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My guest this week is Chicago-via-Detroit rapper, producer, singer, and songwriter Imani Nichele. We spoke about Babygirl, The Wiz, our current tolerance for musicals, the Temptations, Ray Charles, New Edition, and N.W.A. biopics, being a poet laureate, moving from Detroit to Chicago, fine-tuning her sound, working with Detroit rapper-producer Nolan The Ninja, the idea of jesters and clowns, trusting her artistic vision, and the creative process behind her debut project MERRY&RUE. Come fuck with us.
MERRY&RUE is available wherever music is sold, streamed, or stolen. Consider copping directly from her Bandcamp page. Follow Imani on Instagram (@imaninichele_) and Twitter (@maniduhmixer).
My first book, Reel Notes: Culture Writing on the Margins of Music and Movies, is available now, via 4 PM Publishing. Order a digital copy on Amazon.
Reel Notes stands in solidarity with the oppressed peoples of Palestine, Congo, Sudan, Tigray, and Haiti. Please consider donating to the Palestine Children's Relief Fund, The Palestinian Youth Movement, The Zakat Foundation, HealAfrica, FreeTigray, and/or Hope For Haiti. For information about contacting your representatives to demand a ceasefire, finding protests, and other tools, check out CeasefireToday!
Follow me on Instagram (@cinemasai), Twitter (@CineMasai_), Bluesky (@cinemasai.bsky.social), TikTok (@cinemasai), Letterboxd (@CineMasai), and subscribe to my weekly Nu Musique Friday newsletter to stay tapped into all things Dylan Green.
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