Hey guys. This is Julian, AKA echo, AKA Carbon Sound’s Content Director. 

We’re back with more DJ sets this year. We have some very special guests and new twists in store for you. 

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

Julian Green built and manages the music library for Carbon Sound and oversees content creation.  


Julian Green

We are so back. echo bangs the box with a set of groovy techno to kick off the new year.


echo bangs the box to ring in the new year.

echo (1/15/25)

John Kueppers

Groovy Techno mix from echo | Carbon Sound

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Bump Opera

Daniela Bulvat

Shots of moments and performances from Carbon Sound’s Sunday night residency at Berlin Minneapolis.


Daniela Buvat for MPR

Photos: Carbon Sound at Berlin

Author

Carbon Sound talked with Ricky from Water Wave about the origins of Water Wave, what's to come for the brand in 2025, and much more.


Ricky from Water Wave Interview

man poses for a polaroid photo while making w's with his fingers

man poses for photo while making w's with his fingers

Ricky from Water Wave Interview: The origins of Water Wave, Minnesota artists, and mindset for 2025

Yung Gravy, BBNO$, Waka Flocka Take Over Minnesota

The Nate Infinity Interview | (Water Wave TV.)

What is Water Wave TV?

WAVE FEST 2024 VLOG AND INTERVIEWS!

bdifferent Talks New Album, Minnesota Love, Anthony Edwards, Olympics And More!

Interview: Ricky from Water Wave

When an artist dies, you see the totality of what they do in a way that you don’t when it’s happening. It was like that for David Bowie, for Prince, and for MF DOOM. Many fans commune with old favorites at these times. As for S. H. Fernando Jr., one of the first major journalists to tackle hip-hop as a subject, he knew he had another book to write. 

“I, like everyone else, was shocked when I heard the news on New Year’s Eve 2020, going into ’21,” Fernando recalls from his home in Baltimore. “I immediately was just enthralled by all of these DOOM tribute podcasts. That reintroduced me to DOOM—his whole life story and his whole artistry. And I was just like, ‘Wow. If anyone needs a book, it’s DOOM.’ I had just handed in a book. You’d think I want to just chill for a minute, but I just went right into it.” 

The Chronicles of DOOM: Unraveling Rap’s Masked Iconoclast

, Fernando’s new bio-study of the hip-hop icon, is as close as we are likely to get to this largely secretive but alluringly prolific artist’s story in full. It coincides with a recent reissue of 1999’s 

, which debuted DOOM’s new persona. (Previously, he’d been Zev Love X of early-’90s rappers KMD, who issued one album on a major label subsidiary prior to the death of Subroc, a fellow member and DOOM’s brother.) Also, Minnesota-based Rhymesayers put out a 20th anniversary reissue of the 2004 MF Doom album, 

In fact, Rhymesayers has become a key guardian of DOOM’s legacy. The label has long distributed his 

 imprint, and in the book, Fernando reports that Rhymesayers cofounder, Siddiq, was the rapper’s personal manager at the time of his death. In addition to the two recent reissues, the label also offers the second KMD album, 

, which took a decade to come out the first time, in 2001; and 

the 2003 DOOM album released under the moniker Viktor Vaughn.  

“Rhymesayers is re-releasing his music, repackaging it, with new artwork and extra features, so the book came at a pretty opportune time,” says Fernando. “Now, it’s like the rediscovery process. It’s amazing—a friend of mine [from] college called me and said his 14-year-old daughter is a huge DOOM fan. Could I sign a book for her? So, his fandom is getting younger and younger too. The kids are discovering him.” 

Fernando’s book offers a lot to chew on, both historically and analytically. Take DOOM’s persona—his name came from the 

villain Dr. Doom, with spin-offs like Viktor Vaughn riffing on Victor Von Doom, Dr. Doom’s birth name. In 

Fernando opens up some of the dizzying ways the series is cross-referenced in the rapper’s lyrics and

“A lot of [rappers] use the inspiration of comics, but he was the first one to really inhabit a character,” Fernando says. “I think it’s because Doom always fancies himself, not as MC, but as a writer of fiction, you can write whatever you want. “The whole mask thing—initially it was a way for him to just evade that whole fame thing. But eventually the mask took on an identity itself, to a point where he could just give it to someone else to go on stage and perform. It’s pretty wild that Dr. Doom in the comics used to do almost exactly the same thing—use Doombots as decoys and or, if he was in trouble, send a Doombot.” 

