hip hop

The legendary, elusive rapper MF Doom passed away on New Years Eve - it certainly felt like the final nail in the coffin of 2020. Tonight, we'll be paying tribute to the influential artist through a handful of his best tracks and a a look into some of his wide-reaching samples.

Typically the holiday season puts me in a jazzy mood, but for this Thanksgiving I wanted to invert that premise with some jazzy hip-hop with the likes of A Tribe Called Quest, Digable Planets, Gang Starr and others. Tonight, we'll be giving thanks with the help of some great jazz-tinged 90's throwbacks.

We're all taking in a lot of election-related noise this week, so I figured as a respite it would be nice to relax with an evening of instrumentals. No talking, no arguing - just great music.

Tonight will be a little different in that our show will consist entirely of instrumentals across a wide variety of genres - particularly world, jazz and soul. Let's really test the limits here of "letting the music speak for itself."

On episode 2 of my HPR + HIFF collab idea, our guest selections come from local Kanaka Maoli filmmaker, ʻĀina Paikai.

ʻĀina's portfolio includes several award winning nationally televised documentaries during his long career with ʻŌiwiTV such as Moananuiākea: One Ocean, One People, One Canoe, which HPR recently presented on Oʻahu, Kauaʻi, and Hawaiʻi Island. 

Fact: I am a 90s baby. Additional fact: I'm going to see the Backstreet Boys live here in Honolulu and am beyond stoked. So in honor of fulfilling my lifelong 90s-baby dream, I decided (under dj mrnick's heavily judgemental watch) to do a 90s throwback show featuring some of my favorite hip hop/R&B/indie rock tracks that I grew up with.

Amirah Sackett is the founder of the all-female American dance trio, 'We're Muslim, Don't Panic,"  a troupe that believes in hip-hop's power to inspire and bring about positive change.  The Huffington Post recognized Sackett as one of "17 Muslim American Women Who Made America Great In 2016."  HPR’s Noe Tanigawa reports on her upcoming performance in Honolulu.

So tonight I'm going to attempt a second Hip-Hop show, weaving in and out of radio friendly, and thought provoking songs with different...often jazzy cuts and reinterpretations.