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Heat Rocks — Arts
Heat Rocks

Scorching guests and sizzling records: join music writer Oliver Wang and music supervisor Morgan Rhodes each week as they invite their favorite artists, critics and scholars for in-depth conversations about the albums that shape our lives. Each week our special guests will take you deep into their heat rocks from the world of hip-hop, soul, dance, jazz, funk and more. Get with us!

Latest Episodes:

King on Outkast's "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below" Feb 07, 2018

Show notes

The Grammy-nominated ladies of King are Anita Bias alongside sisters Amber and Paris Strother and it seems only right to have a super-sized guest talk about a super-sized album: Outkast's massive double LP from 2003: Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. Amongst other topics, we talked about how each of the three women first crossed paths with Outkast, what the group meant for the rise of the South in the 1990s, and revisited the endless debate over whether this as an Outkast album or a pair of Big Boi/Andre 3000 solo albums packaged together.

More on Outkast and Speakerboxxx/The Love Below

MTV"s "making of" story of the album.
Jon Caramanica's original review of the album for Rolling Stone.
Oliver's original review of the album for the San Jose Metro

More on King

King on NPR's Music Field Recordings
Okayplayer interview
Band Website | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Soundcloud

Show Tracklisting (all songs from Speakerboxxx/The Love Belowunless indicated otherwise):

“Ghetto Musick”
KING: The Story “The Story”
KING: The Story “Supernatural”
Outkast: ATLiens “Elevators (Me & You)”
“My Favorite Things”
“Reset”
“Where Are My Panties”
Outkast: Aquemini “Spottieottiedopalicious”
Dungeon Family: Even In Darkness “Trans DF Express”
“Pink & Blue”
“Prototype”
“Unhappy”
“Tomb of the Boom”
“Church”
“Knowing”
“The Rooster”
“She Live In My Lap”
“Draculas Wedding”
“Hey Ya!”
“Love Hater”
“Happy Valentines Day”
“Take Off Your Cool”
“A Day IN The Life of Benjamin Andre (Incomplete)”
“Spread”

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Bardo Martinez on Eugene McDaniels' "Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse" Jan 30, 2018

Show notes

When we approached Bardo Martinez of Chicano Batman, we figured he'd go with a left-field album choice and he did not disappoint. Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse was a cult LPs for years, one of the most overtly political albums of the entire '70s (least of all on Atlantic Records!) and might have been wholly forgotten if not for '90s hip-hop producers rediscovering it and using it as sample fodder. However, all groovy groove aside, Headless Heroes is also an astonishing album in regards to McDaniels' explicit politics regarding everything from the U.S. treatment of Native Americans to blue eyed minstrels to Watergate. It was supposedly blacklisted by no less than the Vice President of the U.S. (Spiro Agnew). As Chicano Batman are no strangers to merging message and music, it was the perfect LP for Bardo and us to dig into, least of all in this current political moment.

More on Eugene McDaniels and Headless Heroes

The late McDaniels website
Mark Anthony Neal on McDaniels' legacy
Testimonials about Headless Heroes

More on Bardo Martinez and Chicano Batman

Alex Piveysky's interview with Bardo
Oliver's review of Chicano Batman's Freedom is Free
Band Website | Twitter | Bardo's Instagram

Show Tracklisting (all songs from Headless Heroes unless indicated otherwise):

“Jagger The Dagger”
Chicano Batman: “Freedom is Free” Freedom Is Free
“The Parasite”
“Supermarket Blues”
“Lovin Man”
John Lennon: “Instant Karma”
Gene McDaniels: “Tower of Strength” Tower of Strength
Eddie Harris & Les McCann: “Compared to What” Swiss Movement
Eugene McDaniels: “Cherrystones” Outlaw
“Susan Jane”
“Freedom Death Dance”
Eddie Harris: “Freedom Jazz Dance” The In Sound
“The Lord Is Back”

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Frannie Kelley on TLC's "CrazySexyCool" Jan 23, 2018

Show notes

Frannie Kelley, alongside Ali Shaheed Muhammed, hosts the Microphone Check podcast and when we invited her onto our show, she wanted to talk about one of her formative musical experiences as a teenager: TLC's sophomore album, CrazySexyCool. The three of us talked about how TLC shaped adolescent ideas about sexuality and femininity, how the group repped the hip-hop South at a time when that was just becoming to be recognized nationally, and how the group had one of the more underrated liner notes font game going on.

More on TLC's CrazySexyCool

Kenneth Partridge's track-by-track review for Billboard.
The Soulbounce revisit review.
VH1's interviews with stars reflecting on the album's 20th anniversary.