Marvel heroes and villains are never fully bad or fully good, says Fernando. They always have some human flaws. “When you actually compare the origin story of Viktor Von Doom to Daniel Dumile’s story, there’s a lot of crossover. His father was a mathematician, into science; his mother was a nurse, kind of more spiritual. He really inhabited that character, the super-villain, down to the fact that, when he put the mask on, he was literally a different person. I’ve had [people] tell me, he’s the nicest guy—and all of a sudden, he puts the mask on, and it’s like 

Another of this book’s services is its appendix, featuring not only an album and singles discography, but a complete list of DOOM’s recorded guest appearances—weeks of listening. Or a near-complete list, anyway: “I think it’s still incomplete, unfortunately,” says Fernando, “because I keep seeing new stuff on YouTube all the time. I thought I had a pretty comprehensive list, but it grows all the time. I had no idea how deep the rabbit hole went, believe me.” 

The recent Rhymesayers reissues attest to the depth of DOOM’s fan base—each accompanied by collectible gewgaws galore. For 

 (sold out), plus anniversary versions of the 

 versions with a black-and-white “sketch” version of the artwork. And for 

(please note the two dots, not three—it’s an anagram), the same—

, DOOM’s 1999 debut under that name, proved a paradigm-shifter. “DOOM, in a way, made fun of hip-hop,” Fernando says. “He made fun of how people took themselves so seriously. That was a big part of his appeal, because it’s like he finally broke down the wall. Now, all the nerds and the geeks and the misfits can come in. He stands out in the annals of hip-hop: Someone who totally went against the grain of everything, but he was still right in the cut.” 

Rhymesayers is also the third label to issue the album. 

first came out on Fondle ’Em, run by NYC hip-hop radio legend Bobbito Garcia, who issued it with little advance notice. 

When Bobbito dropped it, it just kind of dropped,” Fernando remembers. “It was still underground—it was still just the heads. But then it got a re-release a year later on Subverse. Fiona Bloom, who was actually one of the owners of Subverse, she also happens to be an amazing publicist, so she was able to plug in DOOM to all the right places: 

. Once he had exposure on that level, he was on the map.”  

As Fernando details in the book, KMD was signed to a subsidiary of Elektra, which had powerhouse distribution through Warner Bros., during a period when major labels were signing up rap acts by the gross. Two years later, the Ice-T/Body Count “Cop Killer” controversy had changed things utterly. DOOM came in for a meeting about 

and an Elektra rep handed Zev Love X a $20,000 check and explained that they wouldn’t be releasing the album, with or without the cover art. 

had achieved a lost-classic rep that was finally justified when Subverse issued it for real. “It was like one-two punch,” says Fernando. “You have the story of DOOM coming back after KMD—a great story. All of a sudden, DOOM’s on the map. He just ran with it. He never, never dropped the ball. He just kept going.” 

One of DOOM’s latter-day characteristics was his extensive use of vintage cartoon sound bites and music cues, particularly from the Hanna Barbera collection. 

 contains some wonderful testimony from Jason DeMarco, the 

producer who later hooked DOOM up doing voiceover and music work for Cartoon Network. 

“It’s amazing how much also music he’s able to squeeze from these cartoons—really dramatic music or really suspenseful riffs,” Fernando says. “He didn’t just take the vocal snippets. And he’s very intricate with these sound collages.” 

For now, Fernando has offered a definitive roadmap to a great artist whose output can still be daunting to the newcomer. The book is unauthorized, but the author got help both from the indie-label realm he knows intimately—Fernando started his own imprint, 

, in the late ’90s—and from some of DOOM’s intimates, including high school friends and DOOM’s younger brother, Dimbaza.  

Fernando didn’t speak with DOOM’s wife, Jasmine, though he has kept her abreast on the book and sent her the first copies. “I think they’ll probably understand that the book is actually really helping to cement DOOM’s legacy,” he says. “That’s really, to me, what it’s about.” 

Michaelangelo Matos

One of rap’s most enigmatic, DOOM’s legacy lives on through his life’s work.


Astra House

Behind the Mask - Author S. H. Fernando Jr. discusses new book on rap legend MF Doom

Each week, we add new music, older tracks, which are known as “Gold adds”, and tracks that might not fit our general format, but still deserve a place in rotation because they serve our mission of showing the depth, breadth, and influence of Black musical expression - These are known as “Variety adds.”

. If you make music and want it considered for rotation, 

 If you want to give feedback directly, reach out to me at jgreen@mpr.org.

Tune in to hear our host Sanni B. live on The Message from 10 AM to 1 PM Monday through Thursday!

Keep all these tracks in one place with the 

 Spotify playlist. This playlist is updated weekly with all the new adds. When that playlist is cycled with new tracks, the tracks live forever on the 

 playlist. That playlist contains all of the music that we've added since the week of July 11, 2022 in chronological order of when it was added. All of the tracks available on Spotify, at least.

