Happy Black History Month from all of us at KVRX! To celebrate, we asked some of our DJs to give us their favorite songs by Black artists for your listening pleasure this month and beyond.
Check out our playlist with ALL the tracks here:
DJ Duelo: "We Got to Go" - Exuma
Awesome Caribbean proto-metal song from the 60s New Orleans
DJ microfiche: "Politicians in My Eyes" - Death
super awesome early punk from death, out of detroit. loooooove love love the guitars in this, the whole album is just so great. they don't get enough flowers. big up to death
DJ Tower Gnome: "TWO TONE!" - SSJ Daki
I really like this song cuz it’s a badass rap song!
DJ Loganator: "I Wanna Be Where You Are" - The Veldt
The Veldt is my favorite band EVERRRR. Beautiful shoegaze and soul fusion, makes you get up, makes you dance, makes you believe in love.
DJ MamaCD: "Sinnerman" - Nina Simone
There’s no underestimating Nina Simone’s legendary impact on music. Simone transforms this traditional spiritual into a 10 minute spoken word, jazz, and blues epic. Masterful and mind blowing. I love you Nina Simone.
DJ Funk: "Why I Came to California" - Leon Ware
Multi-hyphenate Leon Ware is most well known as a producer for everyone from Tina Turner to Quincy Jones and Marvin Gaye, but his solo work should not be slept on. Why I Came to California is a breezy R&B banger that you can’t help but groove to.
DJ Asterism: "All My Time is Wasted" - Hannah Jadagu
I heard Hannah perform this live in 2022 and have been hooked on her music ever since! The guitar in this song is magnetic. Hannah’s music is so engaging and interesting to listen to, and she’s also such a nice person.
DJ Yolo: "Zambi" - Jorge Ben Jor
Currently my favorite song ❤️🔥
DJ RapM: "JFK 2 LAX" - Gang Starr
I first heard this on a radio archive cassette tape from 1998 on KUNM Street Beat. Not only is the song groovy with a beautiful beat by DJ Premier, but it also contains some sharp insight into the US justice system and realities of systemic racism. In this song, Guru emphasizes the power of knowledge and importance of educating one's self, while also warning that "unorganized revolt almost always mostly fails." Instead of blind anger, he promotes awareness as a foundation for liberation. "To elevate the mental is to be poor no more."
DJ RapM (contd.): "What Am I To Do" - Tone Oliver, Spacedtime, and Joy Post, "Who Got The Camera?" - Ice Cube, "I'm Alive (feat. Grupo Fantasma)" - League Of Extraordinary Gz and Grupo Fantasma
What Am I To Do is by Tone Oliver, which is an underground hip-hop artist and activist from San Francisco. One of my favorite tracks, I hear them play it often on KPOO.
Who Got The Camera? is a classic track by Ice Cube and discusses police brutality.
I'm Alive is a local Austin hip-hop track and also features Grupo Fantasma, who have played ACL and have also won a Grammy. They also got their start in Austin.
DJ Dice: "Fast Car" - Tracy Chapman
IMO the greatest song ever. There's so much love put into this song and it is perfect
DJ Viv: "Woo" - Rihanna
As everybody knows, Rihanna is an icon, and her music not only represents her musical talent but also her diversity and lyrical depth as an artist. For a long time, I only knew Rihanna by her biggest hits, but my best friends showed me more of her discography. Throughout middle and high school, my circle of friends was always performers. One of my favorite things is seeing my friends dance, and even though they did not dance to "Woo", they danced to some of Rihanna's other masterpieces, which is how I discovered this song. I have never heard a track anything like "Woo", and ever since my first listen of it, I have fallen in love with it. Its back beat is addictive, and as soon as the starting notes play, I know that for the next approximately four minutes, my entire soul will be consumed by it.
DJ Swaggirl: "Banned in D.C." - Bad Brains
Not only does this song have a phenomenal sound, it's message about anti-conformist attitudes is fundamental to what punk is all about. Additionally, at the time of punk origin, many bands in the scene were mainly white. Bad Brains is an iconic all-black punk band that shattered the stereotype of the white punk. They spearheaded the punk movement in D.C./NYC and embodied the fact that punk is for all.
Bennett: "Guinnevere" - Miles Davis
This song captures what makes Miles's electric era so iconic: his patience, his willingness to remain in one place for a very long time, his literal fusion of different genres to create something entirely new. "Guinnevere" was a B-Side for the classic Bitches Brew album, which completely revolutionized the genre of jazz as we know it today, but part of what makes it so astonishing is that it's in fact a "cover" of Crosy Stills & Nash's song of the same name, though you wouldn't know it just by listening. Miles's band on "Guinnevere" was comprised of some of the greatest jazz artists of the 20th century, who were amazing bandleaders in their own right: Wayne Shorter, John McLaughlin, Bennie Maupin, Chick Corea, Joe Zawinul, Airto Moreira, and Billy Cobham, to name a few. It's a meditative 20-minute journey that seems to pass in the blink of an eye.
