This episode is the edited version of our special live launch party we held on Nov. 11 in Los Angeles, as part of the Voyager Institute . We were joined by Grammy-nominated soul artist B.Slade, a self-described "Rhythm Nation -pedia" who, indeed, brought incredible insight and knowledge to our discussion of this seminal Jackson LP. How many people can name every single dancer in Janet's "Miss You Much" video? Exactly. It was a delightful conversation and having the live audience was great. It wa...
Dec 05, 2017•53 min•Ep. 10
This week, we are joined by The Shacks , the NYC-based duo of singer Shannon Wise and producer Max Shrager. Maybe you heard their cool cover of The Kinks' "This Strange Effect" on that Apple ad this fall? Or maybe you were already up on them from their EP , released by Big Crown? Either way, Max and Shannon threw us a curveball with their choice: a 1994 compilation of nearly two dozen sides recorded in the mid-1960s by The Sapphires, the obscure-ish R&B trio of Carol Jackson, George Gainer a...
Nov 28, 2017•39 min•Ep. 9
This week, we are joined by cultural critic Ernest Hardy. Oliver first got to know Ernest through his remarkable writing in the LA Weekly and other outlets, some of which has been compiled into his Blood Beats Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 collections. For this episode, he chose Sade's Love Deluxe, which came out 25 years ago this fall. Ernest's deep love and appreciation for Sade was readily apparent to both Morgan and Oliver and it produced what we think is one of the most insightful episodes we've taped ...
Nov 20, 2017•41 min•Ep. 8
This week, we are joined by Anil Dash, the tech entrepreneur and activist whose love for The Purple One is legendary. He takes us into the Heat Rocks deep dive for Prince's 1999 , the album that marked his new wave turn. All three of us share tales of our older family members being scandalized by the sexy-sexiness on the album. Mmmmmm...spicy. More on Prince and 1999 : The original Rolling Stone album review . Prince on the Larry King Show in...1999. More on Anil Dash: Anil's "I Am #Transformed"...
Nov 14, 2017•46 min•Ep. 7
This week, we are joined by Los Angeles rapper, Ill Camille. She picked Common's Like Water For Chocolate from 2000, a moment that marked the Chicago's turn towards becoming a hip-hop elder statesman, backed by the production might of the Soulquarians crew. Camille's love for the album runs deep and during the course of our taping, she'd bust out Common's rhymes, line for line. More on Common and Like Water For Chocolate : Oliver's original 2000 review of the album for the LA Weekly Mensah Demar...
Nov 07, 2017•38 min•Ep. 6
This week, we are joined by Dam-Funk, Stones Throw recording artist , resident DJ for the legendary Funkmosphere parties and all-around apostle of the boogie. He was one of the very first artists we invited to tape Heat Rocks, back in its pilot stage, and we're very pleased to finally shared the episode in which he took us on a deep trip into Change's Miracles. Along the way, we talked about the post-disco, Chic-era of funk and R&B, how Italian and New York musical communities collided on th...
Oct 31, 2017•36 min•Ep. 5
This week, we are joined by Shea Serrano, contributor at TheRinger.com , author of both The Rap Yearbook and the brand new Basketball (And Other Things) . For his heat rock, he choose DMX's smash debut LP, It's Dark and Hell Is Hot. *woof* During our conversation, we learned how it was Shea's grandmother, of all people, who introduced him to DMX and how that album became the formative soundtrack for him as a teenager. Shea drops wisdom nuggets on the nature of pain in DMX's persona and how this ...
Oct 24, 2017•42 min•Ep. 4
This week, Morgan and Oliver are joined by Ann Powers of NPR Music and author of the new book, Good Booty: Love and Sex, Black and White, Body and Soul in American Music. Together, the three dug into Like a Prayer, Madonna's critical breakout album form 1989. As Ann lays out, Madonna had already established herself as an MTV-era mega-star with her previous albums but Like a Prayer, with its then-controversial sexual politics and surprising personal candor, marked a new level of artistic ambition...
Oct 17, 2017•48 min•Ep. 3
This week rapper, producer, and songwriter Phonte (Foreign Exchange, Little Brother) joins Oliver and Morgan to talk about the R&B group Intro's 1993 self-titled debut album. The trio's release was part of the changing tide of R&B music, when slow jams were giving way to more uptempo hits and singers were exchanging suits for Timbs and jeans. Phonte shares about what Intro's brand of new jack swing meant to him as a teenager growing up in Greensboro, North Carolina. Don't get him wrong: ...
Oct 10, 2017•48 min•Ep. 2
On the premiere episode of Heat Rocks, future soul artist Joi Gilliam joins Morgan and Oliver to talk about They Say I'm Different , the 1974 album by the unsung queen of funk, Betty Davis! It's really an obvious pairing: Betty Davis was one of the most original and fascinating figures of the 1970s, and Joi is an artist very much cut from Betty's cloth, but a generation later. We had a super fun conversation about the importance and uniqueness of Betty and what she's meant, especially, to waves ...
Oct 02, 2017•34 min•Ep. 1
What's a heat rock? Oliver Wang and Morgan Rhodes explain in this sneak preview of their new show, coming to you October 3rd. New episodes every Tuesday!
Sep 28, 2017•2 min0
