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, The Record.
Kelley worked at NPR from 2007 until 2016. Her projects included a series on hip-hop in 1993 and overseeing a feature on women musicians. She also ran another series on the end of the decade in music and web-produced the Arts Desk's series on vocalists, called 50 Great Voices. Most recently, her piece on Why You Should Listen to Odd Future 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.
-
While in Austin, Texas, the producer and DJ sat down in a sunny backyard and spoke on his performance style, learning from the greats and reading autobiographies.
-
Watch the Los Angeles rapper perform a loose-limbed, spontaneous and unpretentious set, including a singalong for surprise guest Ab-Soul at New York's Le Poisson Rouge on Feb. 23.
-
We couldn't fit everything into Thursday's story about the legacy of Comin Out Hard, so here are some extras, including Eightball on touring in a rental car, MJG on Eazy-E and Yo Gotti on mentorship in the Memphis rap scene.
-
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.
-
This week we're looking back at the year in music through the lens of NPR Music's 50 Favorite Albums of 2013. It's the annual list assembled by our in-house experts, including NPR music editor Frannie Kelley and Ali Shaheed Muhammad, producer and founding member of the rap group A Tribe Called Quest. The pair host NPR's Microphone Check.
-
For a special episode of Microphone Check we invited Prince Paul, Mike Dean, Faith Newman, Stretch Armstrong and Ralph McDaniels to tell stories about a singularly productive year in the culture.
-
The rapper pulled no punches during a performance at NPR Music's showcase in New York City. Watch Pusha T perform a set that ranged from his work with Kanye West to his critically acclaimed new album.
-
The high-minded Atlanta quartet has reunited 18 years after its debut album and seven years after Cee-Lo Green's pop smash "Crazy."
-
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.