Every 1st of the month, we’re creating an all-encompassing roundup of tracks, projects, and music videos that were released by Minnesota artists from that previous month. 

If we missed something Minnesota made that dropped in March, DM us on 

Keep all these 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.

Blood $moke Body - The Road Not Specific ⭐

Blood $moke Body - The Road Not Specific 

YoShii | "Im Back" (DKG KIE Challenge) | Shot By; @A.OPRODUCTIONS (On MY Block Performance)

Roz x Chuchii - Code | Shot By BandoFilms

EssJay TheAfrocentricRatchet - IJS FREESTYLE [Official Music Video]

JuneThaKid & Ace P - FORBES (ft. Knucky) [Official Video] #SongsToLiveBy

every place you go (OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO)

MOEDlow x TMoney "Free Tony Freestyle" - Drown The Mic Performance

#NEWUNDERWORLD freestyle pt. 3 (ft. @KayCyy )

Tailor Briann - Will's Pick (Official Video)

Student 1 "Notes" - Drown The Mic Performance

PM TEE - Prime (Official Music Video) Directed By @Alleuv

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Author

John Kueppers

Maria Gonzalez-Grimes

Cat Grimm

Nikhil Kumaran

Natalia Toledo

Highlighting Minnesota made tracks, projects, and music videos released over the month of March, 2024.


Graphic for Carbon Sound's 1st of the Month Playlist

The Road Not Specific

NadoWorld (Deluxe)

Irationale

Carbon Sound's 1st of the Month

Tailor Briann - No Hook (Official Video)

Righteous Emcee - Bless This Kitchen

Reefa Rei - Bang Bang (Official Video)

EuphoriasRoom "At All Costs" - Studio Performance

Lauryn Banks - TELL ME YOU LOVE ME

Towers / Conduct

YUNG SCARFACE - TEPITO FT FRANCISCO

Minnesota Music Releases to check out from March 2024

Angela Davis sat down with Carbon Sound’s host Sanni where they talked about her esteemed journalism career spanning across TV and radio, her advice for women exploring careers in media, her conflicting thoughts on the song “I’m Every Woman,” and a whole lot more.


The Message - Angela Davis Pt. 1

The Message - Angela Davis Pt. 2

Saweetie - Tap In [Official Music Video]

Phyllis Hyman - Living All Alone (Official Video)

Interview: Angela Davis on The Message

Tyla's mission is clear. She's setting out to change the geography of pop stardom.

"It's something I feel like the industry is lacking," the singer declares. "An African pop star."

Fresh off a year of social media virality with her breakout single, a fashion campaign with Gap and her first Grammy win in the inaugural presentation of the best African Music Performance category, Tyla has just released her self-titled debut album. It's a 14-track stunner that positions the 22-year-old as the African pop star she's always wanted to see and be.

For many listeners, Tyla's 2023 hit song "Water" was their first taste of the sound of her homeland that's now taking over the music world. Amapiano is a new musical movement that started in the townships of South Africa in the 2010s. Roughly translated from Zulu to mean "the pianos" or "piano people," amapiano is a mash-up of a few different genres: deep house, jazz, kwaito and log drum percussives. Together it all creates entrancing, mid-tempo music that's a cultural staple of South Africa's party scene.

"Amapiano is a lifestyle. You're not supposed to sweat," says DJ Moma, a Sudanese-American DJ. "That's why amapiano is at this cool tempo. You can bust out a dance move or two .... But you're not constantly chasing a 125 bpm tempo."

Moma first got put on to amapiano in 2016 when he hopped in a Johannesburg taxi. Moma tipped his driver 50 U.S. dollars to let him download the music playing on the car's stereo from a jump stick straight to his laptop and took the sounds back to the states to start playing them at 

, a recurring day party he co-created for the Black diaspora.

As the music started to move, South African DJs and producers like Kabza De Small, Kelvin Momo and Uncle Waffles emerged as leaders.

But the richness of the music goes beyond the party. "It's so much deeper than music, you know," Tyla says. "It's not just a cool sound. It's culture. It's struggle music. It's music that brought us through a lot." The slowed tempo of amapiano — elements borne from the kwaito and house lineage in its sonic DNA — connect the music to the country's historical periods of political uprisings and change in 1990s South Africa post-apartheid.

"As far as struggle music that's related to history," DJ Moma explains, "I'm not South African, you know, but what it does have is these ... really dark, melancholic, minor chords that, when you put them together, there's this mood of melancholy that permeates the music. That's something that has been [part of] South African music throughout the years. There's a lot of minor chords. There's a sadness to it. But in a weird way, it's also uplifting because minor chords, when you put them together, they're the most beautiful."

