Frannie Kelley
Frannie Kelley is co-host of the Microphone Check podcast with Ali Shaheed Muhammad.
Prior to hosting Microphone Check, Kelley was an editor at NPR Music. She was responsible for editing, producing and reporting NPR Music's coverage of hip-hop, R&B and the ways the music industry affects the music we hear, on the radio and online. She was also co-editor of NPR's music news blog, The Record.
Kelley worked at NPR from 2007 until 2016. Her projects included a series on hip-hop in 1993 and overseeing a feature on women musicians. She also ran another series on the end of the decade in music and web-produced the Arts Desk's series on vocalists, called 50 Great Voices. Most recently, her piece on Why You Should Listen to Odd Future was selected to be a part of the Best Music Writing 2012 Anthology.
Prior to joining NPR, Kelley worked in book publishing at Grove/Atlantic in a variety of positions from 2004 to 2007. She has a B.A. in Music Criticism from New York University.
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Once part of Digable Planets, Butler continues to be a hip-hop innovator. He stays connected to new music through his son Jazz, who records as Lil Tracy. -
The rapper has spent the year on an extended victory tour. Here are the spoils, recorded in a stripped-down set with a minimal backing track and longtime producer Zaytoven on keys.
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The rise of the rapper from Paterson, N.J. with a trio of feel-good hits has felt inexorable and hilariously American. His debut album, finally here, is proof he did it his way.
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Don't call Hamilton unlikely: Lin-Manuel Miranda's lauded musical about the life of the Founding Father is Broadway crafted by an artist who knows rap to be our cultural lingua franca.
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The death of the highly respected hip-hop figure prompted an outpouring of tribute and personal stories from his community this weekend. -
The singer and songwriter played a major role in creating a contemporary, conservative gospel sound. -
"I want to get whatever's on my chest off my chest when it feels right," says the rapper, who makes songs that turn the personal into the political. -
A superstar cast made a real life love story — disguised as an action movie — just because. -
"The best way to represent the places where you from is be yourself, completely," says the musician and actor. -
The rapper from Gary, Ind., moved to L.A. 10 years ago, where he met Madlib, a producer revered for his collaborations. The two of them have now made an album Gibbs thinks can't be touched.
