "Hey, y'all go to the front. I'm cool with playing it back. I'll work on this, and y'all be the stars." But it's like, I'm a star; I can shine bright too. So a lot of it is really about just me saying, "You know what, I know who I am."

Sanni Brown

I'm really glad you said that, because we have a lot of young people listening, and I need them to hear that. They have that star quality as well. Okay, what's the third thing you put in?

Righteous Emcee

I would say just love. Love for the craft, love for the people in my life, love for my kids. It's kind of like how they talk about when your grandma or somebody would make a dish. They would say they put the love in it, measured everything and everything was delicious. And that's how I looked at this album, like, "I'm not gonna rush it." It took a while, it took a year and a half to complete, but it's like, "I'm gonna take my time, I'm gonna put my all into it, and I'm gonna really give everybody just all of me."

Sanni Brown

You can tell. There was a lot of rawness on the album. What does legendary mean to you?

Righteous Emcee

I think that's for whoever is dealing with that, that's for them to decide. I don't think legendary comes with boxes to check off. I think it's however you look at it. Maybe you've overcome an addiction, "I'm legendary," right? Because I did something that so many people couldn't do or still struggling with, right? It could be anything, really. It could be anything that makes you feel like you're legendary. And I know for me personally, what makes me feel like I'm legendary is that when I look back in my life and look back at all of the things that I've been through and where I've come, I never knew that I would be married with children. I never thought that I would be on these stages, like I couldn't see past a year for a long time. But it's like now I'm here, I'm sitting with y'all, and I'm talking about this album, that's legendary to me. So it's whatever you want it to be.

Sanni Brown

How else are you gonna show us Righteous Emcee? What other events you got going on to show us the culture?

Righteous Emcee

April 17, I'll be performing at Acadia. It's for a show for a brother of mine who's out of New Orleans, he's coming here. So that's like the first performance that I'm having post the album. I'm kind of still in that creative mode right now, so I recently just dropped a three-piece special. And basically what that is, is for anybody who actually went to EVEN to purchase the album, I gave them access to three songs, three original songs that I created just for them to have. So I sent that to them, and everybody really enjoyed it. They really loved it. Somebody even said, "Hey, man, I'm loving this with the album, this is crazy." So I'm kind of in this space where I like giving out these small EPs that really pack a punch, so to speak. So I'm putting out another one very soon, but I'm gonna make that available to everybody, and that's gonna be coming soon. So yeah, I'm just really in creative mode right now. Got another album coming out, my brother Bushido.Chop. who's one of the dopest emcees, producers in the city, he's producing my next album that's gonna be coming out sometime in May, and that's gonna be called Subs No Dubs. Hope everybody appreciate that when it come out, and we gonna do it again.

Sanni Brown

We missed this question, but please tell us more about your EVEN account.

Righteous Emcee

EVEN is basically a platform where you can sell your music direct to consumer. And I've been kind of on that for a while and just trying to navigate, like, what's the best way to do that? Because sometimes you put something out and you put a price tag on it, some people feel a way about that, because things are so readily available now. I tell people all the time, streaming to me ain't nothing but a utility at this point. You pay your bill, you get it for the month, and you just pay it again. So you lose a sense of value when it comes to the music, right? It's just like it's always there. But when you actually have to go somewhere, pay for it, do the whole process, download it, all these type of things, you kind of appreciate it just a little bit more through that process. So I wanted people to really appreciate the music and sit with the music. You pay $10 for it, so, "Hey, I'm gonna actually sit with this and listen to it." And then also, you put a lot into the music. Studio time and mixing and mastering and all of these type of things, that ain't free, that costs money. So you want to see some type of return. But for me, it's really not about making the money off of the album. It's just about creating the space where the album can live and breathe. And it's just not something that you can just, "Oh, here it go right here, and I can skip through the songs," and "Oh, it got a little dot by the song, I guess that means that's the best song, let me listen to it." So it eliminates that, and you can just love and sit with the album.

Sanni Brown

Is there a handle we're supposed to follow you on?

Righteous Emcee

Yeah, you can go to Even.biz, and then type in Righteous Emcee, and you'll find me.

Sanni Brown

How can we just keep up with you? What if we're new to town and we just happen to pull into the Twin Cities and we heard this interview, how do we keep up with Righteous Emcee?

Righteous Emcee

Just follow me on Instagram. That's where I'm at, that's the hub for everything. Go to Instagram, righteousemcee on Instagram. Anything new is happening with me, that's where you will probably see it.

Sanni Brown

I gotta follow you. A Legendary Run by Righteous Emcee. If you like lyricism, you like people talking that spit, okay, this is the album for you. In my opinion, no skips. Thank you for doing what you're doing. Thank you for being who you are, and thank you for coming in to Carbon Sound studios.

Righteous Emcee

Thank you for having me.

Sanni Brown

I appreciate you so much. I cannot wait to get that song in here. I already made somebody cry. What is it called?

Righteous Emcee

“'95 Regal.”

Sanni Brown

“'95 Regal,” I knew it was a Buick! That Regal baby, that Regal done got me through some things. Thank you Righteous Emcee, thank you so much.

Righteous Emcee

Appreciate it.

Effy Kawira, also known as Effygasm, is a DJ, director, writer, producer, and more. A masterful curator and worldbuilder, Effygasm uses her filmmaking experience to create sets from beginning to end that tell a story. One of her favorite parts about DJing is discovering new sounds, and she noted the importance of opening up audiences to fresh sonic experiences as a DJ.

In her mix for Carbon Sound, Effygasm was looking to party. She mentioned craving the experience of truly turning up with no thoughts and no worries. So, under the guidance of Effygasm, turn up to this set in your house, your car, or really anywhere, and dance away.

We chatted with Effygasm about her background and intentions for the mix. Read a transcript of the interview edited for length and clarity below:

Who are you?

Hi, I'm Effy Kawira, aka Effygasm.

Are there any artistic practices you come from?

Yeah, I do a lot of things. I guess I'd say I'm kind of multidisciplinary. I'm not only a DJ — I'm a director, I'm a writer, I'm a producer. What else do I do? I'm also on a journey of starting something very new that's coming out soon, which basically kind of ties in every single thing that I've learned from all of the various creative practices that I've invested my time and my energy into. And it's truly a culmination of all of it, which I'm really, really excited for it to come out, but I don't want to see too much...But you'll see it in like a month.

In the things you mentioned, I think of visual art. Has DJing helped you as a visual artist, or do you see them as separate practices?

I see them together. When I started creating more visual work, for example, like working in music videos, music would inspire visuals for me. I have a very visual brain, and I can think of what I see and describe it and express it. And I think that without music, I don't think my visual eye would be as refined. I think that there's an importance to my understanding of music and developing that practice, too. It goes into the whole process of building a world and trying to convey a message, and I think for me, comes a lot from what I hear and what things make me feel in that way. So I don't think that they're separate; I think more so they're intertwined for me. I think everything I do, in a way, feels like it's super intertwined.

Is that why you wanted to become a DJ? What's the origin story?

When I first started wanting to become a DJ, I was like, 18, 19 — no, actually, I was younger. This was like, SoundCloud, Majestic Casual, Tumblr, that era of music, and I wanted to be a DJ, because I felt like I was being introduced to all these different sounds. And my mind wasn't even thinking, like, "Oh yeah, I'm gonna produce." I was like, "I want to DJ." I think music became so much more interesting to me, and I felt like there was so much discovery that I wanted to be part of it. And so that's why I wanted to become a DJ, because I was just like, "Wow, I want to explore this. I want to share this as well." I think that was a big part for me, and then eventually I became a DJ.

Has that music discovery element been your favorite part about being a DJ? Or what would you say your favorite part is?

Yeah, I think the music discovery is really, really fun. I enjoy listening to something being like, "Oh my god, I love this. I can't wait to play this for other people, to hear how fire this song is." Or just to see people's reactions, I guess. And I think that DJs are important for introducing people to new sounds. I think a lot of people don't really take that time, like, it's really a study of its own. I don't think people take the time to discover new music or discover new genres. They just kind of stay in the lane of what they typically listen to, but as a DJ, you can open up people to new sonic experiences that they might have otherwise never heard of or ever experienced outside of you, and spark that curiosity for them to then go ahead and deepen that exploration for themselves, which I think is cool.

What are some notable highs and lows throughout your time as a DJ?

The highs of DJing are when you have a really great set, and you're excited about it, and then you play it, and everybody really, really loves it. And also, when you can truly build a set. I don't necessarily know how to explain it, but I'm sure y'all know what I'm talking about. When you build a set from beginning to end, and it feels like it's telling a story. I love those sets where I feel like I'm taking elements of my experience when it comes to filmmaking and telling a story through a set. That feels really satisfying to me. And lows — I hate playing for a crowd that wants to just hear the same shit. I don't want to play for a crowd who's not open to exploration, because then you're literally playing the same shit all the time. And I don't think that's a fun experience as someone who curates energy for any environment, and so I don't really enjoy those types of things. And I think sometimes clubs can be that way. But I also think it's particularly mainly in America, where it's like, people just want to hear what they want to hear, and people aren't open to new sounds or new sonic experiences. They want to hear the same shit that they listen to. And also TikTok. TikTok to me, I think ruins the experience of listening, because people only want to hear that sound bite that they heard on TikTok. But then once you're done with that, you have to transition because they don't want to hear it. They're now disengaged.

So I'm hearing exploration, discovery, storytelling. What kind of story are you hoping to tell for the Carbon Sound audience today?

Honestly, I've been in this energy where I'm craving, truly, to just freely party and turn up. I don't know, it sounds crazy, but I feel like I've just been desiring the experience of truly just turning up with no thoughts. And I feel like we don't have experiences like that anymore, where you could just go and turn up and be free and not worry about people being on their phone and people making videos of you, and you being in the video. And it's like, you have to be so aware of your experiences nowadays when you're out, even when you're just trying to enjoy yourself. I think for me, the set is that. I want people to just feel free, turn up in your house, turn up in your car, dance your ass off. That was the point of this. It's not going to be chill whatsoever. It's not a chill set at all.

The Carbon Sound Community Listening Collective is a group of trusted DJs, cultural workers, and community members who will help shape how Carbon Sound discovers and curates music. Created to ensure our intake process remains community-rooted, transparent, and accountable, the Collective centers Black musical expression across genres and generations while uplifting local and regional BIPOC artists. Members offer insight, perspective, and scoring during structured listening cycles, helping ground programming decisions in lived experience rather than trends alone.

The Collective is advisory in nature, reflecting a wide range of musical lineages, scenes, and creative communities. Through monthly listening sessions, members review and respond to new music submissions, strengthening equity in how artists are heard and considered. While final programming decisions remain with Carbon Sound, the Collective plays a critical role in shaping how we listen, learn, and show up for the community we serve.

We’re grateful for the artists and cultural workers who help shape how we listen. If you’d like your music considered, we invite you to submit here!

Meet the members of the Carbon Sound Community Listening Collective:

TIM WILSON

Tim Wilson has been the owner and operator of Urban Lights Music for the past 31 years.
He is experienced in retail sales, marketing, branding, and customer service. He is at Urban Lights because he loves music, the daily interaction with customers, and the opportunity to share his knowledge and insight into the music business with the next generation.

RICKI MONIQUE

Ricki Monique is a Minnesota-based musician, educator, and cultural curator. As a Co-Organizer of Tangible Collective, her practice centers on utilizing creative expression as a way to engage community in collective imagination and cultural development. Through intentional space setting in both the classroom and on stage, she aims to build a container for expressive and sustainable modes of being.

AWA MALLY, THE MAYOR

Awa Mally, aka The Mayor, is a Minneapolis creative, DJ, event curator, and co-creator of PureWaterRadio, home to an all-genre beat battle (4X). With a commitment to community-rooted curation and a belief that music has no limits, Awa champions Minnesota's artists as both keepers of musical legacy and pioneers of new sounds. She brings a diverse perspective and passion for elevating the voices shaping the future of the music industry.

Michelle Ndely, DJ MCSHELLEN

Michelle Ndely, known as “DJ McShellen,” is a Minnesota-based open-format DJ with Cameroonian roots and a deep, inherited love for music, quickly emerging as a rising force in the local scene. Recognized for her authentic yet infectious energy, thoughtful song selection, and genre-blending sound, she delivers a truly one-of-one, fun, and unforgettable experience with every set. Beyond the booth, Michelle channels her creativity into fashion and her community, working as a mental health practitioner and child welfare policy analyst—bringing the same care, intention, and passion to all that she does.

TOLZY, TOLZY SOUND

Tolzy, also known as “Tolzy Sound,” is an international DJ, curator, and producer based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. With a passion for music that began at a young age, he has developed a distinct ear and signature sound. After emerging onto the scene in summer 2022, Tolzy quickly gained recognition for his originality, genre-blending style, and ability to connect with audiences. His sets fuse Afrobeats, Afro-Fusion, Amapiano, AfroHouse, R&B, and Deep House, creating high-energy experiences that resonate across diverse crowds.

Tolzy has played and curated shows at major Minneapolis venues including First Avenue, Fine Line, Union Rooftop, and Icehouse, and has performed at shows and festivals across multiple U.S. cities alongside artists such as Oxlade, BNXN, Ruger, DJ Tunez, Davido, Pheelz, Tyler ICU, Wande Coal, TxC, and Fireboy DML. He is also the founder of SoundWave Social, an event series dedicated to fostering community through music and connection. Beyond live performances, Tolzy produces for other artists, releases his own music, and shares curated DJ mixes on MixCloud and YouTube.

Major Sosa, Truly Humbled Under God

Major Sosa — aka Truly Humbled Under God, the Metro Transit Monarch, and the Two-Phone Tyrant — is a local artist, lyricist, producer, DJ, and aspiring philanthropist. He’s a co-founder of The Winners Club Collective and the 5 Star Radio Archive Project, blending sound, culture, and community with unapologetic vision.

Sasha Bangzz

Sasha Bangzz, a dancer turned DJ, is an AfroLatinx artist known for seamlessly blending genres like 90s Hip Hop, R&B, and Vogue to create sets focusing on the dancer's experience. Beginning in the male-dominated battle scenes of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Sasha has always been a passionate advocate for inclusivity, using music to champion underrepresented artists and celebrate diversity. Whether in the ballroom scene, club, or theatre, Sasha creates experiences rooted in pure Black joy and celebration.

Angel Beloved

Angel Beloved is the co-founder and Creative Director of MPLS HOUSE (MH), a Minneapolis-based artist collaborative founded in 2017 and centered on connection, creation, and inspiration. While MH spans multiple artistic disciplines, its primary focus has been music through DJing, production, and community engagement. In recent years, the collective has evolved from party-driven events into the corporate space, leading to partnerships with O’Shaughnessy Distillery, RockStar DJs, Hewing Hotel, Southdale Center, Bellosounds, Modist Brewing, and Women’s Advocates. Their work continues to grow through intentional collaboration and feedback from both partners and audiences.

On the production side, MPLS HOUSE has released five EPs over the past seven years, including two collaborations with local producer Jeff Swiff. Over the past year, the collective has expanded its studio into a dedicated recording space to further elevate its sound, create more original MH music, and open the door to new collaborative opportunities.

KWEY

KWEY is a Ghanaian-American producer, DJ, and multi-instrumentalist based in Minneapolis and self-described gentle giant. He began DJing in 2015 and has since developed a sound rooted in global rhythms, cultural connection, and diasporic influence. In 2018, he founded Samambo World, a platform created to connect the African Diaspora through music and shared cultural experiences. Through both live DJ sets and original production work, KWEY continues to build spaces that center African and diasporic sounds. He has performed multiple DJ sets for Carbon Sound, bringing his expansive musical knowledge and community-driven energy to the platform.

Students from High School for Recording Arts (HSRA) sat down with Carbon Sound’s host Sanni and talked about the impact HSRA has had on their personal, educational, and creative growth.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Sanni Brown 

It's The Message, Carbon Sound Music for Life. I love the kids. Y'all know I love the kids, and y'all know I love these interviews. We had this group in before, but it was just like the makers and the co-creators and the leaders of this group, but now we got the young folks coming in, and I appreciate that, because I love the kids. I love to listen to what the next generation is going through. In studio, we have High School for Recording Arts, Jahai and I'yani, and they will be coming in today, just to give us a little bit of understanding about the projects that they're working on. But let me just go ahead and run down the receipts. For over two decades, High School for Recording Arts has been a beacon of creativity and empowerment for young artists, providing a platform for students to explore their passion for music and expression. And the mission of High School for Recording Arts is to provide youth the opportunity to achieve a high school diploma through exploration and operation of the music business and other creative endeavors. Carbon Sound family, please welcome from High School for Recording Arts, Jahai and I'yani.

Jahai 

Hello hello!

I'yani 

Hi!

Sanni Brown 

First of all, I love kids. I worked with kids for 25 years before I pivoted into media. I'm just happy to have y'all in and have y'all young energy in today. So thank you for taking time out, because I know y'all could be ripping and running with projects y'all got going.

I'yani 

Thank you for having us.

Jahai 

Yeah, thank you so much.

Sanni Brown 

So tell me about what y'all do over at High School for Recording Arts. Are you both seniors?

Jahai 

I'm a senior.

I'yani 

I'm a senior as well.

Sanni Brown 

That's so exciting. Your senior year, I remember my senior year. Are y'all excited?

Jahai 

I'm excited, but a little scared. I feel old.

Sanni Brown 

What??

I'yani 

That's how I feel like. This is my last February as a teenager, I'll be 20 in June. So, like, I'm literally counting down the months. I will never be a teenager in the month of February ever again.

Sanni Brown  

I hear you. I like that you guys are paying attention, though. So what do you what are you scared of?

Jahai 

Just the unknown. I mean, we stay in the unknown all the time.

Sanni Brown 

Yeah, if you're a creative.

Jahai 

Yeah, that's for sure. It's a new step, not being in school.

Sanni Brown

And it's the end of another step.

Jahai 

Yep, new beginnings and new endings. But it's pretty awesome, but a little scary.

Sanni Brown 

How would you describe your whole high school career? Did you guys go to High School for Recording Arts your whole high school? Is that your whole high school experience?

Jahai 

Yeah, I did.