While DJs were moving the sound of amapiano around the world in the 2010s, Tyla was perfecting her own version of it back home in Johannesburg. She started off singing covers on TikTok and dropped her first song, "Getting Late" in 2019, to show her parents she was serious about pursuing a career in music after high school. Based on the track, they agreed to give her one year to make it happen.

"And it was actually worse because COVID happened in that year so I was like really, out of all years, it had to happen in this year," Tyla says.

Because of pandemic lockdowns, it took a year for Tyla and her team to shoot the video for "Getting Late," with "no backing, no budget." But when they finally dropped it in early 2021, labels noticed.

Years after her first video, Tyla's taken the building blocks of Amapiano and added elements of pop made by stars she grew up idolizing like Rihanna (to whom critics and fans are now comparing her) and Justin Bieber. Her signature sound has been dubbed "pop-iano."

In 2023, her formula finally got noticed on a global scale thanks to TikTok. After dropping "Water" in July 2023 and noticing it had become a piece of trending audio on the app, Tyla and her choreographer, Litchi, created a dance challenge. Tyla's performance of the challenge in August really made a splash on the app and introduced her to a wider audience than she ever imagined. "It literally changed my life."

"The pop and R&B mainly sits in the melody choices, you know, and song structure. And then obviously the beat is where home really shows," she notes.

It's a formula that's working. On her debut, Tyla's star quality shines. Simmered acoustics on tracks like "On and On" and "Butterflies" let her vocals hypnotize. The signature sound that she developed is flexible enough to allow her to show off next to stars from the Latin, reggae and hip-hop worlds: Features on the album include South African stalwart Kelvin Momo, Latin pop star Becky G, Atlanta rapper Gunna and Jamaican dancehall finesser Skillibeng. One of the most powerful tracks is "No. 1," featuring Nigerian R&B star Tems. Tyla even pushed back the deadline to turn in the album so she could lock in the collab.

"Of our generation, she's like the example," Tyla says of Tems. "She's been killing it and she's been opening so many doors for us."

With the recent attempts to ban TikTok in the U.S. — the same platform that's opened doors for Tyla and many other artists on the continent — the South African singer does wonder about the future of other African artists being able to break through. "People are making amazing music right now and it's not getting the same recognition."

But DJ Moma isn't too worried yet. Even if the virality of a song isn't at the level of Tyla's tracks, the options for discovery are only a few low-data clicks away. "WhatsApp is probably the number one medium for sharing amapiano music that's fresh off the press."

Tyla, along with her fellow African music Grammy nominees 

 and Olamide represent a Pan-African musical takeover for a new generation. Besides charting the course of her own pop stardom, Tyla's goals are to spread the pride of her country and keep the people who created amapiano at the forefront of the movement.

"We've obviously had African artists that have pushed boundaries, but I feel like now is a time when people are actually paying attention to us properly and actually latching on to the music and the culture and showing interest beyond the trends," she says. "And we have African artists leading it."


Thanks to her strong debut, Tyla has proven that she is one of those leaders.


Sidney Madden

The South African singer brought a homegrown genre, amapiano, to new ears with a viral hit and a Grammy. With her debut album, she wants to prove the world is ready for a full-blown African pop star.


Listen to the Story

Noam Galai

Jeremy Soma/Epic Records

Tyla - Water (Official Music Video)

Tyla - Getting Late (Official Video) ft. Kooldrink

Tyla is the new face of African pop. She's aiming to take over the whole world

Minneapolis legend Sophia Eris earned her status through her work as an organizer, artist, and world-touring DJ. She has a deep knowledge and reverence for Hip-Hop, R&B, and Minnesota Music across genre. Sophia stopped by the studio to share that joy with us, making a mixed filled with female artists, classics, creative edits, and more.

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.

A stadium-ready set from Minneapolis legend Sophia Eris.


Sophia Eris (3/20/24)

Julian Green

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.

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


All of the tracks added to rotation on Carbon Sound the week of March 18, 2024.


Image for New on Carbon Sound Spotify playlist

Old on Carbon Sound

New Music on Carbon Sound - Week of March 18, 2024

All of the tracks added to rotation on Carbon Sound the week of March 11, 2024.


New Music on Carbon Sound - Week of March 11, 2024

Yoni Light is a multifaceted artist and educator, co-founder of New Black City and Vogue Down Mpls, and more. In her interview with Carbon Sound, she talks about how New Black City, her Femme Hip-hop dance crew, creates space and opens doors for women of color to express themselves.


