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2025 has been around for less than two weeks, and Machel Montano is already making history.
On Monday (Jan. 13), the Trinidadian music icon treated NPR’s Tiny Desk series to its very first soca set. Born out of ’70s calypso in Trinidad and Tobago, soca music is characterized by its fast-paced, high-energy rhythms sourced from the traditional Indian percussion and rhythms that recording artist Lord Shorty (later Ras Shorty I) added to calypso.
Montano — who boasts a staggering four-decade career that included a 1986 appearance on Star Search and a hit single from his primary school days — delivered a warm, lively set that included hits across groovy and power soca such as “One More Time,” “Dance With You,” “Fast Wine,” “Like Ah Boss,” “Famalay” and “Soca Kingdom.” Every member of his backing band wore Monk Music T-shirts, a nod to Montano’s self-founded record label, artist services and music distribution company.
“Today we made history. For the first time ever, soca music has graced the iconic NPR Tiny Desk stage, and I am filled with gratitude, and an overwhelming sense of pride, to represent our culture on this global platform,” Montano wrote on his official Instagram page. “This isn’t just my moment, it’s OUR moment. A moment for every Soca lover, every Caribbean soul, and every person who carries the rhythm of the islands in their heart.”
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At the age of 9, Montano performed at The Theater in New York City’s Madison Square as a support act for Mighty Sparrow and other major calypso acts. Years of local success, hit singles and carnival road anthems followed, and by 2010, Pitbull tapped him to serve as special guest art for the U.S. leg of his Mr. Worldwide Canival Tour. Two years later, Montano became a Triple Crown Winner, with “Mr. Fete” earning the Groovy Soca Monarch title, while “Pump Your Flag” snagged Power Soca Monarch and Road March victories. In 2014, he won the Soul Train Music Award for best international performance with “Ministry of Road (M.O.R.),” beating out stiff competition such as Sam Smith‘s “Stay With Me.” By 2016, Montano brought soca all the way to the Coachella Valley, coming out as a special guest for Major Lazer‘s topline set; he remixed the EDM trio’s Ariana Grande-assisted “All My Love” in 2015.
Machel Montano has earned three top 10 Reggae Albums: 2015’s Monk Monte (No. 2), 2016’s Monk Evolution (No. 5) and 2019’s G.O.A.T. (No. 1).
Watch Machel Montano make soca music history at Tiny Desk below.
Sabrina Carpenter, fresh off the North American leg of her first-ever arena tour, is now accustomed to playing 20,000-seat concert halls. But at NPR’s offices in Washington, D.C., the short and sweet pop star finally found a venue that’s just her size. On a Monday in early December, Billboard was on hand to watch Carpenter […]
Billie Eilish is currently touring through arenas and stadiums, but she’s also making time for smaller venues — tiny ones, you might say. On Thursday (Dec. 12), the 22-year-old superstar’s appearance on NPR’s Tiny Desk web series went live on YouTube, showing Eilish, her brother and producer Finneas and a few band members cramming into […]
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Doechii is shining brightly in the limelight, living up to the promise many of her longtime fans knew existed before inking a deal with the Top Dawg Entertainment collective. After tearing down NPR’s Tiny Desk stage in what some say is the best performance delivered on the set, Doechii is delivering anything but “Harriet Tubman Music.”
Doechii, 26, hit the Tiny Desk stage with an all-Black, all-woman backing band who provided powerful sonics to match the Tampa, Fla. star’s charismatic and animated performance. The rapper and singer, born Jaylah Hickmon, first appeared on our radar with her 2020 mixtape, Oh the Places You’ll Go. It was clear then that the “Swamp Princess” was poised for stardom. TDE, as is the label’s custom, has brought the multi-talented Doechii along carefully after signing her in 2021, and it culminated in her acclaimed mixtape, Alligator Bites Never Heal, an explosive mix of Hip-Hop, pop, and R&B music but even that simplifies her artistry.
The Tiny Desk set opened with “BOOM BAP” from Alligator Bites Never Heal, one of many standout tracks from the mixtape. Doechii and the band then launched into a six-song set comprised of songs from the aforementioned mixtape, including a rousing high-energy rendition of “NISSAN ALTIMA” before toning it down and allowing her band and background singers to carry the moment over.
In an emotional closing moment, Doechii took it back to 2020 with “Black Girl Memoir,” neatly wrapping up her set but doing so with a manner of pride about not only her status as a Black woman but specifically as a dark-skinned Black woman from the South.
