Sparring partners: Noname Gypsy and Chance the Rapper
THE PLAY LIST
Revisionist History by Malcolm Gladwell. “Revising” history sometimes has negative connotations. Think of when Donald Trump was elected president of the United States and how everybody wanted to turn the clock back to 2008 and pronounce Barack Obama the greatest thing to happen to Amerikkka since Harriet Tubman. Gladwell’s podcast series is the other side of that coin, recontextualising topics ranging from the desegregation of schools to how McDonald’s fucked with the alchemy of their French fries. When interviewed by The Guardian early on in the development of the series, Gladwell admitted to having found a magic trick with the format, one that went beyond the limitations of print and could move listeners to the point of tears. A colleague confessed to have fallen for it just this week. (KS)
Israel (Sparring) by Chance the Rapper and Noname Gypsy. Chance and Noname have to be my favourite collaboration duo. Their work is seamless, fam. I jam to this in the shower to prep for a hard day when I don’t seem to have the things I need to make the pots. (ZH)
Drumtalk with Billy Cobham. Not all musicians can speak about music in a manner simultaneously relatable to them and plebs like us. In my quest to understand how to write about drumming, I naturally gravitated to one of my faves. Cobham speaks about music philosophically, primarily concerned with it as a conduit to fostering better human relations, a process that stems, first, from the manner in which it is created. (KS)
THE READING LIST
Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach. It’s been just over a month since I started working and the women older than me in my sister circles always check up on me to make sure I’m not getting by meaninglessly. One of the sisters recommended Jonathan Livingston Seagull. It’s a simple read about a seagull learning to fly but then flight becomes a metaphor linked to the human need to seek a higher purpose. First published in 1970, it’s been republished as Jonathan Livingston Seagull: The Complete Edition, with a new fourth section. (ZH)
The Lists were compiled by Friday writer Kwanele Sosibo and Friday intern Zaza Hlalethwa