It’s time to drop the needle on another edition of the All Things Considered Turntable.
This week, GBH’s Rooted host Paris Alston joined GBH’s All Things Considered host Arun Rath to share her three playlist picks. What follows is a lightly edited transcript of their conversation.
Arun Rath: I’m super excited because I love your choice in music; you’ve turned me on to stuff in the past, and this is going to be the first of many. We’re going to talk a lot.
So let’s dive right in. What’s song number one for you today?
Paris Alston: Song number one is “Safety” by J. Cole. It’s off his latest album, The Fall-Off, which was released earlier this month.
And Arun, I have to set the record straight — you are talking to a die-hard J. Cole fan. Most prominently because I’m from North Carolina, and so is he. But this particular album is really a love letter to not only North Carolina, but his home city of Fayetteville, which he really put on the map.
This song talks about all the trips he made home from when he was attending college at St. John’s University in Queens, New York, and the feeling that he would have coming home — or even staying connected to people back home, which I really resonate with as a transplant to Boston from North Carolina who misses home every single day.
So, this was really just a nostalgic record off a phenomenal album that is a love letter.
[“Safety” — J. Cole]
Rath: I love that. I’m not from North Carolina — I grew up in Maryland, not too far away —
Alston: Still South, by some people’s standards, depending on where.
Rath: It’s definitely still the South, and it’s still hitting a lot of those sentimental buttons. First off, it’s got a bit of an old-school feel to it. Those piano chords just, like, take you back to a place.
Alston: Yeah, and that’s what so many people love about this album. It’s still new, right, but already, people are talking about how much it reminds them of the old J. Cole, when he first jumped on the scene. And it just really, again, for die-hard fans like me, is a really beautiful piece of nostalgia.
Rath: Awesome. That’s great. So, what’s number two?
Alston: Number two is a song that I just heard this weekend, Arun. I had the distinct pleasure of going to Chez-Vous Skating Rink in Mattapan for a friend’s birthday party. I had heard about Chez-Vous for many years, but this is the first time I went.
I think they do this every night — or every Sunday night, at least — [when] they open the floor to skaters new and old. People come dressed in all these fancy outfits, and then they play classic ’70s music, throwbacks.
This song, “Love Thang” by First Choice, came on. I kept listening to it, and there was a refrain in there where they go, “Treat me right,” and I was like, “I know that song!” That’s because Chubb Rock sampled it on his song, “Treat Him Right.”
If folks aren’t familiar, Chubb Rock was a rapper — I think late ’80s, early ’90s, somewhere in that early hip-hop era.
I immediately was in love with the song, because I’m an old soul, and it just spoke to me on so many levels.
[“Love Thang” — First Choice]
Rath: That’s awesome. It’s great for a skating rink, because this would have been right [for] a place like an old roller disco. I’m flashing back to the roller disco episode of “CHiPs” — I’m showing my age there, so maybe we should move on.
Alston: That’s a good memory, 100%. We’ll have to hit the skating rink together sometime.
Rath: That is awesome. So, two great picks... What do you have for number three?
Alston: The last one is a song that I discovered — sometimes, you’re just shuffling on Spotify or Apple Music, whatever it may be, and a song comes across your headphones or your speakers that you just fall in love with. That was the case here. It’s called “Agua de Coco” by William Araujo.
William Araujo is a Cape Verdean-Dutch singer. I’m actually traveling to Cape Verde in a few weeks, and I’m really excited and have been learning more about Cape Verdean culture — thanks to my partner, but just in general — getting ready for this trip. That includes the music, and I am in love with this song. It has all these different elements to it; so much is going on. It’s really just a wonderful bowl of cachupa.
[“Agua de Coco” — William Araujo]
Alston: As you can hear, obviously, he’s singing in Creole. I don’t understand all the words — I’m picking up a few here and there — but it just speaks to how music is such a universal language. It has that Kizomba feel, which is a classic Cape Verdean music and dance style. There’s just a lot of love in between those music chords, I think.
Rath: I really don’t know Cape Verdean music. This is superb. I’m going to have to listen to some more. This is just fantastic, actually.
Well, maybe your next Turntable will be when you’re back from Cape Verde. We can do a deeper dive into the music.
Alston: Yes! I will have a lot of material, I guarantee.