More on Frannie Kelley

Show Tracklisting (all songs from CrazySexyCool unless indicated otherwise):

“Intro-Lude”
“Red Light Special”
Brandy: Waiting To Exhale “Sittin Up In My Room”
Brandy: Brandy “I Wanna Be Down”
“Switch”
“Waterfalls”
“Something Wicked This Way Comes”
“Sexy(Interlude)”
“Can I Get A Witness (Interlude)”
“If I Was Your Girlfriend”
Prince: Sign ‘O’ The Times “If I was Your Girlfriend”
“Creep”
“Diggin On You”
“Take Our Time”
TLC: FanMail “No Scrubs”

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Vernon Reid on Jimi Hendrix's "Band of Gypsys" Jan 16, 2018

Show notes

Vernon Reid is one of rock's greatest guitarists, having rising to stardom in the 1980s as a member of Living Colour. It's not surprising, therefore, that he'd choose an album by one of rock's othergreat guitarists: Jimi Hendrix and his final album, Band of Gypsys, recorded live at the Fillmore East and released in the spring of 1970. Reid gave us an amazing lesson into what exactly made Hendrix so brilliant, least of all on this album.

More on Jimi Hendrix's Band of Gypsys

AVClub's Corbin Reiff on the album and its contractual history.
Gary Von Tersch's original 1970 review of the album for Rolling Stone.
Original New York Times review of the live concerts at the Fillmore East.

More on Vernon Reid

Interview with Jambase from last fall.
Reid picks 10 albums for Keith McMillen Instruments' website
Living Colour performing "Power of Soul" live.
Twitter | Instagram | Facebook

Show Tracklisting (all songs from Band of Gypsys unless indicated otherwise):

Message of Love
Jimi Hendrix on The Dick Cavett Show
Jimi Hendrix: Star Spangled Banner
Jimi Hendrix: Are You Experienced?
Machine Gun
Power to Love/Power of Soul
Who Knows
Them Changes
Living Colour: Power of Soul
Jimi Hendrix: Stop

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Bahamadia on The Kay-Gee's "Keep On Bumpin' & Masterplan" Jan 09, 2018

Show notes

We invited Philly hip-hop star Bahamadia to join us and she kept things tri-state by picking the 1974 debut album by New Jersey's The Kay-Gee's, originally an off-shoot of Kool and the Gang. The Kay-Gee's may not be household names in the same manner as Kool and the Gang or the Ohio Players but especially on this debut, they cooked up an impressively diverse and surprisingly eclectic set of tracks that defy simple expectation. What other band ends their album with their own "greatest hits montage"?

More on the Kay-Gee's Keep On Bumpin' & Masterplan

John Bush's review for AllMusic.com.
The Kay-Gee's page on All Things Deep.

More on Bahamadia

Her EP, Dialed Up 2 from last fall.
Interview with Bahamadia on Weekly Rap Gods.
Website | Bandcamp | Twitter | Facebook

Show Tracklisting (all songs from Keep On Bumpin' & Masterplan unless indicated otherwise):

“Who’s the Man (With The Master Plan)”
Bahamadia: Kollage “Wordplay”
The Trammps: Disco Inferno “Disco Inferno”
MFSB: Love Is The Message“Love Is The Message”
James Brown: Getting’ Down To It“Cold Sweat”
Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band:Express Yourself “Express Yourself”
Parliament: Funkentelechy Vs. the Placebo Syndrome “Flashlight”
“Wondering”
“My Favorite Song”
The Floaters: Float On “Float On”
Cameo: We All Know Who We Are “Why Have I Lost You”
“Aint No Time (pt 1)”
You’ve Got To Keep on Bumpin”
“Who’s The Man (With The Master Plan)”
Madlib and J-Dilla: Champion Sound Jaylib (The Official)
Tom Browne: Funkin For Jamaica “Funkin for Jamaica”
“Get Down”
“Anthology”
Double Dee and Stein: Lesson 3“History of Hip-Hop Mix”
“Hustle with Every Muscle”

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Kris Bowers on Kendrick Lamar's "Section.80" Jan 02, 2018

Show notes

To talk about Kendrick Lamar's studio LP debut, we wanted to find someone of K-Dot's generation, another L.A. young gun, and who better than pianist and composer, Kris Bowers? Like Kendrick, Kris grew up in L.A. and just as Kendrick has ascended the hip-hop ladder, so has Kris in jazz, as he won the prestigious Theolonious . But more than that, the web of Los Angeles musical ties was bound to bring the two into orbit in different ways - something we discuss in the episode - not the least of which is the fact that Kris covered one of the biggest tracks in Kendrick's early career: "Rigamortis."

