A post shared by Song Exploder (@songexploder) on Jul 18, 2018 at 10:45am PDT

Action Bronson is a rapper from Queens who’s been making records since 2011. He also stars as the host of two TV shows about food on Vice’s channel, Viceland. His third album, Blue Chips 7000, came out in 2017, and features this song – “The Chairman’s Intent.” It was produced by his longtime collaborator, producer Harry Fraud. In this episode, Action Bronson and Harry Fraud tell the story of how “The Chairman’s Intent” was made.

Buy or stream “The Chairman’s Intent” here, and watch the music video below. You can buy his album, Blue Chips 7000 on vinyl here.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

footnotes
Onuma Singsiri – “Mae Kha Som Tam” (sampled song)
Young Mexico (organist)

A post shared by Song Exploder (@songexploder) on Jul 4, 2018 at 10:06am PDT

Jhené Aiko is a Grammy-nominated singer and songwriter. She released her first album in 2012. In addition to her own records, she’s been a featured guest vocalist on songs by Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Childish Gambino, and many others. In 2017, she released her third album, Trip, which debuted at #5 on the Billboard Charts, and includes the song “Sativa.” The song features guest vocals from Swae Lee, who’s one half of the band Rae Sremmurd. In this episode, Jhené tells the story of how “Sativa” was made, and how it got stuck, and then, how it got unstuck. She’s joined by producer Brian Warfield of the production duo Fisticuffs, who made the beat.

Buy or stream “Sativa” (ft. Swae Lee) here, and watch the music video below. You can buy her album, Trip on vinyl here.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

footnotes
No I.D. (producer)

A post shared by Song Exploder (@songexploder) on Jun 20, 2018 at 10:00am PDT

Yo La Tengo formed in 1984. The band is made up Ira Kaplan, Georgia Hubley, and James McNew. In March 2018, they released There’s a Riot Going On, their 15th album. They made the record themselves—they recorded it entirely in their rehearsal studio with James handling the engineering duties. The album came together slowly, over a few years. In this episode, Georgia, James, and Ira break down the experiments and accidents that led to the the closing track from the record, the song “Here You Are.”

Buy or stream “Here You Are” here.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

footnotes
Casio drum machine
The Sun Ra Arkestra