WHAT THIS IS:

My name is Hanif Abdurraqib. I’ve written some books about music, and I’ve written some poems that sometimes rely on music as an inspiration. You can find out more about my writing life HERE.

In January of 2020, I found myself continuing a nearly two-year run of being on the road nonstop, touring in support of my books. This left me with endless time in hotel rooms, or on airplanes. I began to think about my lifetime of loving music, and wanted to make a family tree, of sorts. A tree of influence, attempting to pinpoint the arc of years that made me the music listener and lover I became today. Drawing on music that my parents and their parents listened to, the music my older siblings brought into the house, and the music my crew and I united over when I finally had the money to buy my own albums.

I went from some of the first songs I remembered hearing, and traced influence, and lineage, both forward and backwards. What I landed on was a long stretch of years: 1968 to 2005. Of course, there is music before and after that stretch that defined, and continues to define my interest and investment in songs, albums, and stories. But that was the clearest line I could draw. I can listen to Astral Weeks and chart how that branch ends with me falling for the quiet emotional theatrics of Bright Eyes. I get a rush from Lady Soul that resurfaces in the sped-up rap sample of the early 2000s.

And so, I started to make playlists. For no one in particular. Just picking a year, and populating a playlist with the songs that I felt most clearly built a bridge from my past affections to my current life. I shared them with people as I slowly made them, and the response was more generous than I expected. When the COVID-19 lockdown hit, I began to ask myself how I could extend this passion project into something that doesn’t only circle my obsessions, but also asks other people to bring their obsessions into the frame. I was eager to figure out how to nurture and celebrate healthy modes of fandom. And so, I made this website. This is where the playlists will live, gradually trickling out over the next several months. I also wanted it to be a kind of goldmine for music fans. So there is a bounty of old magazine covers. There are several live videos of performances for each year, which I’ll consistently rotate. You’ll (hopefully) endure top 5 favorite albums for each year listed, even if you disagree.

But, beyond that, I will make this a place people can continually return to by having some pals of mine write about albums they love. My critic friends, my poet friends, my musician friends, my music fan friends. People who don’t always get the place or space to write about a single album that turned their world upside down. So many brilliant fans of music are in my orbit, and we talk about albums or songs in our emails or group chats or text messages, but there are fewer places that offer the freedom to go long on something you’ve loved. Even if it isn’t tied to a timeline or a current event. I wanted to offer a small corner that might help remedy that. There will be new writing on here twice a month, and I hope you’ll keep coming around for it.

I can’t stress enough that this is a passion project. All of the playlists are limited to what is on Spotify. Which, as we all know, isn’t everything. I’m an endlessly busy person, but in the midst of that, I wanted to do something that made me happy. This is the end result of that. I hope you dig it, and I hope you come around from time to time.