Yoni Light stopped by to talk to Carbon Sound’s host Sanni about using dance as a connection point for interaction and social change, recent projects like her one-woman show “In Search of Her,” creating space for the ballroom community through Vogue Down Mpls, and a whole lot more.

The Message - Yoni Light Pt. 1

Pt. 2

Goodies Dance Visual

New Black City: Rent Freeze Protest

After Party x New Black City

Ciara - 1, 2 Step (Official Video) ft. Missy Elliott

The life of Alvin Ailey

Yonika 007 OTA NYC GP Beginners Performance

Interview: Yoni Light on The Message

Yasmeenah's love for music shines through her on her mix for Carbon Sound, mixing deep house, amapiano, and more. UNBOTHERED, Yasmeenah's event series, has featured local and national DJs that pay homage to the Black roots of electronic music. For her mix, she did the same, expanding our knowledge of these genres and making us move simultaneously.

Yasmeenah (3/6/24)

If we missed something Minnesota made that dropped in February, DM us on 

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

Blvck Madonna - Ain’t No Fun When The Rabbit Got The Gun

Ain’t No Fun When The Rabbit Got The Gun

Carbon Sound's 1st of the Month - February Playlist

Carbon Sound's First of the Month - February Playlist

FREEASSSTYLE - EssJay TheAfrocentricRatchet x Ace Pitty

Tailor Briann - Feel A Way Ft. Prince Riley & YONjayR (Official Video)

Lewiee Blaze & Lakesuede - SayLess (Official Music Video) Shot by @MattWalesMedia

Naurriioo - 4EvaDirty In The Hillz (Official Music Video)

J Plaza x C DOT Castro "ESPALON" - Drown The Mic Performance

That Boy C4 -THIS YEAR OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO

Maya Marchelle - No Magic (Official Lyric Video)

PM TEE - Not Ready (Official Music Video) Directed By @s8nluck2

WaterSong by SoulFlower - Tiny Desk Submission

Obi Original and the Black Atlantics "Pure Water" | 2024 NPR Tiny Desk Contest Submission

Lewiee Blaze & Tango - Be Free “Live From The Studio” (Tiny Desk Submission)

Highlighting Minnesota made tracks, projects, and music videos released over the month of February 2024.


devons road

Unlock The Chamber

Ain't No Fun When The Rabbit Got The Gun

Second Opinion

Neek

Sumer - Relapse (Visualizer)

ZORA - hush [official music video]

JUST JIMI - Beam Me Up (Mic Performance)

Swamp-Blu Bone tiny desk submission 2024

Huhroon Tiny Desk Submission 2024

Minnesota Music Releases to check out from February 2024

L.A. Buckner sat down with Carbon Sound’s host Sanni where they talked about his upcoming album ‘Norfside,’ a project paying homage to the musical and cultural influence yielded by North Minneapolis, the presence of Minnesota music across all genres today, and a whole lot more.

The Message - L.A. Buckner Interview

I'm so excited and so honored to be in the studio today with Arthur "L.A." Buckner. He is a performing musician, teaching artist, producer, co-host of the two-time Webby Award winning PBS music education YouTube series Soundfield, and more. Ladies and gentlemen of the Carbon Sound world, please give a warm welcome to Arthur "L.A." Buckner.

I've been waiting to get down with Carbon Sound for a long time.

Oh, man. Well, we've been waiting too -- it's here.

Y'all mess with all the same people I mess with. I'm like, when my turn coming up? (Laughs) So yeah, I'm glad we doing this.

I love this because we're starting our interview series. And it's so dope because I know about you guys, just because I've been watching you as a fan, but I love when I have all this information to share with everybody and it's all in one space. So who is Arthur "L.A.” Buckner?

How To Make a Living as a Drummer with Arthur 'LA' Buckner

I'm probably one of the most Northside people you ever gonna meet. I am learning to have so much pride in where I come from. I come from a really rich, historic culture, you know, musically, community education wise. I'm just proud to be from the Northside. I'm a musician from North Minneapolis. My next album coming out, it's called Norfside. Spelt with an 'F.' Norfside.

I'm gonna jump right in. You say this next album is called Norfside. You're saying that as you're getting older, you're getting more pride in where you come from. Has that always been that way?

I'm just realizing. I'm realizing like so many things that we think is cool, or so many aspects of music -- it all relates back to Minneapolis. You know? Not all of it, but like so many parallels -- the Minneapolis Sound you know, it's such a huge inspiration to so many people around the world. And like this came from my neighborhood. Everybody and they Mama loves some Prince and Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, they got 43 Billboard No. 1's, just got inducted to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. They went to my high school.

