2016 was a complex year for Black music, between the last year of the Obama presidency, and the numerous high-profile deaths of Black people at the hands of police.
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Rodney Carmichael
Rodney Carmichael is a storyteller, journalist and cultural critic, covering hip-hop at NPR Music. After diving headfirst into a career that took him from the God-fearing backwoods of Texas, where he covered religion at the Waco Tribune-Herald, to the red carpets of Black Hollywood, where he covered celebrities at the run-and-gun urban weekly rolling out, the prodigal son returned home. Back in Atlanta, he spent a decade documenting the city's rise as rap's reigning capital while serving on staff as music editor, culture writer and senior writer for the alt-weekly Creative Loafing.