The album: D'Angelo: Brown Sugar (1995)

DJ Monalisa Murray is an O.G. on the L.A. scene, having made the transition from working in marketing and promotion for record labels to working for herself as one of the Southland's premier selectors, down with everyone from Umoja Hi-Fi Soundsystem, to Footlong Development, to the KPL All-Stars. For her album choice, she wanted to spin us back to the emergence of D'Angelo and his debut album, Brown Sugar. We talked about how D'Angelo struck a different note than R&B in that era, how his style played to and against hip-hop, and just what exactly "brown sugar" refers to. Spicy. 

More on D'Angelo and Brown Sugar

• Michael Gonzales' reflections on Brown Sugar for Mass Appeal
• Cheo Coker's original 1995 review of the LP for Rolling Stone.
• Dan Buyanovsky's oral history of D'Angelo for Noisey.

More on DJ Monalisa

• Her "Paths of Rhythm" show on Dublab.
• Facebook | Twitter | Mixcloud

Show Tracklisting (all songs from Brown Sugar unless indicated otherwise):

• “Brown Sugar”
• “Jonez In My Bones”
• Billy Preston: Music is my Life “Will it Go Round in Circles”
• ”Cruisin
• D’Angelo: Voodoo “Feel Like Making Love”
• ”Me And Those Dreaming Eyes of Mine”
• J Dilla: A.K.A. J. Yancey “Me And Those Dreaming Eyes of Mine [Remix]”
• ”Shit, Damn, Motherfucker”
• ”When We Get By”
• ”Alright”
• Rolling Stones: Sticky Fingers “Brown Sugar”
• D’Angelo: “She’s Always In My Hair”
• D’Angelo: Black Messiah “Really Love”

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The album: Lightnin' Rod: Hustlers Convention (1973)

Ishmael Butler aka Butterfly of Digable Planets aka one-half of Shabazz Palaces joined us to take us on a trip back to the blaxploitation era and one of the greatest soundtracks-in-search-of-a-movie: Hustlers Convention, the spoken word/funk album by Jalal Nuriddin of The Last Poets. Backed up musicians that included Kool and the Gang, Eric Gale and others, Hustlers Convention took listeners on a trip into the world of pimps, players, police and other street characters in a vivid, cinematic story that would go onto inspire rappers the world over.

More on Lightnin' Rod and Hustlers Convention

• Documentary about the album and other street poets of the early '70s.
• Graeme Thompson's story about the album for The Guardian 
• Red Bull Music Academy's feature on the album.

More on Ishmael Butler

• Oliver's profile of Shabazz Palaces for Bandcamp.
• Tim Larew's interview with Butler for Pigeons and Planes.
• Twitter for Shabazz Palaces | Instagram for Shabazz Palaces

Show Tracklisting (all songs from Hustler's Conventionunless indicated otherwise):

• ”Sport”
• Digable Planets: Reaching’”The Rebirth of Slick”
• Curtis Mayfield: Superfly “Superfly”
• ”Hamhock’s Hall Wa Big”
• ”Spoon”
• ”The Shit Hits The Fan Again”
• ”The Break Was So Loud It Hushed The Crowd”
• ”Sentenced To The Chair”
• ”Brother Hominy Grit”
• Shabazz Palace: Lese Majesty “Forerunner Foray”
• Dr. Dre: Deep Cover “Deep Cover Feat. Snoop Dogg”
• Raekwon: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx”Heaven & Hell”

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The album: Outkast: Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (2003)

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 Below unless 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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The album: TLC's CrazySexyCool (1994)

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

• Microphone Check podcast | Instagram
• Frannie's NPR story archive
• Twitter

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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