Audio Programs – Hip Deep
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.
Hip Deep January 2, 2025
The Zulu Factor
Hip Deep December 19, 2024
Proving the Bubu Myth: Janka Nabay, War and Witchcraft in Sierra Leone
Every year on Sierra Leone’s Independence Day in late April, musicians and revelers descend upon Freetown from throughout the country.
Hip Deep October 10, 2024
The Cumbia Diaspora: From Colombia to the World
In this Hip Deep edition, we find out how cumbia left Colombia in the ‘60s and ‘70s and traveled to other countries.
Hip Deep August 15, 2024
Live from Bongoland: The History of Tanzania's Music Economy
Hip Deep July 4, 2024
La Bamba: The Afro-Mexican Story
In this Hip Deep episode, we use music to explore that history as we take a road-trip across the country in search of sonic traces of Afro-Mexico.
Hip Deep June 20, 2024
Mbalax Fever
This Hip Deep program tells the story of Senegal's mbalax music.
Hip Deep May 30, 2024
East African Taarab
Kelley Askew talks us through the history of East African Taarab music.
Hip Deep May 9, 2024
Ethiopia 2: Diaspora and Return
This Hip Deep program describes the Ethiopian musical diaspora around the world.
Hip Deep May 7, 2024
Ethiopia Part 1: Empire and Revolution
This Hip Deep program explores the role of the Ethiopian church and monarchy in building the country's unique brassy pop music.
Hip Deep April 11, 2024
Thomas Mapfumo 1: The War Years
Part 1 of Afropop Worldwide's HIp Deep audio biography of Thomas Mapfumo focuses on his upbringing, musical education and the bands that lead up to the Blacks Unlimited. These are the war years, when Zimbabwe was fighting to throw off the burden of the racist Southern Rhodesian regime. This episode documents the birth of "chimurenga" music in the voices of those who made that history, many of whom have now joined the ancestors. Produced by Banning Eyre.
Hip Deep February 1, 2024
Black History Month: The Ring and The Shout
This Hip Deep episode presents the stunning radio premiere of "Oh, David," the traditional song of the annual Easter Rock in Winnsboro, Louisiana.
Hip Deep January 4, 2024
The Fertile Crescent: Haiti, Cuba and Louisiana
Ned Sublette and Gwendolyn Midlow Hall explore the French, Spanish and African origins of New Orleans culture.
Hip Deep October 12, 2023
Hip Deep in Mali: The Tuareg Predicament
The program samples a rich variety of Malian Tuareg music and includes conversations with Tuareg musicians and cultural authorities in the wake of Mali’s crisis, along with University of Houston anthropologist Susan Rasmussen.
Hip Deep August 10, 2023
The Musical Legacy of Al Andalus, Part 2: Africa & Beyond
Part 2 of Afropop's Al Andalus series focuses on the effects in Africa and the Middle East.
Hip Deep August 10, 2023
The Musical Legacy of Al Andalus, Part 3: Reverberations
Hip Deep July 20, 2023
The Musical Legacy of Al Andalus, Part 1 - Europe
Hip Deep July 6, 2023
Mali: Ancient Empires to Multi-Cultural Democracy
Mali: Ancient Empires to Multi-Cultural Democracy
Hip Deep February 16, 2023
The Prehistory of New Orleans Music - Treasures from the Hogan
This program tells the story of how jazz emerged in the context of all the other African American musics that proliferated in late 19th and early 20th century New Orleans: blues, ragtime, Mardi Gras Indian music, vaudeville and minstrelsy, spiritual church music, and more.
Hip Deep February 9, 2023
Bangkok After Dark: The Story of Maurice Rocco
Jazz pianist Maurice Rocco was a star of American nightclubs and Hollywood films in the 1930s-40s, playing in an ecstatic, stand-up style that left a deep impression on rock and roll.
Hip Deep February 3, 2022
Egypt 4: Living Traditions
Hip Deep January 6, 2022
A Tango With Robert Farris Thompson
Hip Deep June 10, 2021
Hip Deep Angola 4: The Cuban Intervention in Angola
This Hip Deep program delves into the complex history of Cuba's intervention in Angoa's civil war.
Hip Deep May 13, 2021
Hip Deep Angola Part 3: A Spiritual Journey to Mbanza-Kongo
In this Hip Deep program, Ned Sublette takes a deep dive into Mbanza-Kongo spiritual tradition and music.
Hip Deep May 6, 2021
The Money Show
In this episode we look at the business side of African music, through a series of vignettes from around the continent and diaspora that illuminate the deep connections between musical creation and the economies that sustain it.
Hip Deep August 13, 2020
Ancient Text Messages: Batá Drums in a Changing World
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.
Hip Deep July 9, 2020
Africa and the Blues
In this Hip Deep edition, Banning Eyre and Gerhard Kubik explore the connections between Africa and American blues.
Hip Deep April 16, 2020
Edo Highlife: Culture, Politics and Progressive Traditionalism
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.