I'yani 

I did not. My high school experience goes like this. I have never really been a school person, like I love learning, but it's just something about sitting in a classroom under white light for hours and hours and hours at a time, and then you want me to go home and then keep doing the work. I've just never been that kind of learner. So that eventually led me to dropping out my junior year. I would go to the library during the school day and I would read all day. I would get tons of books, and I would just read at the library.

Sanni Brown 

This was after you dropped out?

I'yani 

Yes, this is like, what would have been my junior year. Because my mom — she didn't know that I dropped out. Because I love learning. So that's what I would do. I would just read all day. And then I started making music on my phone, on this app called BandLab, and I posted one of my songs that I made on Snapchat, and a student that used to go to the school, he slid up and was like, "Hey, I like your song." We became friends, and then he was telling me about it [HSRA], and what caught me at first was that school started at 9, because I'm used to, like, 7:40. So I'm like, "Ok, I'm kinda interested." And now I am still here. I was supposed to graduate from HSRA class of 2024, but I chose to stay because of how amazing the school is. Like they really put life into a person — they're not paying me to say this. On everything I love, if it was not for this school, I probably would not have anything going for myself, honestly.

Sanni Brown 

Thank you for sharing your story. That's beautiful how you was like "I ain't feeling this," and it navigated you to where you were supposed to be. That's brave, first of all. That's brave, and you're gonna need that when you graduate. So I hope you grab that. So Jahai, tell us your story.

Jahai 

I went to HSRA for my whole entire school year, but before that, I was homeschooled all my life. We moved around a lot, doing homeschooling because my mom knew that the school system isn't like, it's not all the way there. You know, the bullying, just like the unstructured, the systemic racism that goes through it. And I think at a point, me and my brother, we were like, "Ok, we're doing home schooling. We're getting into high school. I think it's time for us to kinda change what we're doing and go into high school." Not exactly for the learning experience, in like a typical school-related learning, but more of a socially and being around people our age. We were like, "Ok, this is our next step." Me and him had like, a whole meeting together. Like, "Ok, this is gonna be uncomfortable for us. We're kind of stagnant right now, and I think it's best for us to go into high school." And my brother's friend, he actually went to HSRA, but he was like, "Yo, this school is really dope. You should check it out. It's really musical, just check it out for like, one day." And we went up there and it was just like, day one, we were like, "Oh my god."

Sanni Brown 

What grabbed you on that day? When you went, what grabbed you? Like, "Nah, I gotta go here."

Jahai 

When we went, I was wearing a top hat, and a whole, like, suit. And everyone was just like, "Yo, I love what you're wearing. It's unusual, but it's dope." Everyone was so nice. 

Sanni Brown 

It was the energy.

Jahai 

Yeah, it was the energy.

Sanni Brown 

And probably the affirmative vibes. 

Jahai

I was like, "Ok, this is for me." I think HSRA, the way it's structured, kind of reminds me of homeschooling. How it's like, personal. It feels like I'm actually growing instead of doing the work, and that's it. We've had so many different like, life experience. I feel like it teaches you how to be human.

Sanni Brown 

Wow. Can you explain that more? Is it because they care about how the day is structured? What is happening, that it makes you feel like you're human? Is it the curriculum?

I'yani 

A mix of everything.

Jahai 

Yeah, it's a mix of everything. I think, instead of just like, "Ok, this is math for math, you're like, really learning how to apply this in a living situation.

Sanni Brown 

So they relate it to real life situations, versus "You need to know five plus five, and if you don't, you gonna fail."

Jahai 

Right, they make you use your brain. Critical thinking. So I think that's definitely one of the beautiful things about HSRA.

Sanni Brown 

You said that you got on your first plane, you shot a music video, what opportunities have come about since going to the school now?

Jahai 

Yeah, I mean, I've gotten to interview Mayor Carter. I've gotten to do many podcasts and learn how to economically use my creativity in a use. Like, I could start my own business; they've taught me things like that. Which I think is absolutely amazing. I've gotten to go out of state to meet with other schools and do projects and try so many things. It's a lot of dope opportunities.

Sanni Brown  

So based off what I'm hearing from both of you, somebody pitched the school to y'all. How would you all, now, after you've been there, you've experienced it, you're about to graduate, how would you pitch it to young people who may need what you guys are receiving? How would you pitch it?

I'yani 

Man, from the heart, the average school system, in my opinion, is just not built for success in everybody's life. And that does not mean that it's it for you, that it's just wraps. If you're one of those people who is like, "Man, school is really bugging me, I'm just not getting with this," whether it's hard, whether it's the people, the environment, whatever it is, I feel like HSRA offers something different because of how family-like it is. For example, the founder, T.C. Ellis, his sister works there, and everybody calls her "Mama Chi." And that's one of our values. We have four values: family, community, education, and respect. And keeping those values in mind, I really think changes the vibe of the school. It's very little that it's ever violent there. I feel like everybody is just like, "Hey, what's up? How are you doing?" Like I said, you want to be there. It's very welcoming. It's easy to make friends; it's easy to keep friends. And the teachers actually go above and beyond. Like, they'll connect with you one-on-one. They're not just gonna expect you to do the stuff. They will meet you where you're at. They will get very versatile, how they approach things. If one thing's not working for you, they're not just gonna give up on you and say, "Well, it's my way or the highway." I feel like the teachers there are not just there for the paycheck at the end of the day. They really put their hearts in it, and they go above and beyond for all the students, all the same.

Sanni Brown 

Thank you, I'yani. Alright, Jahai.

Jahai 

Couldn't have said it any better. It's a place for the weirdos. It teaches you that you should be weird. HSRA is the place where we accept your weirdness. We want you to thrive off your weirdness.

Sanni Brown 

I like that. It sounds like you guys are free to express yourself as humans. That's what it sounds like. And I know in the larger world, in the cool kids, they say that's weird, but the way I run my thing here is I lean into my own self-expression. So it's really exciting to see you guys have that, because I kind of had to find that, and I'm glad that you guys are receiving that in your youth, because I'm expecting to see some wild creativity in your future. You have a couple of mental health projects. It's called Tune in Speak Out. We're gonna take a break right now, but I wanna talk about that. Ok, so in studio, y'all, we got High School for Recording Arts, Jahai and I'yani. But when we come back, we're going to get into this Tune in Speak Out mental health project that you guys got going on for the youth. So we'll be back on The Message, Carbon Sound Music for Life.

Sanni Brown 

We are back with High School for Recording Arts seniors, Jahai and I'yani, and they are in today. We've gotten kind of a taste test of their high school career. They're in their senior year. They've discussed with us how, I would say, affirming High School for Recording Arts is. It's a space for the weirdos and for creatives, and a place where you can express yourself as a young person, and just giving us a contrast about a regular school setting and the setting of that High School for Recording Arts provides them. So first of all, thank you again for y'all being in. Let's get into this mental health here, because everything you guys are describing, it sounds so mentally soothing for a educational space. Not only does it sound like they're providing that, but you guys are actually creating more projects to put out here into the ether. So you have a project called Tune in Speak Out. What's that about?

Jahai 

I mean, I am the album cover. It was a long project, I'd say. It took a lot out of us.

Sanni Brown 

When did it start?

Jahai 

It might have been 2023.

I'yani 

I think that's maybe when it started. Because I remember sitting down with our advisor at the time, and she was like, "We need a project to get going for our advisory. What do you guys wanna do?” And a group of us just decided, of course, we want to make music. That's what that advisor is leaning towards. And we're like, "What about?" And we're like, "Let's just talk about how we feel. Let's just be vulnerable." So that's what we did. Some people on there curated the beats, there's vocals, there's rapping, there's spoken word, I'm pretty sure. But it is very honest, very vulnerable.

Sanni Brown 

So what is it? Is it a podcast? Is it an album?

Jahai and I'yani 

Both.

Sanni Brown 

Wait, what?

Jahai 

Yeah, I think between different songs, there's a podcast segment where I'm the host.

Sanni Brown 

So wait, is it a show? Or is it a —

I'yani 

It's an album. So like, if you go on Spotify and you play like, track one, it's gonna start off with, like, somebody starts speaking, and then the song starts playing, and then the next song will come on, somebody's talking, and then the song will come on. But you kinda correlate each different podcast segment together to kind of like, build that story, and then the music is kind of like, what gets you thinking and just feeling and then understanding, like, "Oh, this is how that correlates," if that makes sense.

Sanni Brown 

And it's you and your other classmates making this music?

Jahai and I'yani 

Yes.

Sanni Brown 

Oh, wow, and doing the podcast. What is the subject matter? How are you addressing your feelings on these podcasts and this project?

I'yani 

Well, me personally, I talked about feeling just heavy. Like my head's in the clouds — that's actually one of my lyrics. Feeling like my head is in the clouds, like I just can't lock in, and being vulnerable and just admitting that I feel that way, because I feel like that's a hard step for some people, and to just say like it's okay to feel how you feel, it's okay to not be okay. You don't always have to be good all the time. But also raising awareness on not dwelling in that feeling for too long, and patting your own self on the back and getting up and just trying again the next day.

Sanni Brown  

And so you're on the cover of this project.

Jahai 

Yes.

Sanni Brown 

Why are you the cover, poster child?

Jahai 

I think it was my willingness. We didn't really know what the cover was gonna be, and someone pulled me aside and was like, "Hey, I'm gonna take a picture of you." I was like, "Ok, dope. Let's do it." And then I see my face on the cover. I'm like, "Ok, this is cool."

I'yani 

Isn't that a recreation of Michael Jackson?

Jahai 

Yeah, it's a recreation of one of his albums. Not sure which one. But it just happened.

Sanni Brown 

What else is your contribution to the project? Are you speaking on the podcast?

Jahai 

Yeah, I'm mainly talking about, of course, like it's okay to be sad, depressed. It happens to all of us. And I think a lot of people would say, like, "No, you gotta do this. You gotta do that. You gotta smoke, you gotta drink." All these inhibitors, when really, it's you gotta just sit with yourself.

Sanni Brown 

Oh, my goodness, young people, it's hard though. It is hard, though. And I will tell you something as grown up, it gets harder, it gets harder. So is this student led? Outside of the adults going, "Hey, we gotta do a project," how hands-on are they? Or do they just let y'all take the reins?

I'yani 

They say "This is the rubric," basically, and then "go, just do it." Like we know how to make the beats. We know how to find a beat, we know how to record all of it. We know how to play the instruments. We know how to write our own stuff. They're like, "We're here if you need us," but they pretty much just, "This is the stuff that y'all need to hit. This is what we're expecting. Go work your magic."

Sanni Brown 

And y'all scared to step outside this? I mean, you just explained a regular adult day. I gotta figure out how to get food. I gotta figure out how to get to work. Y'all have the skill set. I want to ask you about, "And We're Back on the Ground." Is that from you guys?

Jahai and I'yani 

Yeah!

Sanni Brown 

I love that song so much. And we just put it in the system, maybe like in the last six months or something like that, and I be trying not to play it all the time. Is that connected to any project? Or what's that about?

I'yani  

I don't know, I feel like Marcus is really the person for that question. I hope Marcus hears this, either right now or at some point.

Sanni Brown 

That song cold, man!

I'yani 

Literally! He is so talented, and this man just came out of nowhere. We've been friends, classmates for months, and I did not know that this man can make music, let alone rap. And then he just comes, just trailblazing, just on fire.

Sanni Brown 

The cadence, the word play. And just want to confirm, y'all are teenagers?

Jahai 

Yeah, he was 15 making that song.

Sanni Brown 

He was 15?? Woah. I love that song so much. I love that song. I host Carbon Sound on two platforms, Minnesota Public Radio [The Current] and Carbon Sound. And I be trying my best not to play it. It's such a good song, there's so much soul, there's so much in there packed in that song so I'm like, "Dang, what y'all doin over there?? What y'all putting in the gumbo?"

I'yani 

I really hope that Stone and Marcus hear this. I can genuinely say that I had some of the most talented friends ever. I don't know if I'm biased, but you know when somebody shows you something and it's just not —

Sanni Brown 

Listen, I work in radio, ok. I work in radio so —

I'yani 

But my friends are genuinely talented. And it just makes me so proud and so happy. I'm seeing Yellow Roses do their thing, and then you giving Stone and Marcus that compliment, I want them to hear that so they know people see you and you're doing your spill.

Sanni Brown 

What message do you want to leave for the seniors behind you?

Jahai 

I think, at least for me, that it's important to take that role as a leader. To be a leader is to be uncomfortable, but it gives you so many opportunities and teaches you so much. Don't be scared, take that opportunity, even if it's not like "your thing." It's important to get out your comfort zone. It's so important. I think that's the main thing I want to leave when I graduate.

I'yani 

I will piggyback off Jahai and say being a leader in your own life is really important. It's up to you. I wouldn't be where I was if I didn't speak up and advocate for myself, if I didn't share my likes and my dislikes. And I think that it's really important to ask for help. Don't be afraid to depend on people. Don't be afraid to collaborate. Do not gatekeep stuff and keep stuff hidden. Collaborate with your friends, share your talents and your input, and get theirs on yours. Constructive criticism is very, very helpful. To conclude, my last words for the seniors after me: you can do it, believe in yourself, know in yourself, trust in yourself, all is good. It may get hard, but everything in life is hard. Just pick which one you'd rather deal with.

Sanni Brown 

Pick your hard.

I'yani 

Exactly. Pick your hard.

Sanni Brown  

You said that — don't be afraid to ask for help. So I'm gonna ask you to help me. How can Carbon Sound help young folks like y'all?

Jahai 

I think just more opportunities like this. I always love to preach that having young people come into a space like this, opportunities like this, kinda helps them be like, "Okay, I can be someone. I can do something."

I'yani 

Yeah, I would agree. Literally, opportunities like this are so monumental, because this is like, really professional. It's like, real, it's legit. This is an actual station, and you guys take us serious. You're treating us like adults and taking us serious. And I think that's really important, because a lot of young people are looked over just because they're a young person. And I feel like if more young people were given opportunities to be themselves and to be great, then it's contagious. It'll feed off.

Sanni Brown 

I asked what Carbon Sound can do for you. Now, what I need y'all to do for Carbon Sound is I need y'all to keep that spark inside. For real, for real. I appreciate y'all coming in and inspiring the young folks. And congratulations on your senior year. Take pictures. Just really lean in and enjoy this year, because you only get to be a senior once. Unless you know, you keep educating yourself. Really lock in on the moment and make those memories.

Jahai 

Can I give a shout-out?

Sanni Brown  

Absolutely!

Jahai 

Shout out to my band, Yellow Roses. We have a show on March 13, we just won the first round of Battle of the Bands.

Sanni Brown 

Oh, wow, congratulations!

Jahai 

Thank you. So please check us out on Instagram.

Sanni Brown 

Yellow Roses. What music?

Jahai 

I'd say a hardcore punk band. Be on the lookout.

Sanni Brown 

Well, congratulations. I'yani, anything you want to let us know about? Any projects we need to know about?

I'yani 

I'm just gonna say stay tuned for my foot in the door, because it's coming. Just be patient, because I'm working on some stuff, and my heart is in it. So if my heart is in it, it's true.

Sanni Brown 

I'yani, Jahai, thank y'all for coming in today.

Jahai and I'yani 

Thank you.

Sanni Brown 

Alright, Carbon Sound, we're gonna get back to the music. Y'all, we in Music Class. It's The Message, Carbon Sound, Music for Life. Thank y'all.

Tarik Thornton is a veteran crate digger and radio host. Originally from New Orleans, Tarik has laid a foundation for himself in South Minneapolis through community efforts, including (but not limited to) his esteemed show Quiet Village on KRSM Radio. Tarik credits Minneapolis’ vibrant community and robust music scene with his growth as a DJ. In his mix for Carbon Sound, Tarik reminds listeners that music is resistance and honors the resiliency of Minnesotans.

We chatted with Tarik about his background and his intentions for the mix. Read a transcript of the interview edited for length and clarity below:

Who are you?

My name is Tarik Thornton. I am a Twin Cities transplant; I'm originally from New Orleans, born and raised there. I lived in New York for quite a while, traveled quite a bit for work, but I'm known for record digging and DJing and so forth. I've been in the game a long time, just doing radio and so forth, and some production as well.

Knowing that you've spent time in New Orleans, New York and Minneapolis, how would you compare and contrast those scenes?

So growing up in New Orleans, I always knew jazz and funk music, like that was always a thing. And then through that, I got introduced to hip-hop, and that kind of led me on this pilgrimage, for better words, to New York, where I kind of got to see hip-hop firsthand, like in the late 90s and early 2000s. So it all kind of was in sync, and then when I moved to the Midwest, I really got into — well, I always was a record digger — but when I got into the Midwest, I started discovering more soul music and 45s which actually, brought me here to DJ, and that's how I ended up in Minneapolis. And since I've been in Minneapolis, the moment I landed here, I was like, "Yo, this is a dope city." And I just love — you know, besides what we see going on now — I just knew the community here was way more vibrant and amazing than anything that I've ever experienced, like people were together in community. When I first landed here, I landed in South Minneapolis, and so that's been my foundation since I've been here. And actually, I will say being here has allowed me to grow as a DJ in ways that I never thought.

You've been around music your whole life. What made you want to start DJing?

Honestly, I just always had it. I learned about records on accident, like one Christmas morning, my mom or someone had bought my dad a record cleaner, and I opened the presents, and I thought it was a toy. So I started playing with it, and once my dad got up, he's like, "Oh, this is a record cleaner." And I was able to make the connection. Then before you know it, I had my own portable turntable and I was playing records. But I didn't really touch my first set of 1200s until college, because my parents couldn't afford it. They were super expensive way back then, and so I met a good friend and that's kind of how I really started learning the Technic 1200 which is like the staple of DJing.

How did location impact you as a DJ? You were saying how Minneapolis impacted you in ways you couldn't even think of. How does it do that?

Well, one of the things that's impacted me the most about Minneapolis is — there's always an undercurrent of the 70s scene here, and then you go into Prince and so forth. Especially in South Side, there's that lineage of artists that have always been around South Minneapolis since the 70s. And for me, being where I came from, and then I landed here, it just added more recipes to my cookbook. I was like, "Okay, I'm hearing this," the way my brain works, like, "How can I integrate this with this?" But also, I will say the diversity of the Twin Cities, but also the South Side, because there's so many different people that live in South Minneapolis. So when I go out and I play, I'm always thinking about the people in my community and what they would enjoy, then I add my taste to it.

