Is Afrobeats’ global rise a story of talent, label investment, political influence, or overlapping forces? AJ and Antonio debate the Chocolate City/CIA claim, what counts as evidence, and how soft power might operate through music. Plus: AI tributes to deceased artists and a BXKS discovery.

CHAPTERS
00:00 Cold open and introduction
01:00 The Spearhead video and its claims
02:00 Chocolate City: connections versus evidence
08:00 Can soft power work without political lyrics?
11:00 CKay, label promotion and “industry plants”
13:00 Tems and connecting the dots
15:00 Who is Afrobeats being made for?
17:00 Soft power wrap-up and AI tributes
19:00 Discovering BXKS
22:00 Final thoughts and music recommendations

Rhythm & Rhymes is modern radio for global black sounds.

Antonio breaks down UMG's licensing deal with ElevenLabs for a fan remix platform, what it could mean for DJs, and whether AI is a boost or just ease. Then: Rick Rubin's Jay-Z In 8 and whether song by song beats start to finish, AJ plays Antonio his first Bouyon, Jhené Aiko's Westside Whimsy, Rio The Young OG, and Unknown T's Listen.

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R&R is Modern Radio for global black sounds.

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We wanted to be at Afro Plus Fest. Then we saw how the weekend unfolded.

AJ and Antonio discuss the storm, entry problems, and attendee reactions—and why criticizing one festival shouldn’t become an indictment of Black-led events.

Also: Kanye West’s Chicago reunion, why Big Sean keeps catching strays, and whether Nemzzz’s Locked In would work better as a shorter project. We unpack the NAACP’s new African award categories and revisit Beyoncé’s B’Day at 20, including Antonio discovering the Spanish version of “Irreplaceable.”

Modern radio for global Black sounds

00:00 Cold open & introduction
01:00 Afro Plus Fest: expectations vs. reality
08:00 Did Afro Plus grow too fast?
11:00 The devil or poor project management?
12:00 Kanye West’s Chicago reunion
17:00 Why does Big Sean keep catching strays?
19:00 Nemzzz’s Locked In & the case for shorter projects
23:00 NAACP’s new African award categories
26:00 Beyoncé’s B’Day at 20 & Spanish “Irreplaceable”
31:00 The Beyoncé AI debate
33:00 Closing

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Dolly Parton refused to give Elvis Presley’s team half the publishing rights to “I Will Always Love You.” Years later, Whitney Houston transformed the song into a global phenomenon—and reportedly made Dolly roughly $10 million in royalties.

AJ and Antonio break down the ownership decision behind “the house that Whitney built” before discussing Kelvin Momo’s dispute with Kabza De Small and what it reveals about Amapiano’s economic ecosystem.

They also ask how old is too old for undergraduate homecoming parties, investigate Ty Dolla $ign’s mysterious hair transformation, explain the difference between sampling and interpolation, debate whether Rod Wave needs more collaborators and discuss how AZ Chike capitalized on Kendrick Lamar’s co-sign.

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 Dolly Parton, Whitney Houston and “I Will Always Love You”

03:20 When do you become “unc” at homecoming?

06:50 Kelvin Momo and Kabza De Small’s dispute

12:20 Is Amapiano bigger than its economy?

25:20 The Ty Dolla $ign hair investigation

30:45 Rod Wave, Boosie and interpolation

36:35 Has Rod Wave’s independence become a limitation?

39:00 AZ Chike and the Kendrick Lamar co-sign

Modern radio for global Black sounds.

What allows Black music and cultural institutions to last?

AJ and Antonio discuss Notting Hill Carnival’s 60th anniversary, Machel Montano’s new Brooklyn exhibition, Victony avoiding the sophomore slump, Ransom’s late-career consistency and whether Anderson .Paak and Cordae have lost creative momentum.

