Black History Month – Celebration of Love Playlist (50-pack)

One of the many ways to celebrate Black History Month during this time of the month is through music.

This playlist was enjoyable and challenging to curate because we wanted to pull together a diverse set of love songs from an array of talented black artists – both familiar to most people, and those who are less widely-known but nonetheless belong in the pool of black artists representing worldwide.

It’s impossible to create such a playlist that is a full, comprehensive (in the truest sense) collection of great love songs from black artists. So we put together as representative a collection as we could with a limit of 50 songs.

One of the factors we wanted to address with this playlist was to collect amazing love songs from as many genres as possible and that include all of the decades of recorded music going back to the 1950s.

The playlist covers a wide selection of high-caliber love songs from genres like hip-hop, rap, soul, R&B, jazz, rock, and Motown.

Artists range from Tupac, Marvin Gaye, Lauryn Hill, Bob Marley, Black Eyed Peas, Stevie Wonder, India-Arie, The Supremes, Whitney Houston, Fugees, Mos Def, John Legend, Chance The Rapper, Jay-Z and more.

Not to be forgotten of course are all of the tens of thousands of black producers, composers, songwriters, and musicians behind-the-scenes of so many of the greatest love songs ever made – regardless of who sang them, made them famous or is remembered for.

LET’S LOVE INSTEAD Valentines’ Mix w/Kuwada, Lord Huron, Iron & Wine, Taj Mahal &more

Over the years, we’ve made plenty of love songs playlists and mixes and all.

Some have been a little popular – such as The Ultimate (Mostly) Indie Valentines Playlist – and shared over the years.

In fact, for a number of reasons, and a general dissatisfaction forever in how Spotify deliberately dilutes musicians’ royalities, we’re going to be sharing more playlists from non-Spotify platforms.

For this Valentines we put together a playlist featuring some terrific and inspirational love songs we’ve been listening to in the cafe lately – from a variety of genres and artists around the world. Surely hope you enjoy it and share/like/follow if you do. Peace.

Vampire Weekend’s Free 40 Minute Studio Session on KCRW

Even before their ‘big time’ appearance on Saturday Night Live earlier this month, Vampire Weekend was one of the biggest new bands of 2008, if not the biggest new band of the year, at least as far as the ‘buzz factor’ goes.

Weeks leading up to the February release of their debut self-titled album on Beggar’s Banquet, VW had captured the attention of bloggers, music critics and ‘indie’ fans, mostly due to their performances last year in concert, at music festivals and their Feb. 1st U.S. network debut on the David Letterman Show.

Vampire Weekend – Boston
Vampire Weekend – Walcott
Vampire Weekend – A-Punk

(Watch and listen to Vampire Weekend play a 40-minute session clicking the video further down the page)

Many fans were disappointed by VW’s performance on SNL (the string section wasn’t synced with the band). Even the full-length clips of Vampire Weekend performing on SNL have been removed from YouTube; however, they have reappeared on Stereogum.

But, really, you can forget about the SNL show. Without question, it is the band’s 40-minute studio session on KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic this past Valentine’s Day that shows Vampire Weekend at their best. Not only that, but everyone watch it. This is one of the best things about the Internet.

Die-hard fans all around the world who have been unable to see Vampire Weekend in concert should really enjoy this session. It may be the closest many come to see the band in concert, and in some cases, even better.

During the 40-minute studio performance, Vampire Weekend’s band members play almost every song from their debut album. The video and audio quality, and camera work, are superb (unlike most videos on YouTube) – no screaming, background noise or shakiness. See the set list below and some lyrics.

The first set of VW’s KCRW February 14, 2008 studio session features, in order played, Mansun Roof, Oxford Comma, A-Punk, Cape Cod Kawassa Kawassa and Boston. Following the first set, there is a brief and wonderfully conducted interview with the band.

During the second set the guys play Bryn, Campus, I Stand Corrected, The Kids Don’t Stand and M79.

View more Vampire Weekend lyrics at their official website.