Speaking of community, you've been a part of community radio at KRSM. When did you start there and what has that experience been like?

I started at KRSM in the very beginning, actually, like in the grant stages. And I kind of just held my ground until it was the right opportunity. And then the studio went up, and I got the call. So I was probably one of the first shows on KRSM when they first came around, and it's been an amazing experience to kind of tie in radio and then actually create my own sound from that. I feel like nowadays, people, when they listen to my show, say like, "Oh, when I listen to your show, when I hear you DJ, it's like medicine" or "I just really love the way you curate the show." But it's really about having people disconnect from whatever is going on out here in the world, and just kind of challenging themselves to listen to things differently. Being a product of hip-hop, I can play a rock song, a funk song, a hip-hop song, and then play a folk song in the same set. So it challenges the listener, right? It's like, "What is this? Why is this dude playing this way? Why is he not just playing one genre?" I feel like you gotta give people food for thought, especially nowadays. You gotta challenge the listener to think differently.

The challenge, is that the most gratifying part of DJing for you or what would you say is the most gratifying part of DJing?

The most gratifying part for me is actually when I'm just kind of zoned out and doing my thing and doing my set, and someone will just thank me. You know, it's very simple, because I know if that person was kind enough or thoughtful enough to thank me, that means that they heard something that they were able to connect to. And for me, that's what DJing is about, whether it's playing that record that somebody never heard, or playing a record that actually connects with your audience. That's what it's about.

How are you planning to connect with the Carbon Sound audience today? What do you have in store for us?

I was thinking about this — one thing I will say out of this experience that we're experiencing right now with the occupation and ICE and so forth, is Minnesotans are Minnesotans, you know? I love the way the city looks out and takes care of each other, like it kind of moves as one. And so I just brought music to kind of reflect on that, but then reflect on how music is resistance. When everything first started happening, it was just weird, because it's like just do what you can, do what you can, do what you can, and I was like, "Okay, this is what I'm gonna do to be a part of what's resistance, however you feel it." And it doesn't mean you have to be on the street, but resistance, what's going on, we feel it in our bodies. And so for me, resistance is self-care, taking care of your body, making sure that you're feeling good, no matter how chaotic things are around you. Or making sure you're kind of centered in your own self, no matter what's going on around you, so you can be your best person and do your best work. The set's more about — I can't describe it, really. I guess you’ll hear it.

The Mayor, also known as Awa Mally, is a community-forward DJ and creative. Although she’s relatively new to the world of DJing, she has made a name for herself in the Twin Cities, performing at high-energy parties like Samambo, inMotion, and more. She recommends the same process for new or aspiring DJs — get out there and perform, learn, and listen to as much diverse music as possible. If you're not familiar with Awa as a DJ, her all-time favorites mix for Carbon Sound is a perfect introduction.

We chatted with The Mayor about her background and her mix. Read a transcript of the interview edited for length and clarity below:

Who are you and where did your DJ name come from?

I'm Awa Mally, also known as The Mayor. My DJ name came from just being out and about in the city, community events, art events, and then also just repping Minneapolis. People just randomly started calling me The Mayor, and I ran with it. And then when I became a DJ, I was like, "I need a name." And it just kind of made sense.

You've had your hands in different art spaces. What made you want to become a DJ? How'd that start?

Proximity and access, I would say. I've been around DJing my whole life because my dad is a DJ, and then in high school we had a DJ group, and then I also took some DJ classes. And with Reload.it, we also hosted a DJ workshop. So I've always just been around DJs and DJing, but I've never had interest until, I think it was two years ago, when I just had the free time and the interest to pick up a hobby and learn a new skill. It just made sense.

How's it been going so far? What have the learning experiences looked like?

It's been really great. I mean, I'm here now. It's one of those things where I think of it as, always just do your hobby. I had no intentions to do a lot of things I've been able to do with DJing, at all. I just really wanted to give my brain some exercise. And I've been able to do some really cool things, and it just makes me happy to fulfill something that I had on my list, but also just to see how many avenues and outlets you're able to access just by trying something out.

Do you have any specific moments or memories that have stood out?

Okay, this is gonna be one — after I do this, this will be one. And in November, I DJed outside in the Red Bull Jeep for their event, so that was really cool. DJing Samambo was really cool, because that was my first public DJing event, and so just having to kind of beg Kwey and set up a date, because I started DJing, and I was like, "Kwey, we need to set a date so I have something to work towards." So that was really cool, because I feel like that was my DJ introduction.

How does this differ from your other artistic practices?

There's no breaks when you're DJing. You're performing in front of people, like there is no break. Usually with photography, maybe I could catch like a little 5 minute, 10 minute break, but it's really ongoing. And obviously people are attentive the whole time. That's kind of the thing — with everything else, there's so many different ways where it's about you, but it's not about you at the same time, whereas DJing, I feel like you and the crowd or whatever you're doing, it's a constant interaction the whole time. But also, I've realized there's a lot of connection between DJing and so many art forms. You learn buttons, you learn how things work together, and you kind of just bring in your own taste to it.

Is that relationship with the audience exciting or daunting?

Okay, as someone who is a big audience advocate, I am pro-audience over the DJ. Being on the other side of, I guess the stage or the DJ booth, I love it. I feel like parties need to be an interaction and conversation between the dance floor, the DJs, everybody involved. So I like it because I'm playing music and you're responding to it, but you're also dancing or not dancing, and I'm also responding to that. And I feel like it needs to be an active engagement. So I like the friction, but also I like the fun when we're all singing songs together and we're all dancing together, when we're all noticing. I played a gig for the design camp, and I was playing some Mk.gee and some other stuff. And obviously people were at a conference, so they couldn't respond, but when they had breaks, they'd come up to me and be like, "Oh my God, were you playing Mk.gee? Oh my God, I think I heard that song. Oh my God, I know this song." I love things like that. I feel like it's a conversation, versus we're all just kind of being forced to be here with each other. I think more interaction is necessary.

What kind of conversation are you planning to have with the Carbon Sound audience today?

Today, the music I've decided to pick are songs that I feel like, throughout my whole lifetime, these are my favorite songs. I can't fit everything in there, so I'm probably not gonna be able to play everything. But these are songs that no matter what day it is, no matter the weather, I want to hear this song. So I hope maybe other people can relate.

So we're getting The Mayor's all-time favorites in a set.

In a sense, but I will say the set is kind of influenced by the world currently, but it's still my favorite songs. And it's because I usually DJ high-energy parties. And for someone who likes melancholy music, sometimes there's really no place for some of the music I listen to, so I feel like this is also my way of being able to play music that I really, really want to listen, that I just feel like I can't play at midnight.

Anything else we missed?

 A lot of people say they want to DJ, and they don't know how. I always tell people just do it. It's way more intimidating visually than it actually is. If you type on a keyboard, if you scroll on TikTok, if you have a Nintendo, if you can order from the McDonald's menu, I don't know, you can literally DJ. So I think just go for it. Do it, either get a board or just learn how to DJ on your computer. And then, I think it's important for people to listen to more music, listen to diverse music. Use your freedom, and listen to all the music in the world.

Tish Jones stopped by to talk to Carbon Sound’s host Sanni about all things TruArtSpeaks: from their origin story to all the ways they’re celebrating 20 years of their service in 2026.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Sanni Brown 

Carbon Sound Music Class, I got an interview for you. Poet, MC, Hip-Hop Theater Artist and Founding Executive Director of TruArtSpeaks — now entering their 20th year of operation. Carbon Sound family, welcome Tish Jones in the building.

Tish Jones 

Hey, what up. Thank you for having me. Glad to be here.

Sanni Brown 

I'm glad you here. For those who don't know, let's give a elevator pitch for people who don't know who Tish Jones is, and then we'll get into what TruArtSpeaks is.

Tish Jones 

The bio really said it all, kind of succinctly. I'm a poet, I'm an MC, I'm a hip-hop theater artist, organizer, educator. Some people call me an activist. I don't know if I would call myself that, but I do organize and activate people. But really, I'm a Black Auntie at the core, like I show up as a Black Auntie in life.

Sanni Brown 

I love that, I'm an Auntie. When I first started Carbon Sound, they called me the Auntie. So TruArtSpeaks, you've been doing this — as I was doing my radio journey, I would hear about TruArtSpeaks. And you're gonna be entering your 20th year in January. First of all, congratulations.

Tish Jones 

Thank you.

Sanni Brown 

First and foremost, to me as somebody that grew up in the 90s and always heard "You can't do nothing with art. You can't make a living out of art." You're doing rebellious work — 20 years!

Tish Jones 

I appreciate that.

Sanni Brown 

I've seen open mics, I've seen workshops, I think I've seen you give out a couple of scholarships. I believe we worked with a set of students, I think when we first started another show that I host here, that they worked with you. So you're like in the background in these art spaces. So again, congratulations.

Tish Jones 

Thank you.

Sanni Brown 

But first of all, what is TruArtSpeaks? Before we get into longevity and what are you doing to carry the mantle for creatives.

Tish Jones 

We are an arts and culture organization based here in St. Paul. Our mission is to cultivate literacy, leadership and social justice through the study and application of spoken word and hip-hop culture. So really, what it means is we are a cultural preservation institution and we are a cultural exhibition organization. What we are thinking about is how can we utilize spoken word and hip-hop culture to think about transformative, positive social impact. That's our goal. That's our work. How do we keep the tradition? How do we nod back? We really think about Sankofa, right? Like, how do we reach back to the roots of hip-hop culture around the Black genius that created hip-hop culture, the social, political, economic circumstances in which it was birthed, and really highlight, uplift, study and think about those things as we chart a future for ourselves, using hip-hop, which is like one of the most widely recognized languages on the planet. It's a global culture, right? So if you can speak through dance, but you can't speak Japanese, you can go to Japan, do your thing through movement, and still communicate and tell a story. The sort of political activation and narrative storytelling that happens in art here in the U.S., you can see that happening in South Africa when we talk about The Afrikaans Movement and the ways in which hip-hop was speaking to that situation in South Africa. So, you know, we out here. We're trying to train people up. We're working in schools, working in prisons, working in shelters, putting on arts events.

Sanni Brown 

Oh my goodness. You just said a mouthful. Let me run it back. You said cultural preservation and cultural exhibition. That sticks out to me so big, because I see a running theme on social media where they say, "We losing recipes." And you're talking about exhibition. What is the importance of cultural preservation in terms of hip-hop? Because I feel like hip-hop has been exploited so much. So in your words, in your opinion, from your viewpoint, what is the importance of cultural preservation in terms of hip-hop?

Tish Jones 

I think for me, hip-hop is an example of Black ingenuity, and what I think people really want to get at when they say things like Black Excellence. So hip-hop, for us, that was the spirit of our innovation coalescing through multiple different elements. For folks who are not familiar with hip-hop, there are four core elements in hip-hop, and there's an expansive nine, if you are sort of in the community. But when hip-hop started, it started with a party. And it was because of our ingenuity, it was because of our entrepreneurialism, it was because of just cultural things, that if you wasn't 'bout it, you ain't 'bout it, you don't know about it. It was time to go back to school, cats was like, "You know what? Let's throw this party. We can charge at the door, get some fly threads for school." Make it shake, right? And that's the ingenuity. That's the preservation. The preservation piece is like, "Yo, we're actually brilliant. We're innovative, we're resourceful. We create culture." Even DJ Kool Herc, sort of bringing this style from Jamaica. So it's also a diasporic Black ingenuity. Like we are creative, brilliant people in a global context. So even him coming through and changing the way that folks DJ, the way folks listen to and experience music, that's the stuff we're kind of trying to preserve. The history, but also what's behind the history. Especially as the world says hip-hop isn't genius. The world says hip-hop is all bad. And the commercialization, the infiltration of the culture, of the community, the way capitalism came in, you know, quote: "And that's word to Sprite and the millions that they paying me" right? Drake. When people can put the lines in their music so boldly like that, we know that someone else has come into our culture and infiltrated our culture. So we're about like, how do we still teach those skills? Because to DJ is to understand math skills. To be a good, quality dope, fly MC, you have to understand literature. You have to understand poetry, right? There's athleticism, rhythm, math that goes into dancing, right? Being able to catch a beat, or being able to move your body on 1/16 of a beat. Some of those things we don't think about that come naturally, and we can sharpen those skills. And then there's a whole political exploration, if you get into that fifth element, that knowledge of self-peace. There's a social, political and economic history to the etymology of hip-hop that rests in the Black Power Movement, that rests in America's deep intent to destabilize Black communities by building freeways through them, not unlike the Rondo community here in Minnesota. So there's a lot to do. It's a lot to play with.

Sanni Brown 

Wow, the digging. It's a lot of crate digging, but intellectual crate digging. And I feel like this work is so important right now, because I've also been hearing people, I've been looking at videos and stuff — and you got to be careful. Sometimes one person says something, and they turn it into, "Oh, this is a trend." Like, nah, just one person said it. But I've been hearing people say they're tired of rap. And I've even mentioned it on the air, like, "Y'all ain't tired of rap. Y'all tired of that surface level rap." Because humans want to hear stories. Humans are never gonna get tired of storytelling. And so that's what I want to know. How does your cultural exhibition help with that? Because I feel like people saying they're tired of rap, they're tired of what's been exhibited. So what part of your work makes that cultural exhibition so important? Because this conversation is happening while you're doing this work. So are you addressing that? Or this is just what y'all been doing for 20 years?

Tish Jones 

Both and. So for example, to celebrate our 20th-year anniversary, we have an event series coming up. We have a residency at Icehouse for the entirety of 2026, we'll be there once a month. It's beautiful.

Sanni Brown 

That is beautiful. The whole entire year — that's crazy!

Tish Jones  

Yeah, it's gonna be a beautiful thing.

Sanni Brown 

I don't even think I've ever heard of a residency that long. But this is poetry we're talking about, this is hip-hop we're talking about. And you're taking up that much space. Tell us about it, please!

Tish Jones 

Yeah, I got you. So to your question about how are we pushing back against that, and how are we keeping the culture, the series is called the Urgent Emergent Performance Art Series. It's very intentionally curated. Every month there's a different theme. So we're showcasing different types of artists. We're speaking back to different themes in our community, uplifting different folks who are really trying to tell a pressing story based on their craft or their medium. We're launching this series by bringing some sisters in from South Africa who are part of the 29:11 project.

Sanni Brown 

What is the 29:11 project?

Tish Jones 

I'm gonna tell you right now. Go YouTube it, go Google it, because the first time I heard the 29:11 project, when I heard the full group sing —

Sanni Brown 

Is that a choir? I think I've seen them perform.

Tish Jones 

I wept the first time. I mean, like I was on a zoom call. So the way we structure our meetings at our organization is they always start with sharing art. We had a board meeting, and one of my board members that was the art piece that they chose to share that meeting, and the rest of us had to turn our cameras off. Because we were weeping. So we're bringing a small portion of the 29:11 project here, so that these sisters can give us an offering. And the idea, because you know, a lot of the music with the 29:11 project, some of their work is thinking about colonialism and speaking back to colonialism. So we're kicking off this residency like, how do we move from the continent to this place, to a radical Black future? How do we think about colonialism, racism, liberation? What does that look like, and how do we honor, again, Black genius and Black expression? So we're using body, movement, voice, and dance — our people, in this conversation between the continent and where we are right now.

Sanni Brown 

That's so healing. It's just crazy, how you can go from an idea, to these healing practices, to song to movement to sound — everything's incredible.

Tish Jones 

I appreciate you. It's gonna be dope. So we've got the sisters from the 29:11 project. Nomvula, she's headlining. We've got PaviElle French, we've got a voice of culture, DJ Kenna, Blu Bone. And then we got a house band that's gonna be rocking with us throughout the entire series. That's Kevin Washington, Ryan Bynum, and Chris Walah. Every month, y'all. We out here every month. It's gonna be a good time.

Sanni Brown 

If you just pulled up, this gonna be a really exciting year. Poet, MC, hip-hop theater artist, and founding executive director of TruArtSpeaks. All the art baddies, I need you to pull up to the front. If you've been hearing that you can't do nothing with art, I need you to go ahead and throw that out. You are entering your 20th year of TruArtSpeaks and baby, it's gonna be speaking all year. So we're gonna dig into that on this next break. It is The Message, Carbon Sound Music For Life. You are in Music Class, and we'll be right back.

Sanni Brown 

It's The Message, Carbon Sound Music For Life. We are in Music Class. I am super overwhelmed with the energy and essence of Tish Jones. Tish is a poet, a MC, a hip-hop theater artist, and the founding executive director of TruArtSpeaks. We are on part two of this interview. I'm ticked off, because we really need, like, a part three and a part Four. But you are entering your 20th year of TruArtSpeaks, and apparently you have a residency at Icehouse — I've never heard of anything like this before — for an entire year.

Tish Jones 

Shout out to Icehouse. Y'all are fantastic partners. You already know what it is. We've been locked in with Icehouse for years. I appreciate them.

Sanni Brown 

Okay, so if you missed it this last break, we were talking Ryan Bynum, Blu Bone, PaviElle French, the 29:11 project. This is just month one! And I love it, because these are people who believe in what you're doing, so you have clearly proven yourself.

Tish Jones 

The other piece, I'm gonna say — I believe in them. Yeah, they believe in what we do, but I also believe in them. I've known Blu since he was a young person, and I've been watching Blu. It feels like a privilege to be able to invite Blu to participate in this way. Blu actually went through one of our programs. They participated in the Be Heard Minnesota Youth Poetry Slam Series, which is probably like our flagship program, one of the biggest things that we do. And that's back when they were still in high school. I love Blu's Mama, fellow poet, sistren poet in this community. So it's a really full circle moment, because this adult, genius, creative person who I used to just watch paint and be in awe of their painting, and the way they express in that way. Now I'm seeing them express themselves in other ways, and it's beautiful, healing, ritual-based Black work.

Sanni Brown  

Blu Bone is unapologetically Black. That. But I do feel like that's also a testament to the work that you're doing, that this young person came into a space that you created for them, and now they're like, "Yeah, it's on." Now they're performing for you. How did TruArtSpeaks start? How did that start out?

