Cultural & Social Commentary

A daycare, two schools, a church, a studio. The Chester Jay Ray grew up with is closing one place at a time. Engineered Grace Vol. 1 records...

how notes for Show #246: the Chester Gifted Program on Engineered Grace Vol. 1, memory, sound systems and environmental justice, with refere...

This episode uses The New York Times’ list of the 30 Greatest Living American Songwriters to question how we define musical greatness, debat...

Show Notes: Explore the evolution and shrinking mainstream space for Black protest music, from Vietnam-era soul to contemporary hip-hop, and...

Show Notes: This episode uses Fat Joe’s defense of using the N-word to examine how urban upbringing, Afro-Latino identity, and audience acco...

The episode uses Questlove’s Sly Lives! as a springboard to examine who gets labeled “Black genius” and what that label costs artists like S...

The post argues that faith is not a backdrop but the origin of Black music, tracing its roots in the Black church and its ongoing influence ...

Show Notes for Got That Oil: Gospel Roots of Black Music, where DJ Sir Daniel and Jay Ray explore how faith and the Black church shaped the ...

Queue Points traces the n-word’s journey from its underground origins in the late 1970s through Schoolly D and N.W.A. to its mainstream prom...