Does Afrobeats still describe a musical genre, or has it become an umbrella for nearly every globally visible African artist? AJ and Antonio discuss Ayra Starr’s StarrGirl, a controversial Dominican-Haitian collaboration, Erykah Badu’s return, and the Ghana-Jamaica connection on Junction.

0:00 – Afrobeats and the “urban music” comparison

0:28 – Does music really have no borders?

1:00 – The Dominican-Haitian collaboration controversy

3:00 – The history behind Haiti and the Dominican Republic

4:42 – Can music ever be apolitical?

9:35 – Is Ayra Starr’s StarrGirl really Afrobeats?

13:47 – What does traditional Afrobeats sound like?

15:42 – Why today’s biggest African artists sound completely different

17:48 – Is modern music becoming genreless?

20:04 – Erykah Badu returns with The Alchemist

22:22 – Junction connects Ghana and Jamaica

25:18 – This week’s playlist selections

25:53 – Where you’re from matters more and less

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AJ and Antonio dig into who really owns African music that Western labels and collectors traveled in to digitize and distribute — walking through Analog Africa in Benin, the Éthiopiques series, and PMG in Nigeria — then argue out what "fair" even means when the preservation is the only reason the catalog has value at all. Plus Snoop's biopic through Death Row Pictures, and Tyla's APOP.

0:00 – When did you last buy a record?
1:00 – The $10 Marvin Gaye record that started it
2:10 – Analog Africa: hiring a cop to find artists and pay them
3:20 – Éthiopiques: preserving a decade, buying the rights
4:00 – PMG in Nigeria and the unpaid-artist accusations
5:00 – Who gets paid, and what does "fair" mean?
9:00 – Does the artist always deserve the majority?
11:00 – "If a tree falls" — distribution as the real leverage
13:30 – Is an archiver a creator too?
16:00 – Finding a "different don"
18:00 – Snoop Dogg's biopic (Death Row Pictures, 2027)
20:30 – Tyla, APOP, and the "whitewashing" question
22:45 – One for the playlist: "Trouble"

R&R is Modern Radio for global black sounds.

See where music's going, and why: https://substack.com/@rhythmandrhymesGenres are getting harder to define.Artists like Don Toliver, Rico Nasty, Playboi Carti and Ken Carson are pulling from rap, punk, metal, electronic music, R&B and hyperpop, sometimes within the same record.But the bigger shift may be happening in how we listen.Mood, aesthetics, playlists, algorithms and DJ culture are increasingly becoming the way listeners discover and organize music. So what happens when the feeling matters more than the genre?In this episode, Antonio breaks down how we got here, the artists pushing the shift forward, and what genreless listening could mean for the future of music.TIMESTAMPS00:00 — Music is getting harder to categorize01:00 — Why electronic music and DJ culture are surging01:30 — Don Toliver and psychedelic Houston rap02:15 — Rico Nasty: trap, metal and hyperpop03:05 — Playboi Carti, Ken Carson and rage03:35 — How algorithms are changing music04:00 — Are moods replacing genres?R&R is modern radio for global Black sounds.Watch more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqaDSTXcRQU&list=PLvQ6HdlN59e7TjcSOBH_BxiEFZTizDN6I

Modern radio for global Black sounds

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AJ and Antonio dig into why the "Shake It to the Max" remix — a billion streams, the first Ghanaian video past 200M on YouTube — was ruled ineligible for a 2026 Grammy, and what Gamma CEO Larry Jackson's fight to overturn it says about whether the stamp still matters. Plus The Spook Who Sat by the Door, BellyGang Cushington, and new J Hus.

0:00 – Cold open

0:30 – SIE certified

1:00 – Detroit recap, Jalen's JuCo decision

2:15 – "Shake It to the Max" gets Grammy-snubbed

3:45 – Why the remix wasn't eligible

6:00 – Larry Jackson, Gamma, and the billion-dollar raise

7:30 – Do Grammys still matter?