Tish Jones 

I'm gonna try to be as succinct as possible. There are three things that happened that sort of coalesced. And I was like, "Maybe we need a safer space for creatives to be paid equitably and to be safe from financial predators, sexual predators, and be platformed."

Sanni Brown 

I just want to shout out to you and everybody that focuses on that. When y'all come in here and say, "Artists need to be paid equitably." That's huge. That's so huge. When y'all make that a part of your mission, that's so important.

Tish Jones 

I wish we could all get aligned on it. This is such an aside, but I really want to have a conversation with us, you know, actual artist practitioners, about what equitable payment looks like, what equitable pricing looks like, so that we don't sell the culture short, or sell each other out unintentionally. You know what I'm saying? And I think that happens a lot. So if y'all want to holler at me, though, we can have a conversation about it.

Sanni Brown 

That's how I know you doing the work, man. Back to how did TruArtSpeaks start, you were talking about equitable pay for the artists.

Tish Jones 

So there were three things that happened. One, I went to the International Brave New Voices Youth Poetry Slam Festival; I was a young person at that time. The first time I went, I think I was 17, and it was awe-inspiring and eye-opening. There were other 13 to 19-year-olds from all around the world. I'm talking South Africa, Guam, Trinidad and Tobago, New York, Chicago, Idaho, all these places. 600 young people convening to dance, rap. The focus was poetry, but hip-hop was like the cultural container for this festival, and we were speaking truth to power. Most of the writing was political writing. Most of the writing was based on social issues. And it was really a brave new generation of writers and speakers and hip-hop practitioners, learning from the generation before us. Sonia Sanchez, Amiri Baraka and then your hip-hop cast: Queen Latifah, Mos Def, Dead Prez. And I was like, "What this is possible?" You know, "How do I bring this energy back here? How do I make sure that Minnesota has this kind of energy for young people?" At that time, I was 17. Then I was a part of the first B-Girl Be Summit, which was an international celebration of women in hip-hop that happened here, and these women that I love, respect, and served as my mentors. They are the founders of that, right? So being really close to these people who created the first international summit for women in hip-hop, I'm like, "Oh, also, women are brilliant and smart, and we do this, and it's all hip-hop, and I met all these wonderful people." And then there was this tertiary thing around a sadness for me, and an understanding that people didn't necessarily know how to engage with young artists at the time, didn't know how to utilize art towards positive social transformation in a way that was also healthy and healing. So there were some ways I wanted to think about it, like, how do we skill-build? How do we platform? How do we keep folks safe? And then there's all the background stuff, like I said, the inequitable payment, sexual predators, preying on young folks, preying on women in the community. But this tertiary thing was, I worked for this organization, and part of my job in the year that I founded TruArtSpeaks was to catalog the murders that took place in North Minneapolis.

Sanni Brown 

Oh my gosh.

Tish Jones 

Yeah, it was tough.

Sanni Brown  

And how old were you in this position?

Tish Jones 

When I started I was 18, and when I ended, I was 19. So it was a transitional year for me. So I was still very young, and also didn't know. But when I did know, it was like, "Okay, we can't do this anymore." Because part of cataloging it also meant that I had to speak at the vigils of these young people, or of anyone. They weren't all young people, but of people who were murdered. And that year, I knew three of the brothers who were murdered. They were peers. They were my age. We had interfaced in community and in work. And it became very clear, because I had these experiences at Brave New Voices, because I had these experiences with B-Girl Be, that standing on a blood-stained slab of concrete might not be the healthiest way to use my voice. I feel honored to have met with those families. I feel honored to have been able to pay homage to someone's life. But it was very, very tough. So it was this whole thing of like, how can I be a part of ensuring that when we are creating art for social transformation, we're doing it thoughtfully? How can I ensure that we are emotionally safe? Or do my part to create a container where we're emotionally safe, physically safe, paid equitably, because also at that time, as a young person, there was definitely inequity in pay. You platform young people, they could be on stage for an hour. They could teach a workshop with absolutely no training, and be handed 50 bucks. Meanwhile, the person who brought them in —

Sanni Brown 

They got five racks.

Tish Jones 

That's exactly what it is. And it's like, even though they're young, that's inequitable, and we're not teaching them financial literacy by doing that. And I was a victim of that. So yeah, all those pieces are the pieces that made TruArtSpeaks sort of coalesce. We started as a collective. There were a few of us who were like, "Let's do something different. We want to do this art. We want to do guerrilla theater. We want to do hip-hop theater." So we created pieces, we performed publicly everywhere that we could, and it sort of began to take shape into what it is now.

Sanni Brown 

That's powerful, to say that I could do more than stand on this blood-soaked block of cement, wow. And you were so young, but you're a poet too. So you see the world differently. Wow, you were just so young. What do you feel has contributed to the longevity? I feel like that's what you just said. Like how it all started, where it started, the reality of where it started.

Tish Jones 

My answer might be different from other people's answer. And what I appreciate about TruArtSpeaks and even, again, going back to folks like Blu, we have alumni that — people who have been impacted or touched by the work, make the work. I might put an idea out, but people make it happen. It's the people, it's the artists. It's the people all day. That's what did it. It's that I can call PaviElle and be like, "Sis, we celebrating 20 years. I would love to work with you this year." And she — "Say less." It's the power of manifestation. It's like, how intentional we wanted to be this year in our art form. My board chair, he showed the video. I'm like, "Hey, we need them here." And he's like, "Alright, I'm gonna reach out." And then immediately they're like, "Yeah, we know TruArtSpeaks, we down, we coming." It's the people. I just feel thankful and blessed and excited to just be a part of it.

Sanni Brown 

So you said it's the people. Okay, so who is on the TruArtSpeaks team? Let us know who we need to be applauding and clapping it up for.

Tish Jones 

That's what's up. I appreciate that. Got a big shout out to the board, yo. The board of directors is impeccable. So contextually, one of the ways I need to say this, because I say it's the people, right? I have to start by saying, to me, our staff is dope. Y'all know I love y'all. Board is dope. Y'all know I love y'all. But the alumni, I got a sweet spot for the alumni. Because I watched them go and come back and go and come back. I watched them volunteer. I see them make donations. It's such an interesting thing to me to see a person who is 18 years old be like, "Yo, I'm gonna give y'all $50 this year." That's a big deal to me. When you ain't got no job, you in your senior year of high school, you're trying to figure it out, sort it out. Or you go off to college, you come back and you're like, "Here's where I want to be." So I appreciate those folks, because even to do our biggest program, it takes 100 volunteers annually. That's the team that is TruArtSpeaks. Yes, it's Desdamona, yes, it's Aisha, yes, it's MaLLy, yes, it's Danez, yes, it's Anthony. Like, it's all of those people, Ryan, it's us as a core group. But it's also every person who has volunteered for the last 20 years. It's every artist that we've amplified. It's every person we've contracted. It's the videographers we work with, the photographers we work with, the DJs we work with. We have a list of artists on our roster. So there's 60 plus artists who are on this roster who are family. That's who we work with.

Sanni Brown 

Y'all got 60 Minnesota music scene artists in the chamber? What?

Tish Jones 

Oh, for sure. We got this project rolling out. It's a partnership. I can't talk about it yet. I want to so bad, it launches on MLK Day, but we got some artists who are doing some hip-hop facilitation for the littles. And there's a bunch of artists that we working with who are about to make that happen, and it's gonna be beautiful. It's hip-hop education for the small ones, the five and ups. It's gonna be a good time.

Sanni Brown 

I love this. I love the work you're doing. I've always been a fan and to have you in the building, you're just so casually talking about this powerful work. First of all, thank you for not running from that challenge when you were young and you had to catalog those deaths. And you could have ran, and you didn't. You looked deeper, and then you took that real moment of, "You know something? I think I can do something." And just the fact that you were just so young. So now we're here. TruArtSpeaks is here, we are showing that community works, you're giving back to the folks before you, and their wisdom is now being passed down. I feel like y'all in the clutch! Like y'all got it. So what does the future look like? What is 2026 and beyond look like?

Tish Jones 

So this is the thing I was talking about. I was so excited about this little card. My staff, they was like, "This is great." They just weren't excited enough. So 2026 we are celebrating the people who have gotten us here. Again, I'm so clear that TruArtSpeaks wouldn't be here without this community, without the people who make donations, without parents and schools and partners and artists, I'm clear. So this is one way we can celebrate them. We have a member donor base. It's called The Village. The members of The Village, they sustain our work generously. They make a donation to TruArtSpeaks every month, every quarter, annually, they get to choose. And so what we did, I'm gonna say me, because this my idea. I love this idea.

Sanni Brown 

I mean, you have been giving everybody credit, it's alright.

Tish Jones 

This one's my baby. Because I'm like, "Yo, how do I say thank you to these people?" Because when funding dips, when the gig falls through, these are the folks who make sure we still good. And so I created this donor punch card. It's kind of like a coffee card, where you go into a coffee shop, you punch it 10 times and you get a discount, or you get your next one free. So this one, it also honors the people we've worked with for 20 years who are for-profit businesses. So this little punch card has 20 different business logos on it. You go to any one of these businesses, from now until the end of 2026, I'm talking December 31, 2026, present them with this card and you get a 20% discount. So that's what 2026 looks like for us. We celebrating our people.

Sanni Brown 

I hear so much of, "Oh, we need community." And you doing it, man!

Tish Jones 

I appreciate you.

Sanni Brown 

You're doing it on the people level. You're doing it on the business level. This is what art can do people!

Tish Jones 

That's what I'm saying! So you know, (referencing the card) our partners at Flava Cafe, that's where we host our weekly open mic. We've got Moon Palace books on here, we partner with Moon Palace books for our programming. Griot Arts, that's a new partner in our community. There's printing presses on here that we work with all the time. Icehouse is here. Heal Mpls is here, Tongue In Cheek Restaurant. There's 20 businesses on this card. You present this card one time, 20% discount, they'll knock out the logo. Card-carrying members, you can also get it outright if you want to, via our website. But created this for the people, y'all.

Sanni Brown 

I feel like that's your longevity. You so effortlessly pull in people. And I know you believe in them, but they believe in you too. So it's something in there, Tish! It's something in there. So I just want to say thank you. You are inspiring a whole ‘nother generation of artists and creatives. And my goodness to know that this all just started with poetry. Where can we find all this information? How can we keep up with TruArtSpeaks so that we can support too?

Tish Jones 

Got you — www.truartspeaks.org. We are also TruArtSpeaks on all social media platforms. We also outside, holla at us.

Sanni Brown 

I see y'all outside! I'm just floored, because I hear the questions of, "How can we do it?" And you're just out here doing it.

Tish Jones 

They say ask and you shall receive, I just be asking.

Sanni Brown 

Carbon Sound family, get out there and start asking! Thank you, Tish. Thank you for being you. Thank you for what you're doing. And shout out to everybody that has been supporting this. This is community. This is the Minnesota music scene. I want to say, I love you. I don't even know you like that, but — I got love for you Tish.

Tish Jones 

Hey, the love is there! It's mutual, I appreciate you.

Every 1st of the month, we’re creating a roundup of our favorite tracks, projects, and music videos that were released by Minnesota artists from that previous month.

Keep our favorite tracks in one place with “Carbon Sound’s 1st of the Month” Spotify playlist. Expect an updated 1st of the Month Playlist on……every 1st of the Month. Mark your calendars accordingly.

Singles

MASTO - CLOSER

Afro Jagger - YG SOLO

Enzyrose - whereizyougoin?

Carbon Sound's 1st of the Month Playlist

Albums/EPs

Bakarii - Figments E.P

Lerado Khalil - Scenic Route

matt proxy - horse play

Seventhirtyatmorning - I CAN’T STFU

Music Videos

Bonus

SoulFlower Live at Greenway Recording

MMYYKK - Craft Synth Bass That Makes Faces Scrunch & Cheeks Jump | Sound Alchemy Vol. 2

Melly Mike’s Young Black & Rich in Fortnite

BdotCroc sat down with Carbon Sound’s host Sanni and talked about her experience as the In-Arena Host for the Minnesota Lynx this season, finding her voice in music, learning from her losses, and more.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Sanni Brown 

It's The Message, Carbon Sound, Music for Life. And you know what? Everything does come together. She just said this off the mic, but in studio today, the energy in here is absolutely crazy. I know them as one name, but we gonna learn the other name today. North Side Minneapolis artist, MC, entrepreneur, community leader, In-Arena Host for the Minnesota Lynx. I've been watching you on the scene, do your entertainment thing for so long. I know that you also had a show at KMOJ, like I have been watching you. It is so slick to be in here with you and it's just so amazing to have BdotCroc in the building, wow.

BdotCroc 

Thanks for having me, I'm excited. I'm glad we was able to put this together.

Sanni Brown 

I'm really glad because listen, when Bdot say, "Can you come in?" Yes I can come in! Because I know what's going on.

BdotCroc 

I appreciate that for real.

Sanni Brown 

So what's your name? It's Brynne?

BdotCroc 

Yep, Brynne Crockett.

Sanni Brown 

So how do you want me to address you?

BdotCroc 

Bdot is fine.

Sanni Brown 

I like Bdot, that's slick.

BdotCroc 

Whatever's with love and respect.

Sanni Brown 

So I am a low-key fan. I'm just looking at your resume, it's so difficult to even know where to start. IRM Crew?? Like, that's where I want to jump in. So first of all, Bdot is a In-Arena Host for the Minnesota Lynx. So what about your past in your entertainment, in the music that you've made, and the different positions you've had — I've seen you host things for community, for the kids, to tell them about how to make music. How did that prepare you to be the In-Arena Host for the Lynx, and then for this season? Like, wow.

BdotCroc  

My grandma I would say, she's the one that really taught me that I could wear many hats. I remember young feeling, being an artist, I had to be a certain way. Or then working in community with young people, I had to be a certain way. But I really just discovered that, like the Lord says, your gift makes room for you. So I feel like for myself, with the In-Arena Host position, it was a mix of all the things I already loved to do, which was use my voice, build community and connection, cheers and chants, when you think of young people, right? Like call and response. And then being on the stage, I mean performing, right? You want to make sure that the people there are having a good time, and they can feel your spirit and that you're having a good time. And I mean, it's hard not to have a good time when you only lose two games at home. So the Minnesota Lynx, I've been a fan of them forever. You know, just confident women that are really poised, an organization that's really well put together on and off the court. And it just kind of came together. I found out about the audition —

Sanni Brown 

How did you hear about the audition?

BdotCroc 

It was a crazy season in life, actually. I had just transitioned from working full-time as a director for a nonprofit, and I was really trying to see what was for me, like I've grown to be in a space where you want to be in places that you feel the love and the respect. So I was actually going through a really tough transition season, and in March, I want to say — shoutout Jedidiah. He's also a North Polar, I'm a North Polar, I got to shout out the Polars, of course. He was somebody that the athletic director at North Kel had been trying to connect me with, because he did the PA at the Wolves, and he's a Polar as well. And so when we connected, because I've been doing the announcing at North High for their girls and boys basketball for like, almost 10 years now, if not 10 years. And I had a lot of people come up to me after the games, and they would be like, "Really love your voice! Really like your voice!" and it was like, "You should be doing the Wolves or the Gophers or the Lynx." So then Kel connected me with Jedidiah and was like, "Y'all should connect, just in case there's ever any opportunities." So me and Jed probably talked like one time, he just told me he would look out, keep me posted. And then all of a sudden, the Lynx In-Arena Host position dropped, and he sent it to me, and I wanted to be more like the voice, like the person that's just saying the lineups and doing some of that. So he was like, "Nah, man, they looking for an In-Arena Host. I think you'd be perfect for it." And I'm not gonna lie, I didn't feel like I seen people that were reflective of myself, so it was hard to see myself in that spot. But he was like, "I'm telling you, you gonna kill it, just audition." So then I did my audition tape, which I just posted recently on Instagram when I did my end of season wrap up. But it was kind of like, I would say just God. I went in there, I was definitely nervous. I remember I dropped my papers in like slow motion for the script that I was supposed to do. But back to the thing, like you said, everything came full circle doing radio at KMOJ. I learned how to do calls and hits; I could still do my KMOJ hit right now. Everything kind of just came together. And then as I started doing it, like I would just kind of pray before I go out there every game, I was really a student of the game, learning from the other In-Arena Hosts that was present. The team and the staff were really encouraging, they were really motivating, in regards to wanting me to find my own voice, wanting me to be myself, kind of let me off the loop. And then next thing you know, boom, I'm doing it. And it was amazing.

Sanni Brown 

These are the freaking stories. Oh my goodness. I live for stories like that. I love this so much. I feel like there's something magical with the people here on the scene. I hope we capture that here. I hear you talk about God a lot. I'm hearing you talk about God a lot. Is that from your grandmother? Does that play a role in — I'm sorry, I just doubled up with two questions. First, does that come from your grandma? And then, how does that affect your work in the arena, and you working with people and that energy?

BdotCroc 

Man, my mom is a big influence in my life in regards to just having faith and believing in a unbelievable, in sense. She taught me, really, at a young age. I'm her middle child, she has three girls. And she would always say I had such a moral compass, like my mom's life really transitioned and changed when I was like, two years old. So I witnessed that in such a young but real way that I feel like, for me, it was always like I knew God was present. I learned as I got older to build my own relationship with God outside of just religious practices. And I mean, it really impacted me when it's like, you gotta believe, you gotta trust that you're here for a reason, that nobody can get in the way of the reason that you're here.

Sanni Brown 

Except you.

BdotCroc 

Right, except you. And even when people try to get in the way, they really just making another way for you. Because like I said, I was leaving. I had just walked away from a full-time position that I was like, "Man, what am I gonna do? I don't know." And then God was like, all of a sudden, boom, the Minnesota Lynx. And I don't know if this opportunity would have came up if I was willing to stay in that environment. You gotta let go of something to get something else.

Sanni Brown  

That stuff, that's so crazy when you got to let go.

BdotCroc  

Yeah, sound good in the testimony, but the testimony is scary.

Sanni Brown 

Because it's just you and the door.

BdotCroc 

Just you and the door.

