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.
Afropop Classic December 24, 2020
Georges Collinet and Banning Eyre discuss musical highlights of 2020
Afropop Classic November 19, 2020
Immerse yourself in the broad diversity of São Paulo’s intense music scene, where hybrid cultural expression happens spontaneously, fusing ancient and modern, local and foreign, traditional and avant-garde.
Afropop Classic October 22, 2020
Afropop Classic October 15, 2020
Afropop Classic October 10, 2020
This program features selections and interviews from the first edition of the Sauti Za Busara festival in Stonetown, Zanzibar, Tanzania in February 2004.
Afropop Classic October 1, 2020
Music and interviews from artists scheduled for the cancelled 2020 South by Southwest Afropop Worldwide showcase.
Afropop Classic September 24, 2020
Enjoy highlights from the just completed Afro Roots Virtual Fest featuring the city's leading globally grooving artists.
Afropop Classic September 10, 2020
Join us as we return to one of the great live Afropop recordings—Baaba Maal performing an intimate acoustic show here in New York.
Closeup September 1, 2020
"Something Deep Inside" has passed through various renditions over the years and, in this podcast, Pana-Soul singer Ralph Weeks lifts the hood on the creative process that led to a classic, with enthusiasm and an easy laugh.
Hip Deep August 13, 2020
Ancient Text Messages: Batá Drums in a Changing World” explores an endangered tradition of drum speech in Nigeria, and how that tradition changed and thrived in Cuba, where large numbers of enslaved Yoruba arrived in the 19th century.
Closeup August 5, 2020
Afropop Classic July 23, 2020
Closeup July 21, 2020
Hip Deep July 9, 2020
In this Hip Deep edition, Banning Eyre and Gerhard Kubik explore the connections between Africa and American blues.
Afropop Classic July 2, 2020
Hip Deep April 16, 2020
In this Hip Deep program, we'll hear how Edo highlife musicians have found sustainable careers by simultaneously rooting their music in their local communities and appealing to diasporic enclaves in Europe and the United States.
Afropop Classic April 2, 2020
This program explores the work of artists who identify with no single culture or country.
Afropop Classic March 26, 2020
Afropop Classic March 12, 2020
Adekunle Gold, Shirazee, Jojo Abot, Aramide, Nsimbi and Afrotronx perform live at the Afropop Worldwide showcase at SXSW, 2019.
Afropop Classic March 5, 2020
Hip Deep February 20, 2020
In this Hip Deep program, Peter Manuel reveals Indian music incorporated into the multi-cultural mix of the Caribbean.
Afropop Classic February 13, 2020
Afropop Classic February 6, 2020
Afropop Classic January 23, 2020
This Afropop program samples new sounds from Cape Verde, circa 2018.
Afropop Classic January 9, 2020
Afropop Classic January 2, 2020
Live performances and interviews with Fatoumata Diawara and Noura Mint Seymali at the Afro Roots Fest in Miami.
Afropop Classic December 19, 2019
Georges Collinet and Banning Eyre look ahead to African music in the 2020s.
Afropop Classic November 29, 2019
Afropop Classic November 21, 2019
In this musical exposé Afropop producer Saxon Baird susses out the often overlooked NYC Jamaican music scene with interviews from some of its biggest players from Bullwackies in the Bronx to Brooklyn-based dancehall artists like Screechy Dan.
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