In our conversation with Kris, we got deep into how he put together both the song and video for his version of "Rigamortis," whether or not Kendrick has a jazz sensibility in his style, and what it's like to see a hometown kid become the Greatest Rapper Alive.

More on Kendrick Lamar's Section.80

Kendrick talking about Section.80 in an interview with Complex.com.
Ditto but in an interview with Billboard.
Ogden Payne's revisit of the album in 2016 for Forbes.

More on Kris Bowers

Kris on NPR's "Piano Jazz: Rising Stars."
NY Times on Kris winning the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Prize.
Website | Soundcloud | Twitter | Facebook

Show Tracklisting (all songs from Section.80 unless indicated otherwise):

"A.D.H.D."
Kris Bowers: "Rigamortis (Kendrick Lamar Cover)"
Kendrick Lamar: Good Kid M.A.A.D. City "m.A.A.D. city"
MURS: Captain California "GBKW"
Dr. Dre: The Chronic “Dre Day”
A Tribe Called Quest: The Low End Theory “Jazz (We’ve Got This)”
"High Power"
"Rigamortis"
"Keisha’s Song"
Kendrick Lamar: “Sing About Me”
"Ab-Souls Outro"
"Kush & Corinthians"
Willie Jones III: The Next Phase “The Thorn”
Kendrick Lamar: To Pimp A Butterfly “If These Walls Could Talk”
Chapter Six

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Bosco on Erykah Badu's "Mama's Gun" Dec 26, 2017

Show notes

Bosco was an artist that Morgan knew, from jump, she wanted to get on the show. A Savannah native who's now an L.A. transplant (by way of Atlanta), Bosco's been steady climbing the ranks in the music game and has had a breakout year in 2017, especially wiht the release of her full-length, b.

For her pick, Bosco wanted to revisit one of the formative albums that shaped her imagination as a kid: Erykah Badu's sophomore album: Mama's Gun. If Baduizm helped put Badu on the map, Mama's Gun - which was produced by the same Soulquarian team also working on D'Angelo's Voodoo and Common's Like Water For Chocolate - firmly established her as the preeminent queen of what was then called neo-soul and these days seems better described as future soul. Our conversation touched on many aspects of how Badu and her sound landed on people's ears back at the turn of the century and how it continues to reverberate today.

More on Erykah Badu's Mama's Gun

Daphne Brook's review in Pitchfork.
Kieran Yates' "My Favorite Album" review in The Guardian.
Mensah Demary's "Liner Notes" breakdown of the album in The Toast.

More on Bosco

Alexander Aplerku's profile in Noisey.
Julianne Shepherd's profile in The Muse.
Website | Soundcloud | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook

Show Tracklisting (all songs from Mama's Gun unless indicated otherwise):

”Bag Lady”
Bosco: b. “Castles”
Erykah Badu: Baduizm “Apple Tree”
”Other Side Of The Game”
The Roots: Things Fall Apart “You’ve Got Me ft. Erykah Badu and Jill Scott Live”
Res: How I Do “How I Do”
”Cleva”
SZA: Ctrl “Normal Girl”
”Time’s A Wastin”
”…&On”
”Didn’t Cha Know”
Bosco: b. “Free”
”Penitentiary Philosophy”
”A.D. 2000”
”Orange Tree”
…&On
”Kiss Me ON My Neck”
”Booty”
”Green Eyes”
”In Love With You Ft. Stephen Marley”
Erykah Badu: “I’ve Been Going Through it All”
”Orange Tree”
…&On
”Kiss Me ON My Neck”
”Booty”
”Green Eyes”
”In Love With You Ft. Stephen Marley”
Erykah Badu: Erykah Badu “Amerykahn Promise”

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Jay Smooth on Run DMC's "Raising Hell" Dec 19, 2017

Show notes

Jay Smooth was always on our list of "people who we gotta get for Heat Rocks." His cultural and political commentary, much of which he does through his pioneering Ill Doctrine videos, have positioned him as one of the hip-hop generation's leading pundits and he's also hosted one of the longest running rap shows in the world: The Underground Railroad on WBAI.

For this show, Jay wanted to revisit Raising Hell a paradigm-shifting rap album that, as we discuss, has seemingly become underrated through the passage of time though it is unquestionably one of the most important hip-hop releases, ever. We get into the moment in which Run DMC first arrived, how they changed the game for rap artists (for better and for worse) and of course, all our fire track and sleeper jam picks off this LP.

More on Run DMC's Raising Hell

Mark Coleman's original review in Rolling Stone from 1986.
John Freeman's revisit review on the album's 30th anniversary in Quietus.
Chaz Kangas' celebration of Raising Hell's album cuts.