Sanni Brown 

Tell me about this season, the experience of this season. It's been a crazy year all around in every industry, but just tell me about this season with the Lynx and your position.

BdotCroc 

The WNBA is in such a pivotal position right now, like it's got more visibility than it ever has. It helps to be a part of a franchise that is a winning franchise. I mean, they've won four championships. I feel like for myself just coming in, I had to learn how to be present, because I've been a fan so long. I was a fan — I'm still a fan. But like, it's different when you working in the space, like how we talking even with the interviews.

Sanni Brown 

That's how I feel right here. It's different when I'm watching y'all as a consumer of your content, and then I'm sitting here because — I feel like I'm a peer, but I'm a fan though!

BdotCroc 

Yeah, it's a mixture.

Sanni Brown 

Thank you for saying that. That's why I be fanning about y'all. I've been consuming, I'm watching your career, and it's explosive to watch you go from this to, wow, where you're at.

BdotCroc 

I'm shook too. I'm fanning out over me too, a lot of the times. Like, what? Bdot, what you doing out here, man?

Sanni Brown 

Highs and lows of the season?

BdotCroc 

I mean, we can just get straight to the low. The low is definitely just not being in the finals, feeling like things didn't go in the way that we desired, getting that injury bug closer to the end of the season. We were able to fight through most of the season. And adversity, I mean, we've dealt with just challenging calls since last year, I feel like, even when we were in the finals. So it's just been tough to see a group of women that work so hard, that are so dedicated and there for each other, even with Napheesa Collier being like the superstar, she's not there, as if "I'm the superstar," like she's there amongst her peers, just really being a leader, motivating. And then you got Cheryl Reeve, who's an amazing head coach that obviously very passionate about her players, she's gonna speak her mind. She's always been that way. That's something I've always admired about her, is like she speaks up and says the things that people, you know, whether they want to hear it or not, she's gonna say it. And then you got the StudBudz who went crazy this season with their live stream, like Courtney and T, they're phenomenal. There's so many players that had so many amazing things happen this year. So like, the lows is the lows. But all in all, when we did our end of year celebration, it was really dope just to watch them celebrate. A lot of them have been working hard to be where they're at, and to now be together, celebrating those highs together. Alanna Smith, doing Defensive Player of the Year, Phee being up for MVP, you got most wins in they history, and you coming from some legendary players like Rebekkah, Lindsay, Seimone, Maya, like it's so many names you could say that are powerhouses. So I feel like they're a new generation that's coming and going to continue to develop. The high was just being in the energy, being able to interview them, to being able to see them in passing when they're going out for warm ups, or being able to connect with the front office and getting opportunities to do different things within the organization. I got to do a voice over for one of the commercials this year, that was super amazing. They be fanning and supportive of me, and I be feeling the same way about them. So it's all been just like, divine. That's the best way to explain it.

Bdot in action

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Sanni Brown 

I want to jump right into this question, what can you tell young people who are striving for their dreams, who are looking at you and they're at the beginning, they're just kind of like having the dream, but they're scared — what can you tell them about these losses? Because you're around superstars, and even they lose. And I'm sure you've taken losses. What can you tell the next generation about how to deal with these losses, man?

BdotCroc 

Man, it's really not how you win. It's really how you lose.

Sanni Brown 

Hold that — we're gonna say that for the next break. We are in studio with BdotCroc, dropping gems, giving us the little deets, the little sweets on Minnesota Lynx as In-Arena Host, we will be right back. I'm just so excited. Thank you so much for being here.

BdotCroc  

Thanks for having me.

Sanni Brown 

We are back in studio with BdotCroc. It is The Message, Carbon Sound, Music for Life. BdotCroc hails from the North Side of Minneapolis, artist, MC, entrepreneur, community leader, In-Arena Host of the Minnesota Lynx. And we are in part two, and I want to finish up this conversation about it's how you lose that matters —

BdotCroc 

Yeah, it's not how you win, it's how you lose.

Sanni Brown 

Exactly. And you are an In-Arena Host for a superstar basketball team. Your earlier career, you started out in music, and now you are among these superstars, because you are a superstar. It's the energy, you are amongst the kings and queens. But what did you mean when you say it's how you handle the loss? Because we could just give that to the young folks and move away, dig deeper into that. What do you mean?

BdotCroc 

Everybody's happy when you're winning. Everybody feels good. You may still see some things you want to work on in the win, but in the win, you think that's the overall, like, you got it. Where a loss really teaches you where you don't have it, where you need to grow, where you want to push. And the loss, really, to me, is sometimes bigger than the win because it makes you make adjustments. The only way to really lose is to quit. You can lose a game, you can lose a job, but as long as you don't lose yourself in the midst of the loss, then there's really no loss. You'll gain something. And once you have that experience of what's your attitude like, what's your heart posture when you take a loss, when things don't go your way, how do you readjust? How do you treat the people around you? Because it's also easy to be friendly to everybody when you're winning, but what's your spirit and what's your soul when you're not winning, when you're losing? So I just say to young people, get comfortable in the uncomfortable. Get comfortable in the losses, because they will teach you more than wins ever will, for sure.

Sanni Brown 

There's information in the losses.

BdotCroc  

So much information.

Sanni Brown 

I tell everybody that comes through here, they was telling me no so bad in radio, oh my God. They were telling me no so bad. I was begging these people to let me in radio. And I had to humble myself and be like, "Well, are you sure you're sounding your best?" When people hear me sound my best, baby, it's because I was at my worst. And I had to listen to myself and really dig in. I really want to hone in for the next generation there is information in the losses. And if you can just slow down and get out your feelings and your pride, you'll be able to see that. What type of losses did you have that almost didn't give us the Bdot that we got today?

BdotCroc  

Man. I mean, you name it, from being in hip-hop and being a young girl growing up in the 90s and then coming into the 2000s and how things kind of shifted in regards to representation of women in the industry. There were many times where I was like — I mean, I've been rapping since I was eight years old. I stopped —

Sanni Brown 

And you can rap! I be trying not to play your stuff all the time.

BdotCroc 

I really found my voice in music, that's what I learned. Music really tried to steal my voice at one point, I feel like. Where it wanted me to talk about a certain thing, be about a certain thing, look a certain way. It really challenged my identity. So I feel like as I grew stronger in myself, I grew stronger in my MCing, which I believe the power of the tongue, the power of words. When you on this mic, whatever way in which you're on it, if you're delivering news content, if you're delivering music, if you're delivering just a good time and hosting, your words hold weight. They carry vibrations. They can connect with people. They can cause help, or they can cause harm.

Sanni Brown 

Shameless plug, that's why the name of the show is called (The) Message!

BdotCroc 

Because it's in the message! You gotta make sure you carrying it. So for me, I don't look at them as losses now, but I just feel like, for myself, a lot of the losses I felt like I was taking was like, I was losing things that didn't belong to me. Whether that's certain, like I said, personalities, or things of that nature. I lost the idea that I was supposed to be a certain way, or have a certain way, especially being a hip-hop artist in Minnesota, born and raised from here, proud to be from here, not ever wanting to act like I was from anywhere else, people wanted me to lose that. A lot of people wanted me to claim a different coast, because I sound like, they'd say, "Oh, you can rap rap. You must be from the East Coast."

Sanni Brown 

That's interesting you said that, you don't. That's why you stick out to me.

BdotCroc 

Yeah? We got a sound here. We just got to trust it. That's the one thing I love about being from the Midwest and being from Minnesota, you get a chance to figure out what you should sound like. What you want to sound like. You don't got an expectation to sound — because, I mean, who you gonna sound like, Prince? That's one of the greatest to ever do it. You can't mimic greatness.

Sanni Brown 

You ain't gonna really bubble above "Oh, we like it."

BdotCroc 

Yeah. "That's cool."

Sanni Brown 

That's a very Minnesota response, "Yeah, that's cool."

BdotCroc 

"That's nice." Minnesota nice.

Sanni Brown 

I like that. I am a performer, so I've performed, and if you cool, they'll give you an applaud. But if you cool, they will watch you, but then they'll explode at the end. And speaking of that, I want to get to the kids. You said you've been working with kids for two decades. On purpose?

BdotCroc 

On purpose. Now that comes from my grandmother for sure. Like working in community, I just at a very young age, got exposed probably during high school, and then once I graduated high school, to community work and what that felt like, and what it felt like to really be a part of a community in a way, where I was like, I already go to North Community High School, people have so much pride about being a Polar, you got people that no matter what year you graduated, alumni presence is heavy. So that was one lens of community. And then being from the North Side of Minneapolis, the kids I would work with in community, I would see them or their parents out, whether that's at the grocery store, at an event, or wherever I was. So it really just built this passion and love to see those young people that I grew up around flourish in whatever ways, whether that was working with them in the Beats & Rhymes program through the YMCA, or being a mentor and supporting them in they life journeys, whether we talking about relationships or we talking about where they want to be in regards to work, or if they want to do music, I started to notice the level of influence I had, and that made me hone in. That shaped Bdot. That is Bdot. The kids in my community made Bdot.  I've always been Brynne forever, but they're the reason that I am who I am. It's funny because the kids or my community, the Minnesota Lynx is getting exposed to Bdot now, in that sense, but like you said, how you've even watched me. A lot of people are like, "What? How you don't know about Bdot?? Bdot been a superstar, y'all late." But I love that, because I'm also showing young people that you can continue to evolve as you get older. Like, I remember being young and thinking I had to be successful or doing this by this point, or I don't want it. It's like no, you'll love success at whatever time it meets you. Continue to grow, continue to evolve. Every single thing I've done has led me to exactly where I am right now. So for me, even with the young people, that's why I laugh, when we would be in the arena and it was loud, that was one of my favorite days, was the days where the kids came during the summer from their camps, and it's like, that's cheers and chants. That's all I know in regards to call and response and getting young people's energy turned up, like they give you what you need to give them. So that's why I love that work, and doing that work is so intentional, because I got inspired by people around me, but a lot of times also by things I seen. So I know how important it is for them to see me in these spaces, so they can see themselves. Because I'm reachable, they know they could reach out to me, talk to me, DM me, so that was the biggest thing. When I posted that I got the In-Arena position, my kids went crazy.

Sanni Brown 

I'm not gonna lie, I felt like I won.

BdotCroc 

That's what everybody said, they like, "Man, it felt like we won." And I'm like, "We did! Shoot." That's what it is, it is a win for everybody. I love that. I love that it doesn't feel like it's just me.

Sanni Brown 

Bdot, I'm crying. Your energy is so dope. Your energy, your story, it's dope. Thank you for being you. You gave me a story to look at. You are so dope. I've worked with kids for 25 years, and I know the type of spirit you gotta have to work with kids. The thing that I love about kids so much is they filter. They tell you the truth. And so the fact that the kids love you man, and the community love you man, and it's all love from me.

BdotCroc  

I feel like the kids let you know you close to God, because they the closest to God in my opinion. Like you said, they ain't got no reason to lie, they gonna be like, "That's whack. I don't like that."

Sanni Brown 

"Why you do that? Ew your breath stink." They'll tell you straight up.

BdotCroc 

Straight, no filter. But I love that.

Sanni Brown 

The way they are, the way they pull up, can see the way young people are around you.

BdotCroc 

I've been doing it so long now, one of my first young people I ever worked with, he is now married with children, I'm his child's God mom, and that to me is exactly what it's about. The real-life relationships, that means more than any accolade that I could ever receive. Even with the In-Arena position, the way the fans message me and tell me I make them feel, and how they can feel my spirit. I love that, it means the most to me. It's cool to be on TV, and all of those things are super amazing. I'm super grateful. But nothing is more fulfilling than knowing that you're impacting people in a way that makes them feel good.

Sanni Brown 

Well, you a hero out here. You know who you remind me of? MC Lyte.

BdotCroc 

Oh man, I've been getting that since a really little kid. I remember when I was young, and they was telling me about MC Lyte, and I've had the opportunity to meet her, I've had the opportunity to perform with her. And it's God, that's the only way I could say it, I look at those opportunities even hearing things like that, having pioneers like that, that were doing this way before me, and were willing to give back in the culture in different ways. That's what I desire to continue to do, is push it, pay it forward.

Sanni Brown 

This is what it's about, young people. This is what it's about. These are the real superheroes, no joke, man. I'm so glad you had the time. I got to ask. I have to ask this. Bdot found an early mentor in her uncle, Kelly Crockett, AKA rapper Kel-C, he performed locally with the IRM Crew. Bdot, let us know what that's about. Because I know the IRM Crew, that's hip-hop here. That's hip-hop history, baby.

BdotCroc 

That's my uncle. I grew up rapping in the basement. That's how I learned how to rap, was my uncle Kel. Him, his son, and my cousin, John, J hard, we all was just in the basement mimicking him, he was really punchy rapper. If you know my uncle, Kel, you know his personality, you know his charisma, you know his performance. He was my introduction to hip-hop. My favorite rapper was my uncle as a kid. I didn't start noticing and listening to other rappers until down the line, so I didn't grow up with, like, "Oh, this is my influence. This is who I'm going after." It was really off the cuff. And my uncle was a super big freestyler. Een being able to go off the top in the arena where you might have to go off script, you have to think of something, I got all that from him. So shoutout, my uncle Kel-C. That's my heart right there.

Sanni Brown 

And for my audience, I say off the top. You said off the top, that's the difference between freestyling and off the top. So that's why you can rap. You got hip-hop royalty!

BdotCroc  

That's in my DNA right there.

Sanni Brown 

Okay well, young folks, go check our IRM Crew. That's why I had to pause and throw that in before we leave, out of hip-hop history, out of North Minneapolis, out of respect. I'm from Chicago, but I respect here big time. Bdot, I thank you so much. You are so amazing. Your vibe speaks for itself. When they say your energy introduces you, baby! Okay, you the poster child for that. It is so dope watching you. We really feel like we winning when you out there. So just know what you really represent us. And thank you so much for being in here. Where you gonna be? What you gonna be doing?

BdotCroc  

You might catch me in another arena. I don't know if I can announce where yet, but I'm definitely gonna be popping out in other places. I'm excited.

Sanni Brown 

I'm so excited for you! Oh my goodness. Okay, so I'm gonna stalk you some more. Thank you, Bdot!

BdotCroc  

Thanks for having me, too. I appreciate y'all reaching out. I appreciate y'all giving me this platform and this opportunity. However I can continue to support y'all let me know, thank you. I really appreciate all the people — MPR did a great story on me in regards to when I got the position and came in, and all that makes a huge difference. Like, I've been knowing about MPR, hearing about MPR, even connecting with John at other avenues. I love to see everybody walking in they purpose full circle. Let's keep building, y'all. That's how we keep that's how we keep this thing strong.

Sanni Brown 

I love that, Bdot. Thank you so much.

BdotCroc 

Thank you.

Minneapolis renaissance woman Sophia Eris joins us back in the Carbon Sound studio for a set spanning different eras of R&B, Pop, Hip-Hop, and more. Since moving to the Twin Cities in 2008, Sophia’s music knowledge and artistry have allowed her opportunities to collaborate and share stages with artists like Lizzo, Prince, and other legends. Her robust creative career, paired with her innate love and curiosity for music, makes this Carbon Sound set one that will keep you moving and guessing.

Sophia’s will be opening up Red Bull Directions with DJ PEE .WEE (Anderson .Paak) at First Avenue on Saturday, Nov. 8. In other news, the first full-length album from MAKR AN ERIS, LILITH, is currently in the mixing and mastering process and is on the way.

We chatted with Sophia about her background and her mix. Read a transcript of the interview edited for length and clarity below:

Who are you?

My name is Sophia Eris, I'm an artist, DJ, and producer. I am a transplant of the Twin Cities; I moved here in 2008. And I basically became an artist here, and I love the cities because of that reason.

So did you start out with your music artistry, or did you come here pursuing DJ efforts?

I was actually a college athlete. I played soccer, but I had three concussions, and that wasn't fun anymore, so I decided to pursue music business. So I moved here to go to school at IPR for a music business degree in 2008, I graduated a year and a half later, and I've been here ever since. I started getting acclimated to the scene in a business sense, but then I kind of got pushed into artistry based off of just people encouraging me to do it, so here I am.

What made you want to become a DJ then?

That was actually Lizzo's fault. We were in like two groups together and once she put out her solo mixtape, I was a feature on it called "Batches & Cookies." When she got offered her first tour, she was like, "You have to come with me. Just be my DJ." And I was like, "Okay!" I never had DJed before, and so that's how it happened. And I made a lot of mistakes for a lot of people, but that's how you learn. Now I've been a DJ for like, 11 years I would say.

What made you want to stick with it? I'm sure that was kind of hard or embarrassing, not necessarily knowing how to DJ at first.

I've always just been in love with music, you know? These days, whenever people want to reach out to kind of get tools or advice on how to start DJing, I just say taste and timing are two things you can't teach, you know? And if you have those two things, you're good. Everything else you can learn as you go. But as long as you have taste and you have a good playlist, you're good. And I've always just had an innate love and curiosity for music that will never die. So I think that's a good thing to have when you're a DJ. I'm still learning more things about DJing and how to expand and stay inspired. I think that's the main job as an artist.

What's been the most gratifying experience when it comes to being a DJ?

The thing about DJing compared to other forms of artistry that I do, it definitely gave me that — I never felt like I was ever an anxious person — but I felt anxiety for the first time as a DJ because it's so apparent when you mess up. You're like a captain of the boat, and you don't want to rock the ship. And they'll stay on the boat, and they'll follow you wherever you want to go, but just don't make the ship rock. And when I say the ship rock, I mean when you see the floor stop moving, and you feel it so much. So definitely test your strength and skill and patience with yourself and grace with yourself, and it's not about the mistakes you make, it's what you do after. Once I got a hold of that part of it, then I was able to move forward more confidently. So I get really excited when I can just feel the wave and that energy, and I know it was a good set because people are just like, smiling and sweaty.

Well, speaking of good energy, you're gonna be opening up for DJ PEE .WEE, AKA Anderson .Paak. How does that feel?

He's got the craziest energy ever, he just like a walking smile, you know? I'm so excited. As an artist, as Anderson (.Paak), he's someone that, when I first heard him, he was such a good North compass for me. I was like, "This is exactly what I need to hear at this time" because I felt like he was kind of ranging in places that I wanted to go with myself, personally, artistically, and just being able to open him up as a DJ, I'm so excited.