9:45 – Making art for awards

11:15 – Betting on Africa

12:30 – The Spook Who Sat by the Door

15:00 – Steve Stoute as the in-between

16:30 – Is BellyGang Cushington a CIA operative?

18:45 – Album review: The Streets Is Yours (Re-Up)

22:45 – New music: J Hus, Nipsey x Blxst

25:00 – Trap soul as a lane

R&R is Modern Radio for global black sounds.

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AJ and Antonio run their ten favorite albums of the year — Tierra Whack, Drake, Vince Staples, Jules, Uncle Waffles, Alex Isley — then get into why the year felt dead: no anticipation, no mega-artists, and hip-hop becoming one crayon in a much bigger box.

0:00 – One word for the year: smooth vs. sporadic

0:30 – Antonio's 10

7:45 – AJ's 10 (and a deluxe, unfortunately)

9:45 – Wax Museum is the album of the year

10:30 – Honorable mentions

10:45 – Was this year dead?

12:00 – Why there are no mega-artists anymore

14:00 – Hip-hop is a crayon in the crayon box

16:45 – Russ: nobody makes music for the iPod anymore

17:45 – Competing with Scorsese, not with other music

18:15 – What drops off the list by December

20:00 – Playlist adds

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If the State Department once used jazz musicians to sell American values abroad, who's doing that work today? AJ and Antonio play a game of "who's a plant" — Live Nation, the Saudi comedy shows, artists who go big in regions where America wants cultural reach — and get into how modern influence might run through sponsorships and shell companies that the artists themselves don't even know about.

R&R is Modern Radio for global black sounds.

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AJ and Antonio break down Suno's new "Spark" grant program for

unsigned artists — including the "good vibes only" gag clause and

the name/image/likeness language buried in the fine print. Then

they get into ghost DJs and prerecorded sets, Jay-Z's marathon

album rollout, and standout projects from Tierra Whack and K1.

0:00 – Suno, Spark & the AI music incubator

1:00 – Breaking down the grant: writing camps, "good vibes only" & NIL

2:30 – Are we training AI to replace us?

4:30 – Ghost DJs and the prerecorded set debate

6:00 – "Do you really hoop?" — live vs. rehearsed

9:00 – Jay-Z's insane rollout: where's the music?

11:00 – 4:44, Blueprint 3 & meeting an artist late in their career

13:00 – Tierra Whack's "Whack Museum" — favorite rap project of the year?

17:00 – K1's "& All Pride Aside" and the Leon Thomas comparison

18:45 – Sign-off

R&R is Modern Radio for global black sounds.

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AJ and Antonio get into Christian rap — and the line one of them draws between a "Christian rapper" and a "Christian who raps." Chance, Malice, Lecrae, Andy Mineo: who's boxing themselves in, who's giving you the full human experience through a Christian lens, and why one of us says the genre mix never works. Plus: getting "robbed" with an Andy Mineo concert before discovering Kendrick.

R&R is Modern Radio for global black sounds.

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AJ and Antonio break down Asake's new album "Money" and use it to ask a bigger question: is Afrobeats getting monotonous, or is that just an outsider's ear? One of us thinks Asake made the same album twice and his catalog peaked at "Mr. Money"; the other says you can't be mad at a great artist for running his best play. Somewhere in there, Asake gets called the African DaBaby.

0:00 – Asake "Money": first impressions

1:00 – Is Afrobeats getting monotonous?

4:30 – Producer choices, repetition & the "hunger" question

7:00 – Ranking every Asake project

R&R is Modern Radio for global black sounds.

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AJ and Antonio dig into Harborview Private Equity quietly amassing 41,000+ songs and $3.8B in catalogs — from Quincy Jones and T-Pain to Stefflon Don and Shenseea — and what it means when funders, not labels, start writing the checks. The conversation widens into ownership, Black wealth, and whether artists are becoming tech-startup founders who keep creative control while someone else funds the upside.

