Hip Deep Fourteen years ago, with support from the NEH, we created Hip Deep, a subseries integrated into the overall Afropop Worldwide program offering. Hip Deep programs build on the techniques and format developed for Afropop Worldwide, but are enhanced by rigorous academic and field research that translates into higher production values. Every episode of Hip Deep actively involves leading humanities scholars to illuminate a wealth of history, culture, politics, ethnic and spiritual contexts. Over 15 years, Hip Deep has produced over 110 humanities-focused programs and a wide range of supplementary Web resources (interviews, videos, text/photo features, podcasts), all easily accessible within the Hip Deep section of our website. Hip Deep amplifies Afropop Worldwide’s longstanding commitment to disseminate humanities themes to the general public through world music via a growing set of media pathways.
Closeup August 14, 2018
Afropop Classic August 9, 2018
Afropop radio show on 2018 Brazilian music, with focus on carnaval in Salvador.
Hip Deep August 2, 2018
Ned Sublette takes a group of travelers, including you, to multiple sites in western Cuba to analyze the musical impact of what Ortiz called the "Cuban counterpoint" of tobacco and sugar.
Closeup July 31, 2018
Closeup July 17, 2018
Closeup June 19, 2018
Hip Deep June 14, 2018
In this program, we explore the phenomenon of trance through a survey of musical and spiritual traditions, discover how different cultural and spiritual ideas are expressed musically, how the mathematical complexity of mbira dzavuzimu music may lead to Shona spirit possession, and how experiments in neural imaging give us insight into how the brain works in a state of trance.
Afropop Classic June 7, 2018
Closeup June 5, 2018
Afropop Classic May 31, 2018
Closeup May 22, 2018
In this Afropop Closeup, correspondent Dan Rosenberg talks with Calypso Rose about using music as a weapon for social change.
Afropop Classic May 17, 2018
Hip Deep May 10, 2018
Lagos and the Rise of Nigerian Afrobeats tells the story of the birth and development of this scene straight from the influential and foundational figures who lived it including 2Face Idibia, Iyanya, Yemi Alade, Adekunle Gold, Flavour and more.
Hip Deep May 3, 2018
Beneath the gloss of Nigeria’s contemporary pop, older roots styles, mostly derived from Yoruba tradition, still thrive.
Afropop Classic April 5, 2018
Afropop dives into the rock-inflected music scene in Recife, Brazil.
Hip Deep March 15, 2018
Building on prior Hip Deep explorations of the origins of house and techno in the American Midwest, “Roots and Future” explores how a community of (primarily) black British musicians, fans, D.J.s, and radio pirates recreated dance music in the United Kingdom during the 1990s and 2000s.
Afropop Classic February 22, 2018
Closeup February 6, 2018
Nigerian musicians almost all have stage names and in this audio program we explore the history of why that is.
Hip Deep February 1, 2018
How jazz music came back to Africa, South Africa in particular, by way of America.
Afropop Classic January 25, 2018
As Afropop turns 30, we take a stroll down memory lane to enjoy some of the extraordinary live recordings we brought to the public radio community in the 1990s including Thione Seck in Dakar, Gerardo Nunez in New York, Abdel Aziz el Mubarak in London, Lobi Traore in Bamako, a carnival comparsa in Cuba and David Rudder in New York. Co-hosted by Georges Collinet, Siji Awoyinka, and Sean Barlow.
Closeup January 23, 2018
The songs of Betsayda Machado, the leading voice of Afro-Venezuelan music, address many of the most painful topics of daily life of her country: hunger, poverty, shortages of basic medicine, and deadly street riots – stemming from the current economic and political crisis in Venezuela.
Hip Deep January 11, 2018
This program presents a musical portrait of Bamako in the wake of crisis. We explore the precarious lives of griots in today’s Bamako, focusing on the upbringing and education of children in these hereditary families of historian-entertainers.
Closeup January 9, 2018
Amal Hussein and Hamdi Mohamed have a lot in common. Both were born in Kenya, where their parents fled as refugees during the Somali Civil War, and both came to Boston when they were just a few years old. They’re both poets — and equally important for this story — both their grandmothers are poets...
Closeup December 26, 2017
Underneath the streets of New York City, in the tunnels and stations of the busiest subway system in the country, there is a thriving music scene. Amidst the noise of passing trains, we meet Papa Fara, a Cameroonian xylophonist and singer, who plays for tips and captures the love of strangers and makes friends with his quick, warm smile. But, behind the smile and beautiful melodies, something is troubling Papa Fara. There’s a reason he’d rather be underground.
Afropop Classic December 21, 2017
In this program, we explore the new "Afropolitan" sounds of Paris, from concert halls to studios, from the heart of the city to immigrant neighborhoods in the banlieues.
