From left: Sekou, Dua Saleh, Alemeda and McKinley Dixon

Braden Lee & Christopher Behnen; Randijah Simmons; David Muessig/Courtesy of the artists

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Braden Lee & Christopher Behnen; Randijah Simmons; David Muessig/Courtesy of the artists

From left: Sekou, Dua Saleh, Alemeda and McKinley Dixon

Braden Lee & Christopher Behnen; Randijah Simmons; David Muessig/Courtesy of the artists

To have a good time Black Historical past Month this yr, World Cafe is popping its ear towards the longer term by spotlighting up-and-coming musicians blazing their very own thrilling path within the trade by reshaping — or flat out defying — the standard boundaries of style.

The workforce was impressed by a dialog World Cafe had in 2019 with NPR Music’s Rodney Carmichael about opting to spotlight Black Futures Month in February.

“I simply assume that, plenty of occasions, America has a tougher time appreciating what Black people are doing within the current than what we have performed up to now,” he advised us then.

We’re kicking issues off with a playlist of artists you want to have in your radar — should you’re not already streaming their music. The sounds right here differ, dwelling within the house between pop, hip-hop, R&B, jazz, digital music and rock.

We needed to embrace a reduce from McKinley Dixon‘s Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!?. The Richmond, Va., artist joined us on the present earlier this yr.

The combo additionally contains the most recent single from singer and actor Dua Saleh. On “daylight falls,” Saleh sings about discovering solace throughout darkish occasions over tender guitar strums that swell right into a crunchy emo ballad.

There’s additionally contemporary music from the likes of John Glacier, serpentwithfeet, Alemeda and Nailah Hunter. We extremely suggest Hunter’s new album, Lovegaze.

We bookend the playlist with the gorgeous debut single from Sekou, who will hit the street on his first ever tour opening for Reneé Rapp.

On the radio, we’ll be connecting the dots between previous and future with weekly segments (beginning subsequent Tuesday) exploring the historical past of Black dance and digital music with Tradition Nook correspondent John Morrison.

“All music may be dance music, given the precise circumstances,” Morrison says. “What I am actually speaking about is a sound and a tradition that got here out of Black membership tradition and DJ tradition, particularly … I am speaking a couple of continuum of music that begins with disco and stretches out to embody home music, techno, EDM and any type of digital dance music we hear right now.”

From disco to drum & bass, Morrison takes us on a wildly entertaining experience all through 5 a long time of dance music. Buckle up!