Oh Stoke - Stoke is a whole 'nother chapter of my book.

Where is the Funk? How Prince Created the Minneapolis Sound

I'm glad you're saying all this because I feel like I'm at a point where -- I'm from Chicago. Chicago has its own music scene.

Chicago created some of the best musicians of all time.

Yes, yes. But I want to show some love to Minneapolis right quick. And the Twin Cities. Because again, I grew up doing drill team, I grew up dancing. I grew up doing performances. I grew up with that. But when I came here, there was something different here. When I first came here, I remember going to Inner City Youth League. And I remember learning about the drill team, and just really navigating myself all these years in the Minnesota music scene. There's so much musical history here. 

, Immortal, Inner City Youth League, drill teams. And I think that's why I be so excited to be in the room with y'all (laughs). Because you guys are not only -- you were kids when these things were happening. When Prince was first being played on the radio -- like you guys, this is your culture. And now you guys are continuing to add to the culture, even naming your album Norfside. That's just, that's insane to me as someone who's a transplant from Chicago. I like how you just lightly, gingerly said he's just --

That's real. I remember I was -- this was right after Prince had passed, and I was cutting grass. And I was listening to a podcast done by 

. And they played some unreleased vault tracks on the pod and he was talking about being Black in Minnesota. And it sounded so churchy; it sounded so funky. I'm like, they wouldn't even let this come out, no wonder it was in the vault. So it's like -- I feel like if he was on that, and he had pride about where you came from, like that's my responsibility. I come from the same neighborhood. I grew up on the same block as -- you know, so it's like, I have the responsibility too. To beat the Northside on my chest. And everybody from Detroit or Los Angeles or Chicago, they represent where they from. And Minneapolis, it's such a -- it's so low key. But them ones, they really know. I was talking to 

, and he -- one of the biggest producers -- he one of the coldest. Well I got a chance to interview him, right. People look at Minneapolis as like a flyover kind of city. You know, because we not on the coast, you know, a bunch of farmland around us. But he said, he was like, ain't no fly over. No, he said you got to come through here. He was like, them ones, the ones who really about that music and really know what they doing, you got to come through Minnesota. He grew up here for some years, back and forth. His pops lived here. 

 was one of the coldest jazz drummers around town back in the day. Terrace Martin was talking about Cub chicken and Cub donuts. And he's like, I done shoveled snow.

But this is what I mean -- all of these heavy hitting musicians. And I said, you guys were kids here. And then you grew up and you make music and y'all just do it gingerly. It's one thing to show pride in your community, it's something else to put it in your music. Why do you feel like it's important to show pride in your music, about where you come from?

I mean, that's just the explanation of why it sound the way it sounds. You know, I can't rap -- I wish I could rap. I sing, but I don't have no lyrics though. I'm alright, right. So my music sounds the way I be feeling. My music sounds the way it feels to be a big Black man in this white state of Minnesota.

All the sonics of it -- a lot of times, I be having to take a breath (takes breath) after hearing one of my songs like, dang. Because it's so intense. But I'm like, I released my album in 2020. This was shortly after George Floyd. 

And the name of the album is Big Homie, we talking about -- that's dope. And it went, by the way, hit the number one jazz position on iTunes within 24 hours of its release.

That's extremely wild. That's insanely wild.

But that's like, that's Minneapolis support. That's Minnesota, like --

Do you think it's that pride, that you put in the music and people being able to relate to that?

I could say that, but I really don't know what it -- it's the grace of God, really. And people really supporting, you know, buying, purchasing the album. Not just streaming it, but like purchasing it. And I think it's a lot of influence -- and maybe the PBS thing did a little something, you know, but that's what my music sounds like. It sounds like -- it's my experience, it's my true experience. And you know, I love my city. The state of Minnesota is like, it's very peculiar being a Black person here. One of my homies just told me, he was like, I never got treated this Black until I moved to Minnesota. I was like, what does that mean? And he just looked at me, I was just like, I know exactly what you mean.

It's just different. It's a different thing here. So it's like -- even our crowd be kind of dry. People can attribute it to different reasons. My reason is the crowd be dry, in like especially Black audiences, because we have to be so restrained here. Just to, for survival. Just to play it cool. We can't get buck wild loud and dance and sing loud like how they do in Chicago. Even in church, we don't get as buck wild as we can get in church. Back in the enslavement days, that's the only free release time that we ever had, that's what it come from. And when I go to enjoy a show, I enjoy every show like I'm at church, so Imma talk back -- I'm reacting. But they need that energy, performers need that energy. But we just be so quiet.