What can people expect from that set?

Man, I'm still figuring it out, too. I was lowkey like, "Kwey, what are you gonna do?" I know Kwey was just here, he's amazing, Samambo's amazing. So I'm still kind of scaling out my set for there, but maybe this will be a little taste of it too. I just wanted to stay fresh and innovative, that's the goal. So I'm just meshing sounds that may not be mashed before, so we'll see how it goes.

What can people expect from this Carbon Sound set?

It's just really fun, I think it's a really fun set. I feel like I got a lot of it carved, and I feel like I'm going to kind of freestyle the end of it. But I'm having fun, so I hope you guys have fun too!

On November 1, 2025, Carbon Sound partnered with The Legacy Building and Springboard for the Arts to host a hands-on artist development workshop focused on helping working musicians strengthen their business knowledge and expand their creative opportunities.

This session was all about empowering artists to secure their legacy through music—from understanding royalties and sync licensing to developing live performance strategies and building sustainable careers.

Workshop Resources:

Catch up on what you missed or revisit what you learned by exploring the materials below.

Click here to view/download the resources from the Career & Collab Workshop!

Led By:

Envy and Fancy of iLLism – Artists, educators, and owners of The Legacy Building, a local artist resource hub dedicated to creative independence and community collaboration. They led the workshop with insight, authenticity, and creative energy.

Ken from Black Label – Music producer and sync licensing expert, offering real-world guidance on music placement, licensing opportunities, and monetization through Black Label.

Alex Mueller from Springboard for the Arts – Representing Springboard for the Arts, an organization that supports artists through legal resources, grant development, and professional guidance for sustainable creative careers.

A huge thank-you to everyone who attended and made this session such a powerful afternoon of learning and collaboration. Stay tuned for details on the next Carbon Sound Career & Collab Workshop coming soon!

Every 1st of the month, we’re creating a roundup of our favorite tracks, projects, and music videos that were released by Minnesota artists from that previous month.

Keep our favorite tracks in one place with “Carbon Sound’s 1st of the Month” Spotify playlist. Expect an updated 1st of the Month Playlist on……every 1st of the Month. Mark your calendars accordingly.

Singles

burn up - k3ko

SHADOW WRK - MOYANA

September Rain - JAKI BLUE

Carbon Sound's 1st of the Month Playlist

Albums/EPs

Juice Lord - Terri’s Baby

KayCyy - MIXTAPE V1

Moise - SO MANY FLAVORS

Ace P - Good Is the Enemy

Cashinova - TRYNA KEEP MY SPIRITS HIGH

Music Videos

Bonus

Anthony Edwards and bdifferent’s curated album

Janet Jackson posting about Andrea Swensson’s book Deeper Blues: The Life, Songs, and Salvation of Cornbread Harris

Kyle reacting to Essjay TheAfrocentricRatchet

Abraham Westlund performing at Vikings game

k3ko - moonlight (Visualizer)

FUKU Presents Cha Chacolate

Kwey, the mastermind behind Samambo World, once again joins us for a dance-worthy set in the Carbon Sound studio. Channeling his eclectic ear and mission to connect the African Diaspora, Kwey delivered a set that seamlessly blends house, Kuduro, R&B, and more.

Kwey’s upcoming performances include Red Bull Directions with DJ PEE .WEE (Anderson .Paak) at First Avenue and Samambo World’s LOVE FM at Green Room.

We chatted with Kwey about his background and his mix. Read a transcript of the interview edited for length and clarity below:

Who are you?

My name is Kwey; I am a producer, DJ, event curator, gentle giant.

When did you first start DJing?

I started DJing 2015. I remember my homie, Alec, at the time I was taking producer lessons from him, and he had a show coming up that he was gracious enough to add me on to. And he was like, "Yo, you gotta learn how to DJ." I'm like, damn. And then him and I were in his room, he's just showing me the ropes. And from that point on, I found a new love for DJing, playing music. I guess I was already kind of DJing before, without knowing it, because I'd go to house parties and play music off my phone. But yeah, that was the genesis of me DJing. And then from there, I started DJing more parties and events.

One of the questions I was going to ask was 'What made you want to become a DJ?' but it sounds like you were kind of thrown into it.

I was definitely thrown into it. I wanted to be Pharrell, because I was producing, and I thought my life would be like, "I'm gonna be in the studio every day, cranking out beats." Living that life. But DJing came, like you said I was just thrown into it. But then when I got into the technicals of it, and just doing it more frequently, I was like, "Woah. This is so much fun." So I just kept doing it over and over and over and over and over again.

For the people who aren't up to date with Carbon Sound's Gig List that features your events all the time, what is Samambo World?

Samombo World is a platform that I started 2018, it is a space to connect the African Diaspora through music. Right now, it's just a dance party where we have a bunch of fire DJs, lots of great music, and we're just trying to create a space to have people come be free, allow them to express themselves however they see fit, and enjoy good music. It's been fun over the last seven years, which is crazy.

What's been the most gratifying part of that journey and experience?

Honestly, seeing how the people are responding to the space. Even today, I'm kind of overwhelmed. I don't have words for it, but yeah, just seeing the response from the crowd, seeing how engaged people are with what we're doing. It just means a lot.

It is crazy, it feels like every event is sold out too, which is probably a lot to process.

And for me, my brain is always running.

Do you stop and cherish it or is that hard to do?

It's super hard to do. I think I need to make more time to do that. But yeah, it's been wild. Sometimes I'll be at the party, standing on the stairs looking down, like, "Oh, this is crazy."

You're also opening up for DJ PEE .WEE aka Anderson .Paak soon, what does that feel like?

I'm super excited, because he's one of my favorite artists. 2016, I think that's when Malibu dropped, I rinsed that album every day from top to bottom. That album is in my veins. So to be opening for him definitely means a lot. Him and I share the same name too, his name is Brandon. I'm excited to see what he brings as a DJ, I know he pivoted to that a couple years ago, so I'm excited to see what he has. But also I'm excited to play some good music for people. Get people dancing, get people grooving.

Is that all you can tell right now? Or what can people expect from that set?

Oh definitely, you're gonna dance. That's for sure, I'm gonna make sure people dance. And if people aren't dancing, then I haven't done my job.

Lastly, what kind of set are you giving Carbon Sound?

I'm gonna be honest, I definitely wasn't as prepared for this set. But, this was just a compilation of most of the songs that I was just feeling right now, that I've been listening to or just recently discovered. It's just a mixture of house Kudoro, which is an Angolan genre, ties between Angola and Portugal, like amapiano influence. It's not amaiano necessarily, but it's like a fusion of amapiano. Yeah, it was just good vibes, I think. So hopefully I delivered.

D’Angelo, the Grammy-winning R&B singer recognized by his raspy yet smooth voice and for garnering mainstream attention with the shirtless “Untitled (How Does It Feel)” music video, has died. He was 51.

The singer, whose real name was Michael Eugene Archer, died Tuesday, according to a statement from the family.

The singer’s family confirmed in a statement Tuesday that he died after a prolonged battle with cancer. They called him “a shining star of our family and has dimmed his light for us in this life,” adding that they are “eternally grateful for the legacy of extraordinarily moving music he leaves behind.”

In his music, D’Angelo blended hip-hop grit, emphatic soul and gospel-rooted emotion into a sound that helped spearhead the neo-soul movement of the 1990s. Earlier this year, the Virginia native celebrated the 30th anniversary of his debut studio album “Brown Sugar,” a platinum-selling offering that produced signature hits like “Lady” and the title track. The 1995 album earned him multiple Grammy nominations and cemented him as one of R&B’s most original new voices.

D’Angelo’s sultry vocal style — a mix of raspy texture and church-bred fluidity — set him apart from his peers. That voice became inseparable from the striking visuals of his 2000 single “Untitled (How Does It Feel).” The minimalist, shirtless music video became a cultural touchstone, igniting conversations around artistry, sexuality and vulnerability in Black male representation. The song earned him a Grammy for best male R&B vocal performance and propelled his sophomore album “Voodoo.” topping the Billboard 200 chart and winning the Grammy for best R&B album.

Beyond his own catalog, D’Angelo’s artistry shined in collaborations. He memorably duetted with Lauryn Hill on the soulful ballad “Nothing Even Matters,” a highlight of her landmark 1998 album “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.” He also contributed to The Roots’ 1996 album “Illadelph Halflife” and was part of the supergroup Black Men United, which yielded one song: “U Will Know,” which D’Angelo wrote and co-produced, for the film “Jason’s Lyric” in 1994.

D’Angelo was partnered to Grammy-nominated R&B singer Angie Stone in the ’90s. The pair met while he was finishing “Brown Sugar” and bonded over their similar backgrounds: Both are from the South and both grew up in the church. Stone worked on the album with D’Angelo and the pair co-wrote the song “Everyday” for her 1999 debut album, “Black Diamond.”

Stone described D’Angelo as her “musical soul mate,” to The Associated Press in 1999, adding that their working relationship was “’like milk and cereal …. Musically, it was magic. It’s something that I have not been able to do with any other producer or musician.”

They had a son together, the artist Swayvo Twain, born Michael Archer Jr.

Stone died earlier this year in a car crash. She was 63.

D’Angelo also has a daughter, Imani Archer.

This Associated Press story originally published on the MPR News website.

XINA stopped by to talk to Carbon Sound’s host Sanni about her IRON X EP, opening up for Duckwrth in Chicago, XINAVERSE, and more.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Sanni Brown 

It is The Message, Carbon Sound, Music for Life. We are in music class. I've been talking about this all week; I'm so excited. In studio, I have a piece of the local scene that I have personally been following myself. She is independent, this is why this is so exciting, independent, self-produced, multidisciplinary artist based in Minneapolis. And if you ask her what she does, she'll say "arts and crafts." And baby, we need to know exactly what that is about. Ladies and gentlemen of the Carbon Sound family, welcome XINA. Welcome!

XINA 

Thank you, good to be here.

Sanni Brown 

It's good for you to be here! It's a trip to be sitting and talking to you. I've always consumed all of your music and your performances, and it's just really dope to be sitting in studio with you.

XINA 

Likewise! I get to see all the dope stuff you're doing on the scene, and I feel blessed to be in your presence.

Sanni Brown 

Thank you. Let's get to it! So straight out the gate, you are an independent artist.

XINA 

100%.

Sanni Brown 

And this is exciting to me, because I grew up in a time where independent artists, that's like foreign words. And so to watch you, because I knew you from being in radio, and your voice is what caught me. You have an amazing, soulful, you caught my ear with your voice. What are the pros and cons of being an independent artist? Because we're seeing the successful side — excuse me, I see the successful side. Duckwrth sees the successful side. So what are the pros and cons to being an independent artist, self-produced, multidisciplinary?

XINA 

Well, I will say I am independent in a lot of different senses. I think when we hear independent artists, it's like, you're not signed to a label. That's kind of like baseline what that is an indicator of. I am just very independent in every aspect of my creative process as well.

Sanni Brown 

So that's what you mean, independent artist?

XINA 

Yeah, I mean, both, right? Everything is done in-house. Everything is done mostly with just me, or where I can source assistance. Pros and cons though, I think being able to truly be at the center of your creative vision. I've honestly never been signed to a label, so I can't really speak to what that experience is like, but from what I hear, there can be a lot of different sort of hats in the ring, a lot of different checks and balances. Then you're dealing with bureaucracy, you're dealing with ownership, stuff like that. I've just always been very empowered to have ownership, both creatively and on the business side of what I do. And honestly, these days, I feel like it's kind of the only way, from what I hear.

Sanni Brown 

So what I'm hearing is you're independent in the sense of, no, you don't have a label, but you're also independent in the creative process. You don't have a bunch of people telling you what to do. Is that really important to you, or did you just fall into that and it's working for you? Like, was that the intention at the beginning?

XINA 

That's always just kind of been my natural inclination. I think everybody is so different, but for me, I spent a lot of time just honing my authenticity and really finding my voice. And for me, I had to do that by myself. There's so much outside influence that we might not even be aware that we are taking in and emulating. So for me, it was and still is very much a solitary practice. That's how I just maintain my authenticity, I think.

Sanni Brown 

I see you mention that a lot on your posts on social media, and your most recent project is called IRON X. I had to sit with that for a little bit. I like how you connect all of your projects to you, like XINAVERSE is that series of performances that you've done with a variety of artists around the Twin Cities, but IRON X, is the spiritual awakening of the self-identified. That's the work that you've been promoting on IG lately, right?

XINA 

Yes.

Sanni Brown 

Okay so here is where I stand. I feel like, when I first heard you, I heard like feminine, like angelic. I felt like I felt that in the, was it PUSH and PULL or something like that project?

XINA 

Throwback.

Sanni Brown  

Yeah! And that's where I first heard of you. And I was like, "Oh, this is cool." Could you help me understand that, was it two different projects?

XINA 

That was sort of a two part album. So yeah, there was sort of PUSH and PULL; it was kind of like a lighter side and a darker side.

Sanni Brown 

I love that you do that! I can so clearly see you play with things that contrast. That's what intrigues me about IRON X, because from what I remember, it seemed like really angelic and deep soul with the PUSH and PULL. And then this is, like intense and dark, so the what's the transition between the two? Why start this out this way? What was happening here, and then what changed?

XINA 

You clocked that, I love it. I love it. So I still have a lot of music that is unreleased, and the variety, the range of the textures that I like to explore is vast. So this project, IRON X, is a collection of songs that carry that, like, grungy, kind of sinister intensity.

Sanni Brown 

It reminds me of alternative music from the 90s.

XINA 

Cool.

Sanni Brown 

That's the vibe that I get from it. Is that on purpose, or this is just you? That's what it sounds like.

XINA 

That's just me. There's obviously influence inherently in what I do, so I can't necessarily say that that's not part of it.

Sanni Brown 

That's what I'm hearing.

XINA  

I'm just a part of a long lineage of music, right? But I also focus a lot on just trying to pull from within, versus —

Sanni Brown 

Why is that so important to you?

XINA 

I just often witness a lot of artists who I don't get a sense of authenticity from, and I think that art is — the act of expression, we'll say, is always a good thing. I think it's a healthy practice for anyone who's creatively inclined, express yourself, do that, right? But it is also very oversaturated in some sense, and I'm not ever trying to say like anybody shouldn't engage with creating music or expressing themselves, but a lot of sh*t doesn't move me.

Sanni Brown 

Nah I feel you.

XINA 

To be real.

Sanni Brown 

To be real. Heard. Felt.

XINA 

It really is when someone is truly pulling at what is authentically them. I don't know, it creates a sense of vulnerability. You can recognize somebody's idiosyncrasies, and that's when it really resonates for me. When people have taken the time to really find what their voice is. Because, for example, if we're just talking about singing, a lot of people are really good singers, right? And good singers can often sing like other singers very well, and you're singing along to the music you grew up listening to, whatever the case. And you're sort of emulating these runs or whatever. And it's like, my voice has changed a lot over the years, and that has just been because of the excavation and the discovery of what is my true, authentic voice. Cutting out the, you know.

Sanni Brown 

And I know there's a story back there, that sounds like that's a story back there.

XINA 

It's been a journey, you know?

Sanni Brown 

Is that what you poured into IRON X?

XINA 

Certainly. I think IRON X is a really good example of what I've discovered along that journey. It does have range, even though it is sort of a certain corner of my artistic sensibilities, you can still get a sense of like, you get the sort of industrial, almost like grungy hip hop beats. You also get some of the orchestral, softer soundscapes and stuff like that. But yeah, it feels very true to me, through and through.

Sanni Brown 

It feels like it's true, what you're putting into it. So I'm gonna pause here, because I can talk to you for the next hour. And I want you to know I'm using my inside voice, because I heard that you don't like all that loud noise.

XINA 

Oh, you sweet. Honestly, when it's one-on-one, like, I can take it. I do get overstimulated, but that's with like crowds. You're funny.

Sanni Brown 

I've got my notes on the people that I like, and that's what I was wondering, did you mean like, when you're performing, or did you mean just in general, you're not up for the loud noises?

XINA 

When I'm performing, I like to be loud, and I like to be quiet. I just appreciate dynamic. I don't like to go to a show where the volume stays here the whole time. A lot of people, I think, feel like, just make the music as loud as it can be, and that's gonna sound good. And that's not it for me.

Sanni Brown 

I love how you put these pieces of XINA that we can't see, into everything that you do. I want to dig into that on this next break. We gotta take a break, but I want to dig into that because I could tell that you are literally pulling from everything of you and putting it into everything. You can just tell. I mean, that's the frequency that I'm picking up. So we'll be right back on The Message, Carbon Sound Music for Life, I have XINA. And if you feel these feels, this is because this is the vibes that she got. We're gonna dig more into IRON X and the meaning of the spiritual awakening you were talking about that's connected to that. Coming up on The Message, Carbon Sound, Music for Life. Don't go nowhere.

Sanni Brown 

We are in studio with XINA, independent, self-produced, multidisciplinary artist in Minneapolis, and she brought the vibes today, baby. I love it, the looks and the vibes. Thank you so much for sharing time with us. Now in the last break, if you missed it, we just got to know XINA, just the recipe that she's putting into her artwork, which caught the eye of Duckwrth. What's that about? Because I thought he just took — I'm so used to Minnesota musicians being great, and then just somebody from outside town just snatch y'all up. So I just assumed that was your moment. He snatched you up. I mean, it looked like it! But then I got the details, and it was like, no, you opened up for him in Chicago. That's insane. How was that like? How did that even happen?

XINA  

It was great. He's on tour right now, The All American Freak Show, which just resonated with me. I love being freaky and creepy and all that. So he was putting out a call for artists in various cities to come and open for him. And a bunch of people had tagged me under that post. And I was like, "You know what? There's certainly an alignment there, right?" And it worked out. I went to Chicago, opened that show. It was great. His audience was very ready to receive the weirdness.

Sanni Brown 

I mean, it's Duckwrth, I would presume they'd have the open mind for that.