Hip Deep December 14, 2017
In recognition of the end of Robert Mugabe's 37-year rule in Zimbabwe, we are rebroadcasting our program on the career of Thomas Mapfumo during the Mugabe years.
Closeup December 12, 2017
We examine how the unresolved issues that triggered the devastating Biafran War in the 1960s still resonate and persist in the Niger Delta today on this Afropop Closeup.
Closeup November 28, 2017
Kizito Mihigo is one of Rwanda’s most beloved singers, yet he is currently imprisoned, serving a 10-year sentence for treason. In 2014, Mihigo released a song which criticized the wartime actions of Rwanda’s governing political party. The song went viral, sparking a nationwide dialogue around the genocide, and weeks later, Mihigo was arrested on charges of conspiracy to assassinate the president of Rwanda, Paul Kagame.
Afropop Classic November 27, 2025
Afropop Classic November 20, 2025
Quelbe is an energetic form, led by sax or flute with percussion and banjo, and it fuels the traditional dance style, quadrille. St Croix is the largest of the U.S. Virgin Islands, and sits alone 42 miles south of St. Thomas and St. John.
Afropop Classic November 13, 2025
Afropop Classic November 6, 2025
Afropop Classic October 30, 2025
We sample musical life in South Africa 20 years after the end of apartheid.
Afropop Classic October 23, 2025
This program surveys African diaspora musicians creating their own worlds, circa 2007.
Afropop Classic October 9, 2025
Alex Wolfe, director of the film "Santo Domingo Blues: The Story of Bachata" brings us live ambience and stories of bachata stars Luis Vargas, Antony Santos, Luis Segura, Adridia Ventura.
Afropop Classic October 2, 2025
Afropop Classic September 25, 2025
It's Hispanic Heritage Month at Afropop Worldwide!
Afropop Classic September 18, 2025
Discover the origins of Puerto Rican salsa as legendary bandleaders Rafael Ithier, Quique Lucca, and Willie Rosario share the story of how a Venezuelan DJ and Fania Records turned Cuban-style music into a global cultural identity.
Afropop Classic September 11, 2025
Afropop Classic September 4, 2025
In this Hip Deep edition, Afropop producer Wills Glasspeigel heads to South Africa to reveal the story of the inimitable Hugh Tracey, a field recordist born at the turn of the 20th century in England.
Hip Deep August 28, 2025
From early Baghdad to Qawwali and Iraqi maqam, Joseph Braude and Islamic scholars explore how Islam shapes music across the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia.
Hip Deep August 21, 2025
This Hip Deep edition explores the sonically vibrant realm of Afro-Peruvian music, a young genre identification that has flourished since the 1950s and has now produced artists of international renown, such as singer Susana Baca, and the black folkloric company Peru Negro.
Afropop Classic August 14, 2025
Banning Eyre's roundup of roots music from Madagascar, circa 2019, with Tarika Sammy, Jaojoby, Damily, Razia and Toko Telo. Updated for 2025.
Afropop Classic August 7, 2025
Nigeria is today the undisputed powerhouse of African pop music. Call it Naija Pop, Afrobeats, Afropop or what have you. The likes of Burna Boy, Wizkid, Yemi Alade and Tiwa Savage are giants on the scene.
Hip Deep July 31, 2025
Afropop Classic July 24, 2025
Planet Afropop July 17, 2025
Banning Eyre meets Thomas Mapfumo at home and introduces Mary Anibal.
Hip Deep July 10, 2025
Planet Afropop July 8, 2025
Nathaniel Braddock digs into the alternative music scene in Kinshasa, Congo.
Afropop Classic July 3, 2025
Afropop Classic June 26, 2025
This program ventures into corners of Africa we hear from rarely, guided by adventurous field recordists and crate diggers.
Planet Afropop June 24, 2025
Host FayFay sits with two emerging Nigerian artists whose paths are as bold as their sound, Looking for Avala and Inima.
Afropop Classic June 12, 2025
Planet Afropop June 10, 2025
Planet Afropop profiles Madalitso Band from Malawi, and interviews Salif Keita.
Afropop Classic June 5, 2025
Georges Collinet cooks Yassa Chicken, and hosts Baba John Mason in the kitchen.
Hip Deep May 29, 2025
This week, Afropop revisits the home of styles such as merengue and bachata, but this time we’ll be looking towards the most deeply African side of Dominican music—little known outside of the island.
May 27, 2025
Marika Partridge goes deep into pan music with Andy Narell.
Afropop Classic May 22, 2025
Ned Sublette Explores Iconic Songs That Shaped Jamaican Music History