Dj Kolocha: "Don’t Worry Bout Mine" - Z-Ro
I love Houston rap, as a native myself, Z-Ro has been one of my favorites. This song is just so nostalgic to me, I used to listen to Z-Ro a lot with my friends back in Houston, and this one was one of our favorite songs.
DJ BLVD: "Alright" - D’Angelo
This is one of my favorite D’Angelo songs, and he is a keystone of R&B. With his recent passing, I’ve been listening to him a lot more than usual, and I find that he taps into a frequency that’s so tender and nuanced. R&B is an important part of black history/music and D’Angelo one of its major proponents so I think his music should be included
DJ doodlebug: "Slipped, Tripped, and Fell in Love" - Ann Peebles
Ann Peebles the woman you are. This whole album is great, but "Slipped, Tripped, and Fell in Love" has my heart -- we've all been there haven't we? Peebles' voice is so distinct and satisfying; the song itself is wry, soulful and just dang catchy. Listen to this on a walk, listen to this making your dinner, just listen to this freakin' song! If you're not listening to Ann Peebles, you're not living!
DJ LIL: "Purple Rain" - Prince
"Purple Rain" is just timeless. It's such an emotionally evocative song and captures the feeling of both love and loss so brilliantly. Also, the way Prince blended soul, funk and rock so seamlessly just makes it one of the best produced songs of all time for me.
DJ John F. Spinnedy: "Roses" - Outkast
I wish I had a more profound reason why, but this Outkast song reminds me so much of my childhood. My mom and sister used to sing this song to me, profanity and all, when I was a wee lass. It always cracked me up to hear the line, "Roses really smell like poo poo poo" as a kid. It still cracks me up today. Andre 3000 is really one of the most profound modern artists of our generation.
Alejandro Fuentes: "Pulling Teeth" - House of Protection
House of Protection is a breakout metalcore duo with members from Fever 666 and Night Verses. Pulling Teeth was part of their debut EP, and it really stood out because of it's DIY sound that still held up against bigger, more produced bands. To be totally fair though, it was produced by the Bring me the Horizon keyboardist, and was probably given that rough sound as a stylistic choice rather than by necessity. It's still a sick song, though, and definitely worth checking out.
DJ slush puppy: "Minetta Creek" - Blood Orange
This song is from the album Negro Swan, where Dev Hynes (Blood Orange) explores his experience with depression as a black person, as well as the anxieties and traumas faced by queer people of color, with the album serving as a piece of hope and resistance. The synth and bass give the song an ethereal atmosphere, which is signature of Blood Orange, and it is a favorite of mine to listen to on late-night walks.
DJ smiles: "Give" - Genia
genia is an underground artist and her music deserves way more appreciation! i put everyone i can on to this song. it's really catchy and fun
Sebastien A. Frank: "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" - The Platters, "Summertime" - Billy Stewart
(1) This song feels like very modern songwriting from a pop group of long ago. The song progresses in a beautiful way slowly, but has such great lyrics and is an oldies standout. The Platters were once one of the most famous music groups ever, so I think it’s important to mention them for BHM.
(2) This was considered a radical reinterpretation of the classic song “Summertime”. I vividly remember my dad playing it for me a lot when I was little. It was a top ten hit in the 60s, and was one of Billy Stewart’s initial claims to fame before his tragic passing.
Sebastien A. Frank (contd.): "I’ll Be Seeing You" - Billie Holiday , "Hope" - Arlo Parks
(1) Billie Holiday is quite possibly the most comforting singer to listen to, ever. That is still the case when her songs are emotionally heavy. This is one of her most famous songs, and rightfully so. It is very emotional, especially if you’ve lost someone you love. It reminds me of my late grandma, and is still a shared favorite between me and my mom.
(2) Arlo Parks’ Collapsed in Sunbeams was my personal album of the year in 2021, and this song perfectly summarizes a universal core reason for making and listening to music. Being there for each other in a time of intense loneliness in the world is increasingly vital, just as it was during the pandemic era when this song came out. I vividly remember collectively singing along to this song with one of the best vibes in a crowd I’ve been to at ACL Fest 2022, when I was still 16. I’m 20 now, and this song still hits with the same lovely power that it did then.
DJ Gwormph: "I Love You" - Lil B
I Love You has to be one of the most life affirming songs I've ever heard, whenever I'm going through something going back to it always keeps me grounded. Seeing him cry at the end of the music video makes me emotional every time :')