XINA 

Certainly. Yeah, great crowd. It was really a positive experience, very fleeting, though. I was only on stage for 20 minutes, which, the last show I did was my IRON X release show, and my set was damn near an hour and a half, which was crazy. So yeah, it went very quickly, but it was really positive. And Duckwrth is so sweet and really a down-to-earth genuine person, and I feel like that's a great connection now, and hope to keep it alive. We'll see what comes of it in the future.

Sanni Brown 

The thing that sticks out for me the most is in the last break you talk so much about pulling, excavating is the word you used, from within yourself, and I really want, because my audience is young, it's the next generation. I don't want young people to miss the moment of how you've been authentic, and how you pulling from this and you creating this artwork, and how all of that aligned from you pulling from within yourself. And so I always like to highlight that, because that shows how powerful this inner world is and how it can shape our outer world. I just wanted to pause on that part first, but now, before we even get into IRON X, please tell me about XINAVERSE, because for me that was a whirlwind, because it was just you were here, and then you were here, and then you were here, so could you tell me about XINAVERSE?

XINA 

XINAVERSE, a series of parties that I've thrown, highlighting Black femme musicians on the scene, transitioning into an after party with pole dancers, highlighting the sex work scene, and really wanting to mostly create a space where pole dancers can do their thing, and it's safe and it's fun and it's not competitive. There's a pole dance scene here that, there are opportunities to perform, but a lot of it is competitive or maybe it's not at all like a Black and Brown space, or it's, I don't know. I wasn't really feeling personally pulled to the pole dance community, so I wanted to create my own space where I felt like dancers could express and be empowered. And, oh, it's been so much fun. It's been so fun every time. I kind of took a little break from them, but I definitely want to have another soon.

XINAVERSE (Vol. 1) photos

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Sanni Brown 

I love it. I appreciate that as a musician, and you're a dancer too. And so I'm a dancer, so to hear you creating space, I've actually gone to dance practices that were supposed to be safe spaces, and the person turned it into a competitive space. I will never forget this, it shifted the room so oddly. And so that's why that stuck out to me, that you said you created a space where it's not competitive, that's a different dancing space. So I want to say thank you for that.

XINA  

That's always my intention. You know, things kind of go wherever, but I think it has been successful so far, and I'm hoping to keep that container a very positive space.

Sanni Brown 

Yeah, I love that. Now, IRON X, I love how you put you into everything. Why IRON X? What is it? Because I think iron, I think hard. Why? What does the iron signify?

XINA  

I would love to tell you. So IRON X, first of all, is a pole move. It's the crazy one where it's like, you're sideways, I do it a lot. So there's the alignment there with just the X, which I use a lot in my movement. That's the name of the pole move. It's also the sonic palette of the project is very metallic. It feels very industrial. There was a tool that I used to create a lot of those sounds to sort of keep the identity really cohesive, but it just felt metallic to me. There's a lot of references to metals within the lyrical content, and obviously the production. So yeah, that's kind of the gist of the title IRON X. It fits with the brand and all that.

Sanni Brown 

What is the message? These are irons, these are metals, what is your message? Because what I'm hearing, because you say, "The spiritual awakening of the self-identified." What does that mean? And does that connect to the IRON X, to the metals?

XINA 

In a perhaps non specific way, yes. The project in itself is sort of a reflection of the self-discovery that I've been speaking on, and a lot of it was written at a time when I was really discovering myself, discovering where my boundaries are, discovering where other people might have had me f*cked up. And so the project is about empowerment, and I hope when people listen to it, they feel empowered. I sort of channel this darker feminine energy that feels very supported, very sturdy, very metallic, if you will, so that's the gist of it.

Sanni Brown 

Oh, I like that. No, I like that because, again, you said I clocked it, so I must've got it right. It was softness that I gathered from your previous, and then this hardness. As a woman, we're just told to be soft, and sometimes you don't find that metal inside you until you push back, like you said, people had you messed up — ah, I love it. I'm going through something similar. I think in this world, as a woman, I don't know that you're allowed to be aggressive, or you're allowed to be angry, or "I don't understand this," you're not allowed. And so I like that, and I like that you are detailing that, and that you are being vulnerable to show that. Because again, I think social media makes us think every transition, everything has to be pretty and growing in the spiritual self — that ain't pretty at all. It's ugly, it's so ugly.

XINA 

And there's so many different flavors that —

Sanni Brown 

That's not even right to call it ugly. I think a proper, fair word is messy. Because we're humans, and we've got like you said, when we sing, we're pulling from all of these different things. When we walk, everything we do, we're pulling. And then you got to stop and go, "Which one of these is mine? How much of this is me?" And so what I'm gathering from this is, this is what this is, but for XINA.

XINA  

Yeah. Honestly, I'm remembering now, there was a larger album that sort of encapsulated this energy that I'd made years ago, and overall it felt a little bit too dark, and I didn't want to put too much of that energy into the world. I wanted to really pick the things that felt like they weren't driven by anger necessarily, but more like self-awareness and empowerment. So those are the tunes that I stuck with, and for example, "PURE POTENTIALITY,” that's one of my favorite tunes on the EP. And pure potentiality is a spiritual concept, Deepak Chopra's seven spiritual laws of success, if you're familiar. It's perhaps the first one of those laws, but it's about manifestation. And that in particular I love, because it is a very high vibrational song lyrically, and the intention that I infuse into it is very much that of manifestation, being tapped into this unlimited source energy, but it's in this package of a really sexy, sort of grungy sonic palette, which I appreciate, because a lot of high vibrational music I feel like is kind of corny. So I wanted to still feel sexy and grungy, but have a message that is aligned with my spiritual intention if that makes sense. So I love that track in particular.

Sanni Brown 

I do like that one, that one stuck out to me. There is so many different flavors, like you said, it's your voice, and how you put everything around your voice is really something, because when I hear you, it's just like pure, like honey, your voice is deep and soulful, and then you've got all these different, like contrasting sounds around it, and yet it works.

XINA 

I love juxtaposition, which you already, you clocked that.

Sanni Brown 

I have to say, you do it really well. You package it really well, and you present it really well. And I do think that's why I just I can't stop taking my eyes off you, and I can't stop listening to you. I love the work you do. Anything that we need to know, anything that us XINA fans — I didn't ask this, but audience, if you ever run into XINA and you ask, what does she do, she says, "Arts and crafts." You're the arts and crafts CEO. At first, I was like, "I don't like that," because to me, I feel like you do so much, but I respect it.

XINA 

It's kind of tongue in cheek. I do a little bit everything, and I'm very DIY, like, I use safety pins a lot of the time. It's part of the accessories that I like to pull from, and it just signifies really, sort of patching things together in a really sort of, sometimes a chaotic way. But I don't know, it's an umbrella term, I'm an artist before I am a musician, before I'm a dancer, whatever. It's just any medium that I can get my hands on. So it's a little bit satirical, but arts and crafts, you know what I mean?

Sanni Brown 

I think I picked up on the satirical first. I think I was like, "I don't like that. I feel like she's not encompassing everything that she does."

XINA 

But it does though, you know?

Sanni Brown 

I was like, "Okay, I rock with it, I see."

XINA 

And it's light hearted. I don't wanna be too serious.

Sanni Brown 

I'm glad you said that, because sometimes, like how you said the high vibrational stuff can be corny, sometimes when you be like, "What you do?" "Oh, I'm a rapper, dancer, ..." like dude, you can't sum that up? You ain't got no pitch?

XINA 

I don't wanna go through the list. We don't need to talk about me like that. You can find out, arts and crafts.

Sanni Brown 

And you're right, it gives people — that's what I like about you. You have a "It's here if you need it." I like that about you. "It's arts and crafts, if you want to know more, come find me, baby." And where can we find you, XINA? Because I stalk you, so my channels is different.

XINA 

Well, you can definitely find me on Instagram, for better or for worse. I do have a website, xinaverse.com, there's gonna be more offerings there. Gonna be also using YouTube a lot more, I love visual arts as well. Been getting a lot into film and cinema, graphic work.

Sanni Brown 

I saw a promo you did. You definitely have an eye for the visual.

XINA 

Yeah, so I've been shooting a lot and editing and directing for a very long time, but more recently, getting into the behind the camera and the color grading and the storytelling in that way. So excited to continue to integrate that with the music and keep sharing.

Sanni Brown 

And I'm excited to see what you do with it, because you definitely have a good eye. I appreciate you so much for coming in.

XINA 

Thank you for having me.

Sanni Brown 

You are such a great vibe.

XINA 

We done already? That was so quick, I could yap for days.

Sanni Brown  

I be trying to tell people, it goes fast around here, man. But thank you so much, XINA, thank you, thank you. And I'll be in your comment section, trust.

XINA 

Okay, I'll meet you there.

Sanni Brown 

Thank you! It's The Message, Carbon Sound Music for Life. Thank you again, XINA.

XINA 

Thank you, Sanni.

Every 1st of the month, we’re creating a roundup of our favorite tracks, projects, and music videos that were released by Minnesota artists from that previous month.

Keep our favorite tracks in one place with “Carbon Sound’s 1st of the Month” Spotify playlist. Expect an updated 1st of the Month Playlist on……every 1st of the Month. Mark your calendars accordingly.

Singles

I’ll be back soon - Major Sosa

Be More Chill - HEYARLO

WYO? - CJ.LIENO

Carbon Sound's 1st of the Month Playlist

Albums/EPs

Essjay TheAfrocentricRatchet - A Masterpiece

Eja Nlá  - Sharks Are Born Swimming

High School For Recording Arts - Tune in Speak Out

$aiku - Grown Ass Kids

Music Videos

Bonus

Angel Beloved | Carbon Sound Mix

Gladiator School Vol. 6: The All Star Cypher

XINA opening up for DUCKWRTH in Chicago

TRaprite 2025 Cyphers

FUKU Presents 14HunnitVon

For those of us (like me) who wear the term "chronically online" like a badge of honor, PinkPantheress' world is our everything. When we close our eyes, her glossy voice and Y2K nostalgia is a comfort. With a single roller in her bangs and the purse she's never without, PinkPantheress has become our soundtrack, vision board and guide.

For this set, the once anonymous dance-pop star sheds the electronic sounds that we know her for; to our complete delight, her voice is just as glossy and her presence just as entrancing in these new arrangements. Dressed in her signature tartan (with matching tea pot), PinkPantheress' band expands her sound, swapping the glitched-out samples in "Girl Like Me" for heavier guitar riffs. She shapes the moments that we crave in songs like "Pain" and "Illegal" as softer, jazzier ones.

As she performs, she nonchalantly cycles through the instruments laid out before her: some harmonica here, a bit of cowbell there, chimes once or twice. Her comedic timing is deadpan, yet precise — a reminder of why fans obsess over her digital footprint. It's always a gift when artists reimagine their discography alongside us at the Desk. PinkPantheress dives into this challenge, yet maintains her magnetic aura, which is just another reason we still can't seem to look away.

SET LIST

• "Attracted to You"

• "Pain"

• "Break It Off"

• "Illegal"

• "Girl Like Me"

• "The aisle"

• "Passion"

• "Tonight"

MUSICIANS

• PinkPantheress: vocals, harmonica, percussion 

• Lisa Remar: keys

• Joe Lesher-Liao: DJ

• Sofia D'Angelo: guitar, background vocals

• Jaleacia "Queen Drums" Harris: drums

• Tina Chau Le: keys, guitar, background vocals

• Rani Adi: bass
  

TINY DESK TEAM

• Producer: Dora Levite

• Director/Editor: Maia Stern

• Audio Technical Director: Josh Newell

• Host/Series Producer: Bobby Carter

• Videographers: Maia Stern, Sofia Seidel, Michael Zamora, Alanté Serene

• Audio Engineer: Hannah Gluvna

• Production Assistant: Dhanika Pineda

• Photographer: Zayrha Rodriguez

• Series Editor: Lars Gotrich

• Tiny Desk Team: Kara Frame, Joshua Bryant

• Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed

• Series Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson, Robin Hilton

Copyright 2025, NPR

Angel Beloved is the co-founder, creative director, and resident DJ of artist collective MPLSHOUSE. This collective contributes to the robust house music scene in Minneapolis through collaborations with local producers and DJs, like House Proud’s Jeff Swiff on his latest project Six Won Two. Angel is a longstanding community-driven DJ who aims to create connection through his soulful and global sets.

We chatted with Angel about his background and intentions for the mix. Read a transcript of the interview edited for length and clarity below:

First things first, who are you?

I am spirit. I am a human. But I go by Angel Beloved of MPLSHOUSE, which is a collective in Minneapolis. We do many things — we throw parties, DJ production. Just on a journey of music and DJing.

When did you first start DJing?

 Well, I dibbled and dabbled like early 2000s. But when I really got serious with vinyl and digital was in 2017.

What made you want to become a DJ?

I was a professional dancer for a really long time. So I did ballet, modern, and I was a break dancer. I was in a crew called Battle Cats, and we would open up for Rhymesayers at Soundset when it was at First Avenue. So I kind of stopped dancing, and then music's everything, so I was like, 'oh, maybe DJing might be something that I'm interested in.' And so my friend and I, Marcus Rice, he and I bought some decks together.

So almost a decade in the game, then.

That's crazy.

What's been the most gratifying experience when it comes to being a DJ?

Just seeing my growth, and then watching other DJs and their talent and what they play, and creating a community. When I first started, like really getting into gigging, what really helped was throwing sessions at the studio and just DMing DJs and having a community DJ session. That was beautiful. That was a way to get into the game and learn about different gigs, music, and just networking.

Speaking of different gigs, this itself could be seen as a different gig. What do you have in store for us?

I'm actually gonna be playing some broken beats and some world music. That's kind of like my favorite genres right now. I would have played some house, but I just want to go on a different, left turn. So some broken beats, some world music.

Track IDs:

1. Tribute to chief Red Crow (Congo Natty)

2. Jet’aime Zopelar, L’Homme Statue Retromigration 

3. Waiting Feat. Karmina Dai Spiritchaser 

4. Irenie WAPO Jije 

5. Naut’s L8nite Brux Mix 

6. Be Real China Charmeleon Broken Mix 

7. Enouwo Lagnon  Captain Planet Remix 

8. Commit to Sound Wheel Up & Sean McCabe 

9. Let The Drums Play M-Scape 

10. Day by Day Feat. Cherie Mathieson Close Counters Mark Clive Lowe 

11. Runnin Imantus Reon Vanger Remix Turbulance 

12. CDMX Black Loops 

13. Real Love Oliver Night Brukwise Remix 

14. Intentions Max Sinal, King Crowney & Live East

15. Taxi Nights (M-sol) Vocal Remix

16. Brown Sugar Sal Marina DFRA

17. Land of Love The Modern African Spirit Soulstance 

Mustafa maintains hope in dark times. For this Tiny Desk, the Sudanese Canadian artist features material from Dunya, one of the best albums of 2024, plus "Stay Alive," an earlier song of his that he says became "the thesis of everything that I believe in."

A talented poet and songwriter, Mustafa has written for stars like Justin Bieber and The Weeknd — but as you see here, his artistry shines most when he sings heart-wrenchingly beautiful songs about his community. "I was born and raised in the largest housing project in North America," he tells us. The depth of his emotions are palpable here: joy as he playfully interacts with a Sudanese choir assembled for this performance, pain as his soft voice pleads over oud, guitar and cello, and devotion as he sings about his faith. Dylan Wiggins, a producer for Dunya, helped with these Tiny Desk arrangements.

On the Desk, you'll see a variety of objects that celebrate his Sudanese heritage, but also a press vest — the kind used by journalists reporting in combat zones. In Toronto, the police would call into venues and recommend canceling Mustafa's early shows, citing "safety risks." That's when Mustafa began to contrast the white of his thawb with the bulletproof material of a press vest emblazoned with the word POET. "When I'm asking my boys to stay alive," he says, "I'm asking that, when they return from a war, they don't lose what makes them soft and they don't lose what makes them tender. And that, to me, is a radical act."

SET LIST

• "Name of God"

• "I'll Go Anywhere"

• "Stay Alive"

• "What Happened, Mohamed?"

MUSICIANS

• Mustafa: vocals

• Fletcher Milloy: guitar, background vocals

• Yunus Iyriboz: oud, guitar

• Wesley Hornpetrie: cello

• SAFA: background vocals

• Dua Kheiry: background vocals

• Nadine El Roubi: background vocals

• Batool Ibrahim: background vocals

• Bousaina Ibrahim: background vocals

TINY DESK TEAM

• Producer: Elle Mannion

• Director/Editor: Joshua Bryant

• Audio Technical Director: Josh Newell

• Host/Series Producer: Bobby Carter

• Videographers: Joshua Bryant, Maia Stern, Kara Frame

• Audio Engineer: Hannah Gluvna

• Audio Mix: Maggie Luthar

• Production Assistant: Dhanika Pineda

• Photographer: Grace Raver

• Series Editor: Lars Gotrich

• Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed

• Series Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson, Robin Hilton

Copyright 2025, NPR

Every 1st of the month, we’re creating a roundup of our favorite tracks, projects, and music videos that were released by Minnesota artists from that previous month.

Keep our favorite tracks in one place with “Carbon Sound’s 1st of the Month” Spotify playlist. Expect an updated 1st of the Month Playlist on……every 1st of the Month. Mark your calendars accordingly.

Singles

No Water - Libianca

wan guru - ohmygod!

Monté Carlo - Honey & Dutches

Carbon Sound's 1st of the Month Playlist

Albums/EPs

Ozone Creations - Free Therapy

Dammntc - TYWC30

seventhirtyatmorning - Insiders

Jackson Hurst - The Red Project

Drelli - CiRCA

Music Videos

Bonus

Carbon Sound Host Sanni B. drops new album

BASSment JAMS with echo

Dizzy Fae song featured in Taco Bell commercial

wan guru making “ohmygod!”

Melly Mike becomes World Ambassador of Pacu Jalur

On "9 2 5," the second single from his new album The Passionate Ones, the multi-hyphenate artist Nourished by Time is up-front about his own passions. The track is sparkling at first, its synth keys and sequenced drums sounding like a Whitney Houston song and a New Order song left in a pressure cooker to simmer together. But when Marcus Brown begins singing — his voice sounding lo-fi but tender, the way a bruise can be tender — you can feel the stinging vulnerability in every tugged-on syllable, as he weighs two forms of labor: "Working restaurants by day / Writing love songs every night / He can barely make it by." Brown has been writing love songs for many years, and while distorted in the way all of his music is — raw yet accomplished, identity-forward yet sonically elusive, wringing post-punk and synth-funk into bizarro R&B balladry — they are usually colored by the stories of people trying to make it by. Indeed, nothing has inspired the wandering style of Nourished by Time quite like work, be it the toil itself or just the condition of striving.

