Music Features

Nashville's music industry has never given homegrown hip-hop the support it deserves, so the city's artists and entrepreneurs are creating their own institutions.

Hip-Hop In Nashville Is Making Its Own Way

1:39pm November 05, 2020

by Jewly Hight

Rap from Nashville isn't new, nor is the city's tendency to overlook the creators and entrepreneurs behind that music – despite country artists borrowing liberally from the genre over the past decade.

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A.B. Eastwood's Ever-Expanding Beat

1:17pm November 05, 2020

by Jewly Hight

The autodidact producer spent time learning in Florida, before returning to Nashville with a vision for elevating the entire city.

Music & Culture

Daisha McBride, The Rap Girl, Can Do Anything

12:19pm November 05, 2020

by Jewly Hight

McBride has channeled her performing abilities, affably clever personality and college-level industry studies into her own version of artistic and professional equilibrium in Music City.

The BlackSon, center, photographed with several members of the BlackCity, Funky Tenn collective.

The BlackSon And BlackCity Are Generating 'Free Power'

12:19pm November 05, 2020

by Jewly Hight

After his older brother helped The BlackSon get his artistic career underway, the pair now find themselves living in a new "city."

The Songwriting Success Of Singing Rapper Tim Gent And Rapping Singer Bryant Taylorr

12:18pm November 05, 2020

by Jewly Hight

The pair have found and are maintaining a place for themselves in the professional songwriting world of Nashville.

In the early 2000s, DJ Drama's mixtapes launched artists' careers and defined a new sound. But when mixtapes became a scapegoat for the music industry's collapse, Drama took the fall.

Music & Culture

The Raid That Changed Rap

6:34pm October 29, 2020

When federal agents raided DJ Drama's studio in 2007 over his Gangsta Grillz empire, he became a martyr for mixtape culture. In many ways, it never recovered.

Before he was a teenager, Mac Phipps already had a record deal. By the time he was 20 he was signed to No Limit Records, the biggest independent label in the country. At 24, he was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 30 years in prison following th

Music & Culture

'My Dream Was Being Used Against Me In Court'

10:39am October 23, 2020

Mac Phipps was a rising star of New Orleans rap when he was convicted of a killing he insists he did not commit. Two decades later, he is still fighting for his freedom and his art.

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Acoustic guitarist Chris Smither can play about 100 Bob Dylan songs.

Music & Culture

Bob Dylan Covers On Mountain Stage

5:48pm October 22, 2020

by Adam Harris

From the Mountain Stage archives, hear four Bob Dylan interpreters perform covers of the iconic folk musician's songs.

Bruce Springsteen's new album, Letter To You, is accompanied by a film about the making of the album.

Music & Culture

What Bruce Springsteen Lost And Found

1:57pm October 22, 2020

by Steve Inskeep

Ahead of the release of Letter To You, The Boss spoke to Morning Edition about revisiting older material, finding hope in these unusual times and attending to his audience's spiritual needs.

Over the past week, users of TikTok began absorbing, in a "challenge," one artist's musical investigation into the realities of living through a degenerative neurological disorder.

Music & Culture

What Happens When TikTok Looks To The Avant-Garde For A Challenge?

10:37am October 22, 2020

by Meaghan Garvey

This past week The Caretaker, an artist who has long leaned into challenging sounds, began emerging as an increasingly popular "challenge" on the youth-led platform.