Vic Mensa, Opinions on tUnE-yArDs, Dolores O’Riordan & Hugh Masekela

Vic Mensa

On his debut record, The Autobiography, Vic Mensa  raps about his life growing up on the South Side of Chicago. With a confessional tone, he explores topics like community, violence, drugs, and racism. Hosts Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot talk with Mensa about his influences, his struggles and the experience of growing up "five blocks from the projects and five blocks from Obama's house." Plus, they review the latest album from tUnE-yArDs, Jim pays tribute to the late Dolores O’Riordan of The Cranberries and Greg bids farewell to South African jazz legend Hugh Masekela.

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I Can Feel You Creep Into My Private Life tUnE-yArDs

I can feel you creep into my private life

Merrill Garbus is back with her fourth full-length tUnE-yArDs project, titled I Can Feel You Creep Into My Private Life. Jim says that immediately before writing this album, Garbus was on a six-month meditation workshop to see what she could do "as a white person in the realm of social justice. That sounds like heady and heavy stuff…It's not though. This is a dance album, heavily influenced by '70s  disco, and I think the classic sounds of Chicago house."

Greg adds that the album "could easily be ponderous, but she's paring cultural appropriation, the end of the world… these are heavy subjects… with this incredibly liberating music, this body music." Standout tracks include "Heart Attack", "Colonizer" and "Home". Jim and Greg give it a double Buy It.

Vic Mensa

Vic Mensa is a young rapper who hails from the South Side of Chicago and isn't afraid to write about taboo topics like violence, racism and social injustice. While Mensa is a protégé of rap legend Jay-Z, he has his own unique style and swagger: he loves skateboarding, is gregarious and has a pretty stellar singing voice. His debut studio album, The Autobiography, is an ambitious record chronicling the entirety of his 24 years of life, and it's full of hard hitting beats and impactful (and sometimes hilarious) lyrics. Jim and Greg talk to Vic Mensa about overcoming drugs, his love for rock music and how he made a record that plays like a book.

Obit: Hugh Masekela

Hugh Masekela

South African jazz trumpeter Hugh Masekela died on January 23rd at the age of 78 after a long battle with cancer. A musician not afraid to express his political views, he spent many years in exile during the height of apartheid in his homeland. He is best known for his biggest hit, 1968's "Grazing in the Grass," as well as for a long list of protest songs. Greg thinks those protest songs, like "Bring Him Back Home (Nelson Mandela)" are Masekela's most poignant. He adds, "The fact that he was able to go back to South Africa, and live there… To see the revolution and the protest he advocated for in his songs, finally come to fruition in the end of apartheid… I think was a particularly powerful statement for his music."

Obit: Dolores O’Riordan

Jim pays tribute to the late Dolores O’Riordan of the '90s Irish rock band The Cranberries. Jim plays "Zombie," the Cranberries' impassioned political hit that embodies all the conviction and strength of the late lead singer. O'Riordan died in mid-January at the age of 46, the cause of death is still unknown.

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