Robert Glasper - “Wake Up” feat. MMYYKK

TOMMYPHYLL - “TOBAH” (Local (Manitoba isn’t 

All of the tracks added to rotation on Carbon Sound the week of Jan. 6, 2025.


Image for New on Carbon Sound Spotify playlist

Natalia Toledo

New on Carbon Sound

Old on Carbon Sound

New Music on Carbon Sound - Week of January 6, 2025

Carbon Sound is partnering with North Loop’s Berlin live music bar & restaurant for a residency. Each Sunday in January, local artists and DJs will bring the proper vibes to stave off the Sunday Scaries. It’s a great excuse to get out of the house in the cold, dark month, too.

 to stay up to date with all of their events.

Carbon Sound is taking over North Loop’s Berlin on Sundays in January. Find more info about the residency here.


Berlin Minneapolis

Carbon Sound at Berlin - January 2024

Envy and Fancy from @illism stopped by to talk to Carbon Sound’s host Sanni about their unwavering commitment to music and community through projects like @thelegacybuildingmpls and @soulofthesouthside, as well as their new approach towards making music.


Envy and Fancy from iLLism stopped by to talk to Carbon Sound’s host Sanni about their unwavering commitment to music and community through projects like The Legacy Building and Soul of the Southside, as well as their new approach towards making music.


The Message - iLLism

iLLism Interview: The Legacy Building, Soul of the Southside, new music, and more

iLLism- Simpleshit (Official Music Video)

The Legacy Building's ribbon-cutting and official opening.

Interview: iLLism on The Message

To end the year off on a high note, we’re creating a roundup of our favorite tracks and music videos that were released by Minnesota artists from 2024. 

Keep our 10 favorite tracks from this year in one place with our “Favorite Local Songs of 2024” Spotify playlist. 

Essjay TheAfrocentricRatchet - BUGZ BUNNY

Carbon Sound's Favorite Local Songs of 2024

Mati - chicken noodle soup (Official Video)

R.I.P Captain Save-a-Heaux (Official Music Video)

EuphoriasRoom - Players Club (Official Music Video)

Nikhil Kumaran

Highlighting Carbon Sound’s Favorite Minnesota made tracks and music videos released over 2024.


carbon sound favorite local music of 2024 graphic

Favorite Local Songs of 2024

4411 - sahn

papa mbye - SENEGAMBIA (Official Video)

TOOMUCHVNECK

Blu Bone - Swamp

Motion Man

Staff Picks: Favorite Local Music of 2024

Nadi and Katie from Twin Cities United Performers (TCUP) sat down with Carbon Sound’s host Sanni and talked about all things TCUP: a group of musicians and performers throughout the Twin Cities that believe we can make Minnesota the best place in the world to be a performer.


Nadi and Katie from Twin Cities United Performers (TCUP) sat down with Carbon Sound’s host Sanni and talked about all things TCUP: a group of musicians and performers throughout the Twin Cities that believe we can make Minnesota the best place in the world to be a performer.

The Message - TCUP

Twin Cities United Performers Interview: Winning change for musicians, performers, and the community

TCUP SONGS

Interview: Twin Cities United Performers on The Message

We’re closing out the first year of Carbon Sound DJ sets with a banger from Minneapolis’ DJ TNA. As a frequent presence behind the decks at SIM Shows events and in downtown Minneapolis venues like Ava, DJ TNA knows how to give people what they want.

Thanks to all of you who participated in and engaged with all of our DJ sets so far! More to come in 2025.

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

I grew up being in choir, always very musical. There was also this group called Chitty Bang. I was really obsessed with the producer, Xaphoon Jones. That's what initially sparked my interest into DJing and then learning to produce.

What have been some of your most gratifying moments as a DJ?

I think just getting more acclimated to the scene in Minneapolis. Getting to play with other DJs is always a good vibe. Definitely playing for House Proud.

How would you define the Minneapolis scene?

It's fun. It's definitely growing. I love being able to play events and see new faces and more people coming out to events. It's been really welcoming and it's been good to be a part of it.

What do you try to give the crowd when you DJ?

Definitely something to dance to. I want people to be focused on the music and creating a vibe with their friends.

It's going to be very funky. Some house music and maybe a little bit of techno towards the end.

Minneapolis’ DJ TNA closes out the first year of guest DJs on Carbon Sound.


Minneapolis' DJ TNA wraps up Carbon Sound's first year of guest DJ sets

DJ TNA (12/11/24)

Woman with glasses smiles widely in Polaroid photo

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