In the 1920s the music called son exploded in popularity in Havana. Originating in eastern Cuba in the late 19th century as a fusion of Spanish and African styles, it traveled to western Cuba and took on a different character in Havana, ultimately becoming the best-known style of Cuban music. We'll hear how it developed from a rustic mountain music to a jazzy big-city urban sound that was something like the gangsta rap of its day. Produced and co-hosted by Ned Sublette, author of Cuba and Its Music: From the First Drums to the Mambo (Chicago Review Press, 2004), as part of Hip Deep -- a series-within-a-series of programs of ideas about music, history, and culture in Africa and the African diaspora.