Occasional Mix: Stay in the World

Greetings y’all, it’s been a minute but I’m back with a new mix of music for you today, and a few announcements! I’ve been quiet online lately for two reasons.

One… I’ve been finalizing the mixes for the long-awaited return of Abyssinian Creole, and it’s a full-length LP! (more on that soon…)

If you’ve been keeping track, that’s four albums completed this year. Rell Be Free’s Everything Is Everything (produced by yours truly) is also now available worldwide on Vinyl and CD, exclusively on Bandcamp.

And two, I’ve been pouring into the upcoming Seattle Black Nerd Festival coming up at LANGSTON from August 28th - 30th. We are rolling out the lineup on a daily basis and if you haven’t heard, the great Boots Riley will be joining us for the opening night with a screening of his latest film I Love Boosters, and we’ve got more performances, workshops, screenings, an entire park jam, a dance party, and more to be announced in the coming days! Stay tuned right here. If you love the collective energy of what we’ve been doing with People Need Water, plan to pull up on Saturday the 29th. Did I mention tickets are free?

For my people in Vancouver, BC: Tickets are on sale now for a very special night at Rickshaw Theatre, where I’ll be performing a whole set of music inspired by Ethio-Jazz classics alongside the Beles Band with Feven Kidane, Nebyu Yohannes and Haleluya Hailu. That one is coming up October 16th.

And before we get into today’s mix… I want to take a moment to thank everyone who is rocking with me here on Substack, and really everyone who has rocked with my music career since the very beginning. Yesterday marked two anniversaries for me. The 25 year anniversary of my first album Sun To A Recycled Soul, and the 5 year anniversary of Worldwide Underground here on Substack. If you are feeling nostalgic, you can go back and revisit my very first post on this platform, which included extended liner notes and a 20 year retrospective of my very first CD.

If you are feeling like me and would rather get into some music of the now and the future, I’ve got a brand new mix for you kicking off with the lead single from Khingz brilliant new solo album Khalilmatic, as well as more new tunes from B3lina (who’s latest single “Stay in the World” was so beautiful I named today’s show after it), Somi, Cashus King, DERO & Bobbyy, Raina Simone, The Neighborhood Kids & Indigenous Cats, Pinder & La, Alewya, Sarah MK, a throwback from Jenn Johns featuring Mystic, and the debut solo single from my cousin Miriam Adefris.

I’ve recently had to shift from doing these mixes weekly to just as often as I can. Thank you to everyone who has tuned in over these last 5 years: whether you came to hear a song, a mix, a podcast, or whatever it is that brought you here - we are glad you tapped in.

The full playlist and media player is below, and you can always go back and listen to shows you may have missed right here.

More soon.