This one is exciting, my first full production: a cover of the classic Lightnin’ Hopkins tune “Baby Please Don’t Go” by Kam Franklin and Kareem Samara. You may know Kam from being the lead singer of The Suffers, or know Kareem from his work with...
Every year I vote for my favorite music (songs and albums) in an annual music critics poll and this year I submitted my ballot for the Uproxx installment. The original music critics poll I voted in belonged to New York City’s Village Voice and its...
SMNTCS founder Sama’an Ashrawi (me, writing this post) appeared on The Sound of Victory podcast Sounding Off to talk with hosts Courtney Cox and Perry Johnson about the intersections of music and sport in his life. From TSOV: “Sounding Off, vol. 3:...
SMNTCS founder Sama’an Ashrawi appears for an interview on Dr. Courtney Cox’s (University of Oregon) Intro to African American Studies podcast to discuss the animated series he created, Afrofuturism, and what inspired it. The series is hosted by U.K. artist...
Every year I vote for my favorite music (songs and albums) in an annual music critics poll and this year I submitted my ballot for the Uproxx installment. The original, historic music critics poll I voted in belonged to New York City’s Village...
Frank Ocean just released a new song, “DHL,” and I couldn’t help but think it sounded a lot like a cut off an old DJ Screw tape, so I had to make my own (Frank) Ocean of Funk mix out of it. The song is...
The story of how Leon Bridges and Bun B linked up to perform the UGK classic “One Day” at the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo is one I’ll probably have to save for the memoir, but to hold you over until then I put together...
With the sad and unfortunate demise of the historic Village Voice, the future of a music critics’ poll was uncertain, but Uproxx stepped up to the challenge, and I was honored to offer my 2018 music picks for their new poll. Below are my favorite songs...
Gary Clark Jr.’s new single, “This Land,” isn’t the crawling-to-running, normal kind of growth, no, Gary went from walking up and down Sixth Street with a guitar in his hand, to flying. It’s not to say that Gary was ever immature at all,...
SMNTCS founder Sama’an Ashrawi has launched his new storytelling series, The Nostalgia Mixtape, as a streamable podcast. The podcast’s concept is simple and almost universally relatable: the stories of memories tied to music, told by notable names. The...
