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Rap Dads, Daughters And Sons: The Father's Day Episode

Arya Shine, proud daughter of hip-hop and the man who runs all the @NPRHipHop socials, the one and only Cedric Shine.
Courtesy of Cedric Shine
Arya Shine, proud daughter of hip-hop and the man who runs all the @NPRHipHop socials, the one and only Cedric Shine.

Our producer, David Luke, father of David Luke III, put together this special edition of Microphone Check, a compliation of times when the musicians we've sat with over the past couple years spoke about fatherhood.

When we interviewed these guests — Danny Brown, Solange, Cormega, T.I., Killer Mike and El-P, Big Sean, Terrace Martin and Mr. MFN eXquire — we didn't always directly ask about their fathers; they brought up the idea and the men themselves when we were talking about getting put on, deciding how to structure a career and the ways growing older affects music-making. We're not only talking about biological fathers here. These moments are about the reverberations of father figures, mentors, uncles, teachers.

And, of course, some of our guests relate stories about raising kids themselves, the emotional roller coaster of it, and the fiercely kept promise inherent in there.

We hope that in this episode you can really hear the real life people who create and perform the music we all love.

Shout to Frannie's dad, Larry Kelley, and to Ali's dad, resting in peace. Happy first Father's Day to Cedric Shine, our voice on socials and whose beautiful daughter adorns this page! And happy seventh Father's Day to David, who made this for you.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Ali Shaheed Muhammad is a world-renowned producer, songwriter and musician, and a founding member of A Tribe Called Quest, Lucy Pearl and production group The Ummah. He cowrote D'Angelo's "Brown Sugar" and has worked with John Legend, Maxwell, Mint Condition, Angie Stone, Mos Def and Gil Scott-Heron among many others.
Frannie Kelley is co-host of the Microphone Check podcast with Ali Shaheed Muhammad.
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