Sidney Madden
Sidney Madden is a reporter and editor for NPR Music. As someone who always gravitated towards the artforms of music, prose and dance to communicate, Madden entered the world of music journalism as a means to authentically marry her passions and platform marginalized voices who do the same.
Originally from Boston, Madden graduated from Hofstra University in New York with a bachelor's degree in journalism and sociology. As a freelancer, she earned bylines at MTV, People's Choice, Nylon Magazine and more before joining the editorial team at storied hip-hop pillar XXL Magazine.
During her time at XXL, both as an editorial assistant and assistant editor, Madden pitched, wrote and edited news posts and features for the outlet and interviewed artists ranging from all eras and facets of rap — from Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg and 50 Cent to Kendrick Lamar, Cardi B and Lil Uzi Vert. In addition to working on cultural touchstones like the magazine's annual covers, in 2016, Madden assisted in reporting out one of the magazine's seminal investigative packages, , which revealed the high percentage of unsolved murders involving rappers over the last 30 years.
Madden joined the NPR Music team in 2017, serving as editorial lead for digitizing and editing music stories that air on NPR's premiere news magazine programs, Morning Edition, All Things Considered and Weekend Edition. In 2018, she began producing Tiny Desk Concerts with a special focus on bringing burgeoning, left-of-center artists from the worlds of R&B and hip-hop to the desk. To date, her Tiny Desk Concert productions include Jorja Smith, Megan Thee Stallion, DVSN and Snoh Aalegra. She's also created reports for on-air and digital that contextualize hip-hop culture within society's larger strata — whether it's unpacking the genius marketing of , 's subversive heartbreak or the socioeconomics that fuel 's downhome Afrofuturism.
In September 2020, after two years of research, reporting and development, Madden became the co-host of Louder Than A Riot, NPR Music's first narrative investigative podcast that traces the interconnected rise of hip-hop and mass incarceration.
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Rapper Tory Lanez is on trial for allegedly shooting rapper Megan Thee Stallion. Louder Than A Riot host Sidney Madden discusses the first week of testimony from outside the courthouse.
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Rapper Megan Pete, known as Megan Thee Stallion, took the stand in a LA courtroom to testify against rapper Tory Lanez. Pete says Lanez, whose legal name is Daystar Peterson, shot her in 2020.
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As the key witness for the prosecution, the Houston rapper spoke for the first time in explicit detail about the night Lanez allegedly shot her in 2020. -
Ayesha Rascoe talks with Sidney Madden and Rodney Carmichael of NPR's Louder Than A Riot about the RICO charges against Young Thug and the wider intersection of criminal justice and hip-hop. -
NPR Music's album of the year, Heaux Tales, by Jazmine Sullivan, shows the singer exploring themes of love, sex and loss.
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Lil Nas X is breaking Billboard records and barriers through his music — the pop-rap star joins All Things Considered to discuss his debut album Montero. -
The late R&B star Aaliyah's catalog has started to arrive on streaming, starting with the 1996 record One In A Million — made in an era now being re-examined for how it treated famous women.
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R&B singer Snoh Aalegra is out with a new album, Temporary Highs in the Violet Skies.
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In 2001, a rising No Limit Records artist was sentenced to 30 years for a crime he maintains he didn't commit. The hosts of Louder Than A Riot explain how a new development could spell early release. -
The rapper who ignited Brooklyn with his 2014 viral hit "Hot Boy" is set to be released from prison Tuesday. Louder Than A Riot hosts Rodney Carmichael and Sidney Madden say some big questions remain.
