NPR's Tiny Desk series consistently creates special moments by placing today's greatest artists in an unusual setting: behind the desk of "All Songs Considered" host Bob Boilen. The latest episode highlights supergroup August Greene with guest appearances by Andra Day, Brandy and Maimouna Youssef.
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August Greene is a musical collective featuring GRAMMY winners Common and Robert Glasper with drummer/producer Karriem Riggins, who first formed for a special Tiny Desk concert at the White House in 2016. This time around, they begin their Tiny Desk set with the supergroup's latest single, the imaginative and edgy "Black Kennedy," featuring Samora Pinderhughes on a hook that answers Common's thought provoking verses.
But the true theme of this Tiny Desk performance, as Common announces right at the top, is foregrounding women.
"We asked Tiny Desk if we could do something called 'foregrounding women.' What that means is we are putting women in the foreground," explains Common in his opening remarks. "Equality has never been the case in this country and in the world, so we thought it was significant and very important as men that we can show, as August Greene, that we know that women deserve their place in the foreground with an equal position, and a lot of times leading."
The first woman featured was the show-stopping Maimouna Youssef, one half of the project Vintage Babies with DJ Dummy. Youssef's impassioned verse on "Practice," which articulated the intersectional challenge of being black and a woman, inspired and ignited the crowd.
Next, GRAMMY winner Brandy joined the collective for a soulful rendition of Sound Of Blackness' "Optimism," which featured a transformational freestyle by Common complete with a shoutout to everything from Black History Month, to the Emmys, Boilen and even to the security guard in the back of the room.
Taking the performance to yet another level, GRAMMY nominee Day brought Thurgood Marshall's enduring message of civil rights and women's rights to a new generation with her and Common's Oscar-nominated collaboration from the 2017 film, Marshall, "Stand Up For Something."
A fourth woman was featured in absentia; Glasper's younger cousin Loren, who passed away just a few days before the performance.
The collective closed the set with the moody "Let Go," again featuring Pinderhughes.
August Greene's self-titled debut album drops March 9 on Amazon Music, as they look to continue spreading their message of love, equality and resistance.