More on Jay Smooth

Show Tracklisting (all songs from Raising Hell unless indicated otherwise):

Walk This Way
Run DMC: Sucker MCs
Run DMC: It's Like That
Raising Hell
Eric B. and Rakim: I Ain't No Joke
It's Tricky
Peter Piper
Bob James: Mardi Gras
Dumb Girl
Is It Live?
My Adidas
Proud to Be Black
You Be Illin'
NWA: Straight Outta Compton
Run DMC: Tougher Than Leather
Aretha Franklin: I Never Loved a Man
Jay-Z: Jockin' Jay-Z

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"The Prequel Episode" Loren Kajikawa on Dr. Dre's "The Chronic" Dec 15, 2017

Show notes

This is a special "prequel"episode, originally taped in December of 2016. Back then, Heat Rocks was just a mere glint in the eye Morgan and Oliver. All we had was a basic concept: how about a podcast devoted to doing deep dives into an album? We invited Univ. of Oregon musicologist Loren Kajikawa, author of Sounding Race In Rap Songs, to help us tackle one of the most important albums of the last 25 years: Dr. Dre's The Chronic, which just so happens to celebrate its 25th release anniversary today (hence why we timed to put it out now).

For our listeners, you'll notice that while this episode shares some familiar aspects with our regular Heat Rocks shows, there are some differences. For one, we hadn't come up with our format yet, especially in having our guests pick a hot track, sleeper jam, etc. We had also toyed with a little "Context" section - complete with its own jingle! - that we eventually abandoned because it was superfluous (Oliver did have fun making the jingle though). But overall, we think you can easily see the seed of Heat Rocks even in this very early attempt. Hope you all enjoy it and we're so happy to finally share this, one year later.

More on Dr. Dre's The Chronic:

The Chronic "Track By Track" review in Billboard.
"How The Chronic Changed Hip Hop Forever" in NME.
"Dre Ain't Shit: 25 Years On and The Chronic Still Stinks" in Quietus

More on Loren Kajikawa

His book, Sounding Race In Rap Songs
"The Hip Hop Prof" article on him in the Oregon Quarterly
Faculty Profile | Twitter

Show Tracklisting (all songs from The Chronic unless indicated otherwise):

Fuck Wit Dre Day
Nuthin' But a G Thang
Leon Haywood: I Want To Do Something Freaky To You
Public Enemy: Bring Da Noise
Above the Law: Livin' Like Hustlers
Let Me Ride
The Roach
NWA: Niggaz 4 Life (From Efil4zaggin)
Lyrical Gangbang (feat. Lady of Rage and Kurupt)
Stranded On Death Row (feat. Kurupt and Snoop Dogg)
Rat-A-Tat-Tat
Dr. Dre: Deep Cover (feat. Snoop Dogg, from Deep Cover OST)
Tupac and Snoop Dogg: Amerikaz Most Wanted
The Day the Niggaz Took Over
Bitches Ain't Shit

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Suzi Analogue on Missy Elliott's "Da Real World" Dec 12, 2017

Show notes

Artist and producer Suzi Analogue originally hails from Missy Elliott's native state of Virginia though these days, she's rooted in Los Angeles, having come up within the city's beat scene. Suzi wanted to talk about what she described as the "underdog" album, Missy's enormously successful yet somewhat forgotten sophomore album, Da Real World, one in a string of five back-to-back platinum LPs for Missy and her production partner, Timbaland. We talked about Missy's creative genius and what that meant for a young girl, growing up in VA.

More on Missy Elliott and Da Real World:

Missy on Da Real World, for Vibe.com
David Brown's review of the album in Entertainment Weekly.
Missy's live recreation of the "She's a Bitch" video at this year's Hip Hop Honors show.

More on Suzi Analogue

Interviews with Suzi for Vice's Thump and Afropunk's Sound Check.
Suzi's Zonez V3 album.
Website | Bandcamp | Soundcloud | Twitter | Instagram

Show Tracklisting (all songs from Da Real World unless indicated otherwise):

All In My Grill
Suzi Analogue: Wildflower (from Zonez V3)
Mr. DJ
Missy Elliot: The Rain (from Supa Dupa Fly)
You Don't Know (feat. Lil Mo)
Stickin' Chickens (feat. Aaliyah)
Timbaland and Magoo: Up Jumps the Boogie (from Welcome To Our World)
Timbaland and Magoo: Clock Strikes (from Welcome To Our World)
Bus A Rhyme (feat. Eminem)
Crazy Feelings (feat. Beyonce)
U Can't Resist (feat. BG and Juvenile)
She's a Bitch
Beat Biters
We Did It

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