Cold Chillin' Records and the Juice Crew: How Fly Ty and Marley Marl Built a Hip-Hop Powerhouse
This post revisits Cold Chillin' Records and the Juice Crew, showing how Fly Ty and Len Fichtelberg secured major distribution that propelle...
Article
How Babyface Built the Waiting to Exhale Soundtrack, and Why It Still Holds Up
Babyface single-handedly built the Waiting to Exhale soundtrack around an all-women roster, delivering a cohesive album that feels unified r...
The Sacred Thread Running Through Black Music Has Always Been There
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 ...
How 2 Live Crew Fought for Hip Hop’s Freedom
2 Live Crew’s story is bigger than shock value. From Miami bass and teen clubs to a landmark First Amendment fight, this episode looks at ho...
Donwill on Staying in Your Life Bag: Rap, The Interview Game, and the Art of the Just-Outside-the-Frame Question
Donwill shares his interview philosophy—asking what’s just outside the frame and foregrounding curiosity over trending topics—to keep hip ho...
The Quiet Storm, The Telecom Act, and R&B’s Slow Jams with Amani Roberts
This piece examines how the intimate, local flavor of the Quiet Storm era gave way to corporate playlists after the Telecommunications Act o...
From Schoolly D to N.W.A.: Queue Points' Notes on the N-Word in Rap
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...
When the Music Is the Door: Dr. York, NatureBoy, and the Through Line Between Charisma and Harm
Queue Points traces how charismatic figures like Dr. Malachi York and the NatureBoy persona influenced Black music culture from 1970s Brookl...
Seth Neblett on the Women Who Built Parliament-Funkadelic: A Legacy Hiding in Plain Sight
In this Queue Points episode, Seth Neblett discusses his book Mothership Connected: The Women of Parliament-Funkadelic, uncovering how women...