For Hanif Abdurraqib’s 68to05, I wrote a personal essay on how Gil Scott Heron’s music soundtracked my experience during the Texas freeze, in the middle of the pre-vaccine era of the pandemic. This essay was a […]
Author: Sama'an Ashrawi
+972 Mag: A Case of the Palestinian Blues
Writer and Journalist Henriette Chacar wrote with beautiful depth a story on the way the song I co-produced, “Baby Please Don’t Go” by Azraq (Kam Franklin and Kareem Samara) closes a musical circle. For the […]
The Geeby Dajani Story – PIA Mag
In 2020, I had the honor of editing the Music Edition of Palestine In America magazine. The cover story I wrote on Geeby Dajani, a then-unsung hero of early 80s hardcore punk and eventually early […]
Texas Monthly: 20 Essential Texas Rap Tracks
I contributed three entries for Texas Monthly’s 20 Essential Texas Rap Tracks feature, writing about UGK’s “Touched,” Lil’ O’s “Can’t Stop” featuring Destiny’s Child, and “Still Tippin’” by Mike Jones featuring Slim Thug and Paul Wall. […]
Sama’an’s 2018 Music Picks
With the sad and unfortunate demise of the historic Village Voice, the future of a music critics’ poll was uncertain, but Uproxx stepped up to the challenge, and I was honored to offer my 2018 music […]
Hannibal Buress and Bun B Share the Stage
How did Hannibal Buress and Bun B end up sharing a stage together? The story is pretty cool actually. Hannibal was opening for Dave Chappelle and Flight of the Conchords on the Oddball Comedy Festival […]
Bun B – Return of the Trill
The King of the Trill, Bun B, has released the tracklist for his upcoming album Return of the Trill, due out August 31st. This will be his fifth solo album; in 2010, his album Trill O.G., received […]
Kamasi Washington – When I Create Interview
Kamasi Washington sat down with SMNTCS to tape his episode of ‘When I Create’ which turned out to be an introspective and revelatory journey. Kamasi opened up about what he feels when he’s on stage, when […]
Two Records with Kamasi Washington
When SMNTCS sat down with Kamasi Washington, we picked out two records we thought he might be into, and asked him to get existential in talking about them. For this installment, we picked Sun Ra’s Space […]
Support: Director Brittany Reeber’s Cassadaga Short
A good, good friend of mine, Brittany Reeber, needs your support in funding her short film: Cassadaga. It’s about a small Florida town whose population is entirely made up of psychics. Check out the Kickstarter here and […]