0:00 – Intro

0:30 – Harborview & the private equity land grab

2:30 – $20.4B into music rights since 2019

3:30 – Artists as startup founders: funding without creative control

4:45 – Ownership, Black wealth & why it matters

6:00 – Housing, assets & building wealth in the 21st century

8:30 – Spurs detour: Harper, Castle & De'Aaron Fox

12:00 – G Herbo deluxe: cutting the fat & curating an album

16:00 – Blxst "Labor of Love" review & ranking the catalog

20:00 – Playlist picks: Stefflon Don & Nelly

R&R is Modern Radio for global black sounds.

Subscribe: https://linktr.ee/RealRandRAJ and Antonio pull up the 1972 Harvard Report — the study that taught major labels to see Black music as supply chains — and trace its logic from Black Music Month to the World Cup stage to Vince Staples going independent.0:00 – Cold open0:45 – Black Music Month & the 1972 Harvard Report5:00 – Ownership vs. reach: was the major label system worth it?11:15 – World Cup lineup: the global sound gets marketed13:30 – "Can we enjoy it if we don't own it?"18:00 – Vince Staples' Crybaby & what the label wouldn't let him make20:30 – Independence is the only way to talkR&R is Modern Radio for global black sounds.

Subscribe: https://linktr.ee/RealRandRAJ and Antonio trace the CIA's Cold War Jazz Ambassador Program — where Black artists were sent abroad as freedom symbols while denied rights at home — and follow that thread straight into today, asking who the government might be using now. They also break down the M.I.A. vs. Kid Cudi lawsuit, make the case for G Herbo as Chicago's best MC, and react to the Spurs taking down OKC.00:00 Bad Bunny Conspiracy Opener00:19 CIA Uses Jazz01:27 Jazz Ambassadors Irony02:52 CCF Exposed Fallout03:45 Modern Music Diplomacy04:34 Burna Boy Speculation05:47 Who Is A Plant07:48 Claude Names The Weeknd10:06 Hidden Sponsor Networks11:12 MIA Vs Kid Cudi14:41 Free Speech Contract Debate16:06 G Herbo Thug Review19:31 Will Herbo Get Respect26:33 NBA Thunder Spurs Talk31:22 Playlist Pick And WrapR&R is Modern Radio for global black sounds.

AJ and Antonio trace the direct line from Miami bass record shops to DJ Marlboro's Funk Brasil (1989) — the origin story of baile funk — then pivot to the business: Ed Sheeran's amicable Warner exit, why major labels are still too big to fail (73.3% of all streams are catalog), and what Spotify's new AI remixes deal actually means for artists who let their music breathe. New music from Blxst, Joe Duet Filé, Odeal x Stormzy, Juls, and a spotlight on Sadboy — the Antiguan-Jamaican-Toronto artist doing baile funk in English better than anyone.

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Subscribe: https://linktr.ee/RealRandRAJ and Antonio break down Drake's surprise triple release — Iceman, Made of Honor, and Habibti — tracking the bars, the pettiness, and the global pop instincts that still make him undeniable. They also get into the UMG deal exit theory, Drake's DJ-first music philosophy, and whether he's genuinely one Grammy away from matching Michael Jackson.0:00 – Cold Open & Intro1:30 – Playoff Talk & Life Updates4:00 – Drake Week: Three Projects Overview6:00 – First Impressions & Favorites9:00 – Iceman Bars Breakdown14:00 – Disses, Pettiness & Pen Talk18:00 – Made of Honor Highlights23:00 – Dance Wave, House Music & DJs27:00 – Release Strategy & the UMG Exit Theory33:00 – Drake as Our Generation's MJ36:00 – Classic Cuts from Habibti & Feature Picks40:00 – Sech: Secho Gang Review46:00 – Blue Dot Fever / Live Nation Ticket Pricing55:00 – World Cup Halftime Controversy1:01:00 – Songs of the Week1:07:00 – OutroR&R is Modern Radio for global black sounds.