Being Black- The '80s

Star Stories with Touré is an animated series about the unpredictable and sometimes unbelievable backstage interactions with some of the most iconic men in music of the modern era.

These animated stories are unforgettable recollections of the larger-than-life experiences with music journalist Touré .

To hear the podcast visit: https://pod.link/1697986415

To watch the series visit: https://thegrio.com/starstories/

Touré played poker...

NWA's Ice Cube talks about the influence of crack on their hit song “Dopeman” and the contradiction of how drug money destroyed the community and propelled his career. “Dopeman” Is one of the illest songs ever made because it takes you deep into the drug dealer’s perspective on selling drugs. The crack dealer was evil but we should still seek to understand what drove him and when we look into his soul we find that like the fiends h...

Star Stories with Toure` is an animated series about the unpredictable and sometimes unbelievable backstage interactions with some of the most iconic men in music today.

These animated stories are unforgettable recollections of the larger-than-life experiences with music journalist Toure` and Black celebrities.

“I spent over two decades working in music journalism, and it left me with a wealth of awesome stories about ...

Tracy Chapman became one of the biggest musicians in the world thanks to two critical 80s concepts—affirmative action and the diasporic mindset. Because of the diasporic mindset, many Americans thought of Africa as part of their world, as if Africa’s problems are our own, and we are not truly free until South Africans suffering under Apartheid are free. And affirmative action did nothing less than change Chapman’s life. We’ll explo...

"My Brother’s A Basehead” is a true story. Posdnous from De La Soul had an older brother who had a crack addiction and it was very damaging for the whole family. For Pos and his parents, crack was literally in the house just as it was in many houses and many families during the crack era. Crack decimated many families and De La Soul made one of the most powerful songs about all that. In this episode we talk about how crack destroye...

N.W.A’s “Dopeman” Is one of the illest songs ever made because it takes you deep into the drug dealer’s perspective on selling drugs. The crack dealer was evil but we should still seek to understand what drove him and when we look into his soul we find that like the fiends he served, he too was an addict, but he was addicted to power and money. Crack dealers and their culture had a deep influence on hiphop culture and the Black com...

“Black Steel In the Hour of Chaos” is Public Enemy’s look at prison and mass incarceration. In this episode, we leap from that song into talking about the New Jim Crow and mass incarceration and how being in America is like being in a prison.

Guests:

Dr. Christina Greer, Fordham Professor

Hank Shocklee, Producer

Adam Bernstein, Director, Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos

Jim Jones, Rapper 

Credits:

Public Enemy - Black Steel in the ...

Stevie’s legendary song “Happy Birthday” was originally part of the long, hard battle to turn Dr. King’s birthday into a national holiday. When Dr. King was assassinated, his approval rating with white people was very low. At that point, he was not beloved by them. It took a lot of careful, steady, thoughtful, diplomatic work by Coretta Scott King to change his image and win over politicians. Stevie Wonder was committed to that str...

“I’m Coming Out” was meant to be a gay liberation song but the song’s writer and producer Nile Rodgers didn’t tell Diana Ross that. Which led to a whole thing. It’s a crazy story. The origin of the song is fascinating but more interesting is how disco in general was part of the gay rights movement. We chart the rise of disco and look at the way it dovetailed with the struggle for LGBTQ rights and how being gay is so different for S...

“She Works Hard for the Money,” is Donna Summer’s classic that was born when she saw a waitress sleeping during her shift and thought, damn she works hard for the money. In this episode we talk about the birth of the song with Summer’s husband and we talk about Black women’s economic issues and how Black women can accrue more wealth and what society needs to do for Black women and how sisters can get more venture capital funds so t...

“Redemption Song” by Bob Marley and the Wailers is one of the ultimate songs about the Black spirit and the immense determination that has gotten us through life in America. I’m talking about a specifically Black determination that has powered our resistance and carried us through life in America. A sense of Black determination that we hear in Redemption Song as well as Sam Cookie’s “A Change Gonna Come,” Maya Angelou’s “Still I Ri...