Hip Deep February 20, 2020
Diaspora Encounters: The Indo Caribbean World
In this Hip Deep program, Peter Manuel reveals Indian music incorporated into the multi-cultural mix of the Caribbean.
Hip Deep October 24, 2019
Hip Deep in Madagascar: Songs of the North
Hip Deep December 27, 2018
Lebanon 2: Diasporas
Recent Hip Deep Articles
Review September 27, 2012
Stefanie Alisch: The Hip Deep Interview
Feature September 13, 2012
Feature: Music and Nation in Angola
Blog September 12, 2012
Spirit of Angola: Dustrise
Hip Deep April 9, 2026
The Art of Improvisation, Part 2
Hip Deep April 2, 2026
The Art of Improvisation: Part 1
Hip Deep January 29, 2026
Sierra Leone: Celebration, War, and Healing
Hip Deep January 15, 2026
The French Caribbean--Cosmopolitan, Colonial, Complicated
Hip Deep January 1, 2026
Jewish Communities of Sub-Saharan Africa
Hip Deep December 18, 2025
Spiritual Journeys: Tarab: The Art of Ecstasy in Arab Music
Explore the rich traditions of Tarab in Arab music, its emotional ecstasy, and cultural values, through the insights of A.J. Racy, a renowned ethnomusicologist, and the artistry of legendary Tarab singers like Umm Kulthum, set against the backdrop of Aleppo's Aleppian Tarab tradition and Syrian music culture.
Hip Deep December 11, 2025
Luiz Gonzaga: The King of Baião
Hip Deep December 4, 2025
Hip Deep In the Niger Delta
Hip Deep August 28, 2025
Islam and Music: From Prohibition to the Science of Ecstasy
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
The Music of Black Peru: Cultural Identity in the Black Pacific
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.
Hip Deep July 31, 2025
The Story of Bembeya Jazz
Hip Deep July 10, 2025
Nollywood: Nigeria's Mirror
Hip Deep May 29, 2025
Afro-Dominicana: The Other Dominican Republic
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.
Hip Deep May 15, 2025
Afro-Lisbon and the Lusophone Atlantic: Dancing Toward the Future
On this Hip Deep edition, we take you on a journey to Lisbon, a city facing both the sea and 600 years of its own history.
Hip Deep May 8, 2025
Seize the Dance: The BaAka of Central Africa
This program will initiate listeners into one of the most enchanting and mysterious musical practices in Africa, BaAka people music.
Hip Deep May 1, 2025
Hip Deep in Northern Nigeria
Afropop visits Kano in Northern Nigeria to meet local nanaye artists and meet young Hausa hip-hop artists.
Hip Deep April 17, 2025
African Sounds of the Indian Subcontinent
In this Hip Deep program, Afropop explores musical connections between Africa and India.
Hip Deep April 15, 2025
Spiritual Journeys: Traveling Spirit Masters, The Gnawa of Morocco
This program explores the Gnawa music and tradition in Morocco with author and scholar Deborah Kapchan.
Hip Deep April 10, 2025
A Hip Deep Portrait of King Sunny Ade
Hip Deep March 20, 2025
Women's History Month: Fairuz, A Woman for all Seasons
Hip Deep March 13, 2025
Reconstructing Somalia: Love Songs at the Birth of a Nation
This program offers a rare musical portrait of Somalia’s formative, pre-civil war years (1960-90). In a rising mood of patriotism and hope, Somalis sought to forge a culturally authentic, but also modern, national identity
Hip Deep February 27, 2025
Diaspora Encounters: Kriolu in New England, The Cape Verdean-American Story
In this Hip Deep edition, Marlon Bishop and Marilyn Halter explore the Cape Verdean, creole experience in New England.
Hip Deep February 25, 2025
The Rise of Afro-Venezuelan Music in the Hugo Chavez Era
This Hip Deep edition tells the history of African influences in Venezuelan music.
Hip Deep February 13, 2025
Shake It Fo Ya Hood: The History of New Orleans Bounce
For this Hip Deep edition, Afropop digs into the close-knit scene, talking to dancers, producers, MCs, and managers from over 30 years of bounce, all to explore the beat that drives New Orleans.
Hip Deep January 30, 2025
The Mighty Amazon
Hip Deep January 30, 2025
Hip Deep Ghana 1: Ebo Taylor and the Pioneers of Afro-Funk
Hip Deep January 23, 2025
Cairo - Hollywood of the Middle East
By the mid 20th century, Cairo had become the unrivaled center for music and film production in the Middle East. Producers, writers, composers, actors, musicians, star singers, and creators of every stripe flocked here to take part in the city's fervent, international, progressive artistic milieu.
Hip Deep January 9, 2025
A Tale of Two Rebellions: How Africans Helped Shape the Future of Islam
In this Hip Deep edition, Joseph Braude recounts the Zanj Rebellion and the origins of the Suni Shiite divide in Islam.
