Frannie Kelley
Frannie Kelley is co-host of the Microphone Check podcast with Ali Shaheed Muhammad.
Prior to hosting Microphone Check, Kelley was an editor at NPR Music. She was responsible for editing, producing and reporting NPR Music's coverage of hip-hop, R&B and the ways the music industry affects the music we hear, on the radio and online. She was also co-editor of NPR's music news blog, .
Kelley worked at NPR from 2007 until 2016. Her projects included a series on and overseeing a feature on women musicians. She also ran another series on and web-produced the Arts Desk's series on vocalists, called . Most recently, her piece on was selected to be a part of the Best Music Writing 2012 Anthology.
Prior to joining NPR, Kelley worked in book publishing at Grove/Atlantic in a variety of positions from 2004 to 2007. She has a B.A. in Music Criticism from New York University.
-
The rap duo OutKast launched what may be its farewell tour over the weekend at Coachella, but the group and its fans, who have waited a decade for the reunion, might not have the same expectations. -
From the birthplace of Stax and Sun Records, and the site of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, the pair of rapper-producers snatched soul music and put it to work for a new generation. -
Three black musicians — a punk bassist, an L.A. rapper and a part-time guitarist — took on a name with ugly associations to make music that can't be categorized. -
Session musician Stephen Bruner has played bass in other people's bands for more than a decade. He can play metal, R&B, hip-hop, jazz. With his second album, he's stepping to the front of the stage. -
Terius Nash, better known as The-Dream, has written some of the most memorable recent pop hits. But when he writes songs for himself, he makes R&B. -
The radio station's annual concert is useful because, between the talent and the audience, it's big enough to take a snapshot of what's going on in hip-hop right now. -
On his new songs, the rapper points fingers in every direction, including back at himself. -
Erykah Badu is far from your average pop star. Answering questions on stage in New York recently, she was more like a guru: She drew the audience close, received love and handled awkwardness with ease. -
A high-concept collaborative album by a veteran rapper and a film composer knits together hip-hop and soul music. -
The group's 1993 debut was the opening shot of an audacious plan to open the music industry to hip-hop made way outside the mainstream.
