What I love most about Bonita Applebaum is that it’s musically a hybrid of reggae, jazz and hip-hop – and even a sitar sample.

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New York instrumental outfit El Michels Affair team up with rapper Black Thought on Grateful from their 2023 album Glorious Game.

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Happy Birthday Bob! Today Dylan turns 85 so I’m posting one of his numerous all-time classics from back in 1965.

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A Tribe Called Quest laid down a marker as one of the more original and eclectic voices in hip-hop with 1990 single Bonita Applebaum.

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Dexys Midnight Runners return with Kevin Rowland’s deeply personal reminiscence of his childhood as an Irish immigrant in 1950s Britain.

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Arab Strap return with a characteristically grim-but-humorous state of the nation report after 30 years in the game.

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Hot Chocolate’s only No.1 sums up my joyful feelings this morning after the league title returned to North London for the first time in 22 years.

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Gwen McCrae is best known as the Queen of Rare Groove for her much-sampled repertoire of funk and soul. And her accidental role in launching disco.

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Dennis Locorriere was the singer of Dr Hook’s hit singles Sylvia’s Mother, Sexy Eyes and When You’re In Love With A Beautiful Woman. But he was not the one with the eye patch and cowboy hat.

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If you had challenged AI to come up with a “classic” Eurovision song it might well have come up with last Bulgaria’s winner, Bangaranga by Dara.

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