After stints in Los Angeles and the U.K., the 30-year-old Brown moved to New York City this year. Today he's traveled down to Baltimore, where he grew up, to meet me at R. House, a food court in the city's Remington neighborhood, not far from Johns Hopkins University. Brown slides in across the booth from me holding a beer, asserting that it takes more than moving to a new city to stoke one's creative fire. "Nothing should come from outside," he says, his hands flailing, even with one in a wrist wrap due to a nagging cyst issue. "Every choice should be an internal choice — should come with some level of internal struggle."

Remington is one of Marcus Brown's hometown stomping grounds. His brother is a pastry chef at Gertrude's, a kitchen inside the Baltimore Museum of Art; the anarchist ex he was dating while writing Erotic Probiotic 2, his 2023 breakthrough release, works in the area as well. That album, a quietly released breakup record that scanned like irradiated dance music for the end times, made more noise than anticipated: Music press marked it as one of the best of the year, and the momentum facilitated a jump to the distinguished indie label XL Recordings, raising the curtain on Nourished by Time as a serious endeavor. "I never expected it to become this big thing. I wasn't really expecting anyone to hear it, and I was kind of just writing music," Brown says. "That's partly why it's maybe a little more discombobulated, and goes a lot of different places. I think it's an amazing album, but it wasn't necessarily me at 100%."

Brown has been gearing up to reach 100% for a long time, logging hours in various short-term gigs. "I've been working since I was like 14," he says, rattling off his CV — YouthWorks, Barnes & Noble, dog walker, amateur tennis coach, attendant at Floyd's Barbershop in Ellicott City and in-store shopper at Whole Foods in Los Angeles' Koreatown, which he calls his worst job ever. Brown jokes that he was radicalized in that supermarket, forced to come to terms with how little value his time and labor held to the company: "I was really just seeing the Matrix happen in real time." It was around then that he took a more active interest in progressive politics, following his curiosity from the news live stream TYT Network to journalist Aaron Maté to the political podcast Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar. When COVID hit the U.S., he ditched LA and went back home to his parents, where he committed himself to his music.

If Erotic Probiotic 2 was an accidental introduction, The Passionate Ones is far more intentional, the personal and political statement Brown has been building toward. "My goal is to reconceptualize work with this album," he explains. "You hear 'working,' you think negative. You think of oppression; you think of being exploited. But there's also the work your job doesn't want you to do, the work that sets you free — and that's creative work." These days, creative work is his full-time job, and his move to New York was prompted by a desire to follow the muse. "It's really expensive, but there's also a really romantic aspect about living there," he says. "Everyone, regardless of the medium, has come through in some way." When he does visit home, he's a scene regular again, going out to shows at beloved indie venue Ottobar and factory turned DIY art space The Compound, or browsing instrument shops for the gear he could never afford when he lived there. "So much of my experience here was so poor," he says, "so it's nice to have a little bit of spending money."

Brown grew up in Mount Washington, after a lucky break allowed his "lower-middle class" family to move from a Hamilton row house to the historic northwest district at the edge of Baltimore County. Stark class realities were right before his eyes: His grandmother lived in Mondawmin, a 12-minute drive away but a world of difference, and he attended public school but shadowed at the private Catholic prep schools Mount Saint Joseph and Calvert Hall. "Being able to have that safety and see how these older white people are living … when there's any city problem, the city comes that day to fix it. But when I go to see my grandmother, the same homes on her street had been run down and dilapidated since I was a baby. If you're paying attention, you see the two sides of it."

A performer was born in 2009 when Michael Jackson died, and videos made the rounds of his collaborations with Guns N' Roses axe man Slash. A dazzled 15-year-old Brown followed the breadcrumbs back to Jimi Hendrix, which prompted him to pick up guitar. "Everything I was learning about the guitar experience was Black to me," he says. "I'm obsessed with Eddie Hazel, and everyone else at the cafeteria is listening to Gucci and Flocka and Boosie and, like, Dom Kennedy. Which I also liked, but they couldn't get why I was listening to AC/DC." Toward the tail end of high school, a youth renaissance led by crews like Odd Future, Pro Era, A$AP Mob and Black Hippy turned the tide in hip-hop, seemingly granting an entire generation of teenagers permission to jump to the frequency Brown was already operating on. "Guitar and music, it gave me a pass to be myself — and the same people that were making fun of me for playing guitar were asking for lessons by 12th grade." He was convinced to stay the course. "By the end of it, I realized: As long as I'm myself, I'm Black," he explains. "The only people that I want acceptance from is the Black community. But I don't want it at the expense of me trying to be something I'm not."

At 17, Brown traveled to Boston to attend the Berklee College of Music. He knew he wanted to spend all his time on music but wasn't sure about the path, and going to school at least mimed the gestures of careerist ambitions. When he showed up as a freshman, the idea was to become a session guitarist on pop songs. Then his grandfather died, and grief unlocked a new challenge: "I tried to write a song about it, and it was so ass that I got obsessed with writing songs." Composition came quickly to Brown, but mostly as a "raw, intuitive" process, which set him apart from his classmates, in whom he saw a pervasive single-mindedness. "It felt like everyone's parents gave them the talk right before — like, 'You've got to make money.' "He pauses for the slightest moment. "My parents did that, too. But me even being at Berklee, they fell for my trap. Going to Berklee was just my version of not going to college.

"I'm not the biggest music theory guy," Brown admits. "I can talk about it, but when you go to a school like that, you're surrounded by the greatest musicians in the world." Music school became an opportunity to experiment, to push himself to the furthest corners and see what would happen. It's also where he met his friend and bassist Carrington Edmondson, whom he counts among the reasons for his move to NYC. "I do get a little afraid to think about what I would be doing if I didn't go there, only because of the people that I met through that experience. It was very formative." Still, there are things about learning music that go beyond instruction, toward instinct. "At Berklee, everyone assumed that musicianship carries over into songwriting," he scoffs. "It doesn't. Some of the worst songwriters I know are amazing musicians. It's a completely different muscle. Not every doctor knows how to do brain surgery."

Brown's thoughts on education are part of a larger ambivalence he holds toward institutions. He calls himself an "anti-church" guy but loves religion, noting that it ushered his mom through a tough time. Politically, he has high regard for praxis and finds theory too abstract. "A lot of people on the academic left are so well-read, but their entrance into working-class rights and race is purely theoretical. They don't have any lived experience," he says. In our conversation, he touches frequently on progressive talking points: the Overton window, corporate donations to politicians, Gaza as a rare litmus test ("If you're a true leftist, this is a no-brainer," he says). He points to Baltimore as a clear corroboration of socialist ideas in practice: "We're seeing that community projects work, less policing works, more money reinvested into the community works."

One of Brown's primary tenets is that you can't let wage work get in the way of creative work — even in a creative economy that demands a superhuman work ethic. In Los Angeles, he'd get home from his job at 11 p.m. and then work on music until 2 a.m. every day. "For me, my thing is songwriting. That was my thing for 10 years, and no one knew about it. It was my way of learning about myself, and it was an obsession. I was, I am, possessed by this hunger to create. And I think what I'm trying to say with this record is, we should focus on our personal works," he says. "It's not going to be sexy. I had to move back with my parents. I was just like, I'm gonna invest." He gave himself two years to work it out, figuring that if it didn't happen, at least he could tell himself he made something. He thanks God it did, but says he was prepared to sacrifice a lot. "I'm willing to die for it. To me, my life was for this."

Brown's singing voice has the kind of character you can't deepfake, gruff but velvety with a sheen like velour. It's the perfect pair for a production style that gathers and filters ideas learned slowly by osmosis, taking the necessary years of searching as a given. You can hear that voice locking in on a song like "Max Potential," its timbre riding the wave of crashing riffs as he howls, "If I'm gonna go insane, at least I'm loved by you." Following the breakup that defined Erotic Probiotic 2, The Passionate Ones is a rehabilitation of sorts, not-so-stealthily yearning and romantic, insistent that neither the state, mental health or even time can stand in the way of pursuing love. "What hurt the most was the things you realize about yourself in that process," Brown says of the post-separation soul-searching. "You just do more self-reflection. The Passionate Ones is less heartbreaky: I can find love again, but it doesn't have to look a certain way." That self-reflection has led him to write and sing with new purpose. "My whole life changed faster than a minute / I dreamed this life, now I'm scared to live it," he sings on "It's Time." One thing he isn't scared to do: use his new platform to say his piece. "The evidence was haunting / The world kept revolving / If you can bomb Palestine / You can bomb Mondawmin," he raps on "Baby Baby," literally bringing the issue home.

Musically, he calls the new album his crack at the alchemy of early Kanye West albums like The College Dropout or Late Registration: "The soul of the album is hip-hop, even if the music might not be exactly hip-hop." The palette is as broad as ever, moving from club styles to something he's referred to as "freaked-out soul," but the music is more focused, turning what he's learned along his journey into a more robust sound honoring his favorite music: Max Martin's supercharged pop choruses, SWV's relaxed twang, Meatloaf and Nicki Minaj's shared flair for the theatrical. "I identify this album as post-R&B," Brown declares. "FKA twigs and Frank Ocean are that, too, but this is my contribution to the genre. I just think Black music is the most expansive." He bucks "genreless" as a distinction, but shrugs when others try to mark out the references he's making in his songs: "new jack swing," "Baltimore club," "indie-pop," "neo-soul." By his analysis, a different, more vibrational kind of indexing is taking place. "If I broke this down into parts, I could use them individually for different things, right?" he says. "I think that's how I see genres. I see them as feelings — what job is this getting done?"

The Nourished by Time project seems to be balancing Berklee songcraft with something more visceral at every turn. When Brown writes, he always forces himself to create A and B sections, having routinely been unsatisfied with building around a single eight-bar loop: "It doesn't feel like a song," he says. "It feels like something for the ego." Every time he makes a record, he tries to do something he's never done before. For Erotic Probiotic 2, he learned Ableton Live, the digital audio workstation. For The Passionate Ones, 40% of which was recorded in one month earlier this year thanks to an intensifying tour schedule, he taught himself how to sample in the classic rap tradition. "I was trying to make a more concise album, but I still wanted to have the avant-garde and experimental aspects to it," he says. "In this record, I really wanted to identify as the music — like, I wanted the music to have a voice, and I didn't want to talk as much." He compares songs to a Ouija board, saying they will tell you where to go. "What's more important to me than the lyrics is the feeling of them coming out of my mouth."

Still, there is plenty of intention in the writing, which conjures a search for the American Dream in the minefield of late-stage capitalism, and the quiet revolution of persisting amidst the decay of empire. "I need a girl to cause a little civil unrest," he raps on "Baby Baby." "Tryna beat the system / Manifest a vision," he sings on "9 2 5." Even at their most casual, the lyrics feel primal, which Brown says comes from a natural instinct to speak to the proletariat: "Not everyone went to school and took Marxist classes," he cautions. "Not everyone knows what 'dialectical materialism' is. When you write about things in music, you have to write about them a certain way." R&B is a music of such passion that it has long been technically maligned, but there is no better sound to furnish Brown's gut-based form of songwriting. Tweaking its intensity and melodrama to his frequency — attaching himself to tradition, as he puts it — not only keeps him anchored amid an intuitive, exploratory process, it connects him to a deeply fundamental mode of being.

More and more, people are getting the message. In February, Nourished by Time toured with two of his indie exemplars, Toro Y Moi and Panda Bear. Last month, he hit the Lollapalooza stage, and he kicks off his first headlining tour on Sept. 11 in Baltimore. Brown beams as he recalls his experience on the road — gushing about his billmates, collecting mentors, soaking up game. "I feel like I'm a rookie in the NBA," he says. "The misconception when you get signed is that you're supposed to just go crazy, make all this money, ball out. Nah." He points to Dev Hynes, Mac DeMarco and Beach House as examples of indie artists whose true breakthroughs came only after staying the course and establishing themselves across several albums, and he seems to be charting a similar trajectory for himself in his mind's eye.

With new visibility comes an aspect of this work that can only be learned by doing: maintaining your artistic identity in spite of greater and greater expectations. "Something I learned on tour is that the audience can't open up until you open up," he says. "All of this is so absurd that I'm going to be more absurd. It opens me up. I would be remiss if I wasn't myself, with all this attention." In the process, he has become a case in point for his own thesis: Work can be creative labor, and creative labor can be both a way to make a living and a way to define oneself. For years, Brown defined success largely in terms of the grind, where the only indicator of progress was whether he'd made something or not on a given day. Now, his lived experience suggests a grander, subtler version of success is closer than he ever imagined. As he sings on the album cut "Crazy People," "It took me 10 years — but I'm on time."

Copyright 2025, NPR

Every 1st of the month, we’re creating a roundup of our favorite tracks, projects, and music videos that were released by Minnesota artists from that previous month.

Keep our favorite tracks in one place with “Carbon Sound’s 1st of the Month” Spotify playlist. Expect an updated 1st of the Month Playlist on……every 1st of the Month. Mark your calendars accordingly.

Singles

PAPERCUT - Orlando & The Rumors

TALKINOUTTATURN - Huhroon

Just to Feel Alive - REVII

Carbon Sound's 1st of the Month Playlist

Albums/EPs

Mati - Some Can Relate

XINA - IRON X

Emanuel Carter - Untitled

Major Sosa - we all try to be the greatest when we only need to be ourselves

Music Videos

Bonus

mati - different and say (live for Carbon Sound)

KayCyy collaborates with A$AP Rocky on “pray4dagang”

always live 4: sahn

Maya Marchelle Performs “Hey Pretty” at Lynx Game

If the late Minneapolis techno producer Liara’s The Last Angel were an active artist’s debut album, we’d be celebrating the arrival of a bold new talent. As it is, the album still sounds celebratory—ferociously so, much of the time—even though it is, in effect, a memorial.

Liara Kaylee Tsai hadn’t been in Minnesota for very long—only a few months—when she was the victim of a shocking, brutal murder: MPR News covered the case at length here, and I delved into Liara’s bountiful life for Carbon Sound here. The Last Angel was released June 21 by the queer-focused Chicago label Banana Pudding, on the anniversary of her death.

The music—which you can hear on SoundCloud or at Bandcamp, where it is a name-your-price download— is noteworthy.

Angelia Word, a Chicago DJ who runs Banana Pudding, assembled The Last Angel over the past year. Word and Liara had been musical comrades from their first meeting in the spring of 2021, when they both lived in Iowa City. Shortly after that, they began hosting events under the moniker Femme Decks, and in November of 2022, Banana Pudding issued Actualization, Maybe, an early Liara EP. Liara came to the Twin Cities and Word moved to Chicago, expanding Banana Pudding into a party brand and booking agency, but the two stayed tight. The Last Angel is a testament not only to a talent gone too soon but also to a close creative friendship.

The seven tracks on The Last Angel were recorded over the last three years of Liara’s life, and their sources are far-flung. Assembling the album took a fair amount of detective work. “I started out by posting on my Instagram Story: ‘If you know anyone that has Liara’s tracks, let me know.’ Two people that run labels said, “Liara sent me a track that a demo to put out, and I still have it. Do you want it?’ And then a couple of the tracks are live recordings she did,” says Word.

Happily, Liara made sure to document everything. She kept very, very detailed records of exactly when all the tracks were made,” says Word. “I actually have exact dates on all the tracks; the live recordings as well. For most of it, she used Roland hardware, which she made most of her tracks with.”

Word estimates that she gathered “12 or 14” of Liara’s tracks altogether before whittling it down to the seven that appear on The Last Angel. “I struggled to decide whether or not I should release everything, or I should have it be more curated. And I did decide to have it be a more curated album,” she says. “I really wanted this album to feel really full and purposeful and intentional and not just like a blanket release of everything.”

Liara’s “hypnotic acid electro,” as Word calls it, was inextricable from her DJ performances. They were intended to be played in sets, not just showcased on their own. But track by track, this music has enormous presence. It’s a massive step up from the Actualization, Maybe EP, particularly in its arrangements.

In dance music, the word “acid” refers to the wriggling, squiggling lines generated by the knobs of a Roland TB-303 bass synthesizer and its digital progeny, which can stretch and distend a simple melodic line in oft-disorienting ways. Liara, like many acid producers, likes layering those lines to create a playfully sinister atmosphere, as on The Last Angel’s “Tesselation Matrix.”

There’s a great deal of, to use Jimmy Page’s term, light and shade in this music. Liara’s bass patterns have the insistent melodicism of vintage New Order—see the springy kineticism of the low end on “Solar Aurora’s Dance”—and even when the arrangements are busy, they’re also free-ranging.

My favorite track, “Another Time Spell,” is robot boogie as pinball game. Its handful of jitterbugging synth lines all play hopscotch together, only to pause on the one to let you catch your breath. Dance music can often be rigid—that’s what holds Actualization, Maybe back musically, in fact. Liara found a way to make it seem endlessly varied, and infused with what Word calls “her angelic power and soul.”

That enveloping sensibility is something Word saw Liara beginning to conjure in Iowa City, when they were putting on Femme Decks parties. “She talked a lot about the spiritual side of her performance,” says Word. “A huge part of her performance and production is tapping into the divine feminine. You can absolutely hear that stylistically in the music, where I think it encapsulates, sort of like the hypnotic, continuous flow of sound, where I think that that developed in a new and different way as she was transitioning and living in Iowa City. I was really impressed listening to some of those tracks and feeling like, ‘Wow, this is so much more fleshed out and put together even better than it has before.’”

In addition to the downloads, The Last Angel will also be released as a limited-edition cassette—pre-orders will be available for another few weeks. The proceeds from the tape, as well as from a GoFundMe, will go to help bring Liara’s loved ones to Minneapolis for the murder trial in September.

Correction (7/8/25): A previous version of this story featured an incorrect spelling of Angelia Word’s name. Carbon Sound regrets the error.