Why'd you call it Big Homie? Your 2020 project.

It's my term of endearment that I've been using for so long. Everybody can be the big homie. But I realized my calling in life is mentorship. The vehicle is just the drums, it's music. Anybody can be a big homie, it's anybody who's showing you how to go. Totally.

Did you always teach? So you feel like Big Homie is representative of your calling to mentorship.

Yeah, when I was -- even a kid I always wanted to be either a drummer or a teacher.

I taught for 25 years. What do you love about teaching? I love teaching. I love sharing with them.

I love sharing. I just love sharing and I love receiving, you know, the knowledge too. I love stealing from the student.

First Avenue- Best New Bands "Fireflies" 4K (L.A. Buckner & BiG HOMiE)

(Laughs) Hey the kids got all the stuff. I feel like because they're not like you said restricted. They're not as affected by society's standards. There's no agenda.

The truth come out. They don't care -- 'why you look like that?'

You know, I had great mentors growing up. So I understand how the job is supposed to work. And I like stuff that they was telling me back in the day when I was 13. I'm realizing right now it's just like, oh, yo, I gotta hit them up. Yo, what you said really happened. You know what I'm saying? So it's this, you know, it's like foresight. It's analogies.

I want to dig more into your mentorship but I'll save that for later. Let's get into Norfside with a F. Right. Okay. What inspired this album? What's the difference between Big Homie and Norfside? Because I don't know, I feel like they go together.

Norfside is bigger and badder, low key, than the last record. I've gotten better. My writing has gotten better, the production has gotten better. And then my engineer, has gotten even better, right. I have a song called Norfside and I was walking home from my old job -- I was teaching at my old high school, right? At North High School. And I was walking home and the snow was melting and the weather was getting good. It was just a good day; I was writing, this melody just came to me. I start recording on my phone. The melody is really beautiful but then the B section, the next section over, it get like real funky. It get real -- and that's exactly how the Northside be, it's one of the most beautiful places in the world. One of the greatest communities ever. Right? Everything is beautiful. Right? But then, it's some pockets where it really, it get like that.

So this is about your love for Northside, this is about your life on the Northside -- what is it? Everything I just said?

All of it. Yeah it's about just my -- I want to, you know, pay homage to the ones that came before me. You know, young drummer just asked me the other day, he was like, ok so who influenced you on the drums? Like who? He's like, just don't sound like nobody I know. And I just had to think about it for a minute. And I was like, honestly, it's Stokely. Stoke from Mint Condition.

He's a drummer. He's a percussionist. Right.

Yeah, he's a drummer. Like he's like a jazz drummer. He played funk, everything. He was playing on the first Mint Condition records, like playing drums. Yeah and Chris Dave -- they went to Howard University and saw this Chris Dave drummer drumming and was like, oh no you coming with us. Moved him to Minneapolis. Now like, I call him Chris Dave, the Michael Jordan of Black drummers, right. If he, if Chris Dave is Michael Jordan, then Stoke gotta be Wilt Chamberlain, right -- Bill Russell (laughs). He gotta be the super big home. And he's an amazing producer. So like I listened to that stuff in my formative years. When I'm 13, 14 all the way up. So it's like, that's a huge influence and like, just to see how respected he is amongst musicians, amongst my favorite musicians in the world. All the cats running the gigs now all the MD's on award shows, they crazy Mint Condition fans. 

How can we follow you? Because we like you. We love you. We want to know where we can find you, because you clearly busy. 

L.A. Buckner is a musician, drummer, teaching artist, producer, and more from North Minneapolis. In his interview with Carbon Sound, he talks about his responsibility to represent where he’s from in the same way musicians from other major cities do.


a man in all red in posing for a polaroid photo

A woman and man pointing at each other in front of a Carbon Sound Poster 1

Stories

Minnesota Music Releases to check out from March 2024

Interview: Angela Davis on The Message

Tyla is the new face of African pop. She's aiming to take over the whole world

Get the Carbon Sound app

Sophia Eris (3/20/24)

New Music on Carbon Sound - Week of March 18, 2024

New Music on Carbon Sound - Week of March 11, 2024

Interview: Yoni Light on The Message

Connect with Carbon Sound

Yasmeenah (3/6/24)

Minnesota Music Releases to check out from February 2024

Interview: L.A. Buckner on The Message

See more stories →