Despite a nearly universal amount of praise for the performance, a viewer of the performance by the name of @Mzthangggg took to X and dropped off what many felt was a tasteless insult regarding another acclaimed performance. Doechii was the musical guest for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, rocking the studio set with “DENIAL IS A RIVER” and “BOILED PEANUTS” via a theatrical production that was just as stirring as the Tiny Desk set.
Of the latter performance, @Mzthangggg wrote, “Making those Harriet Tubman music is the cheat code to getting respected in rap,” which led to an epic dragging and charges of colorism.
By now, social media and much of the world realize that Doechii makes great music coupled with stellar performance values and the culture is rallying around her. We’ve got reactions from X listed below.
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Photo: Getty
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Source: YouTube / NPR
The LOX had their turn at a Tiny Desk Concert on NPR, and Hip-Hop fans are absolutely loving it if social media reactions are any indication.
The Yonkers’ three-headed rap monster of Jadakiss, Sheek Louch and Styles P performed with a live band, and there shouldn’t even be a question that it was fire (see: Verzuz). Over 30 years (y’all are old) in the game means that the former Bad Boy and Ruff Ryders MC’s are just as comfortable performing with live musicians as they are with their DJ, Technician The DJ, who was also on hand, too.
Our only beef was that the limited time meant a limited set list and the LOX have a deep catalog of hits, be they singles or fan-favorite albums. Nevertheless, they hit key joints, whether from the group proper (“Money, Power & Respect”) or their solo hits like “Good Times” and “We Gonna Make It” from Styles and Kiss, respectively. And nope, “The Benjamins” didn’t enter the chat, for obvious reasons.
Check out reactions from fans and full concert in the gallery. This is a great way to start the weekend.
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Sean Paul’s Tiny Desk Concert dropped Friday (May 31) and it’s as good as you’d expect. The legendary reggae superstar took over the NPR offices and transformed them into a good old-fashioned bashment from the jump. Although there was no daggering or whining to be seen, Paul sounded just like he did when he made […]
The Tiny Desk set was transformed temporarily into the Pink Pony Club for Chappell Roan‘s debut performance on the web concert series posted Thursday (March 21).
The 26-year-old rising pop star was joined behind NPR’s literal tiny desk by an all-female band, each musician outfitted in a pink collared shirt and matching blue eye shadow, red lipstick combos. In a pink dress, drag-inspired, Marie Antoinette-ish makeup and a tiara, Chappell was clearly the star of the show.
Between her performances of “Casual,” “Pink Pony Club,” “Picture You,” “California” and “Red Wine Supernova” — all five of which appear on the singer’s debut album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess — the Missouri native even divulged one of her beauty secrets to the crowd.
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“Though it looks like it’s all my hair, it’s a wig,” she said of her highly teased red ‘do, which she adorned with butterfly clips. “It’s so hot. Is there a trash bag in [the wig]? That’s how we got it so big.”
Toward the end of her set, Roan confessed that performing on Tiny Desk has long been a dream of hers. “I love NPR, guys, I’m serious — I donate!” she added, earning ecstatic applause from her audience of NPR staffers.
The musician is currently touring with Olivia Rodrigo as an opener for the “Drivers License” singer’s Guts World Tour. Later this year, Roan will hit the road on her own headlining trek dubbed The Midwest Princess Tour.
Roan was first linked to Rodrigo through their shared producer, Dan Nigro. Last year, the engineer launched his own label imprint, Amusement Records, with the “Hot to Go” artist as his signee.
“My world opened up, and so did my music,” Roan told Billboard in June of writing songs with Nigro after getting dropped from her first label, Atlantic Records, in 2020. “My music reflected the feelings of my first time in a gay club, my first time falling in love with a woman, my first time feeling homesick — I had to go through all those experiences, that pain and suffering, to rebirth myself into where I am now.”
Watch Chappell Roan’s Tiny Desk performance above.
For the 3/11 installment of Tiny Desk, NPR welcomed the most apt band possible: 311.
Helmed by lead singer and guitarist Nick Hexum, the Nebraska rock band squeezed in behind the office’s literal tiny desk space to kick things off with “Beautiful Disaster,” a tune from 311’s 1997 album Transistor. With Tim Mahoney on guitar, Doug “SA” Martinez on turntables and vocals, Chad Sexton on drums and Aaron “P-Nut” Wills on bass, the group then segued into a hit from its self-titled 1995 record, “All Mixed Up.”
“This kind of reminds me of being in my dad’s basement, being back next to the pool table,” Hexum remarked, before quipping, “But it smells better here.”
311 went on to slow things down a bit for “Amber” from 2001’s From Chaos. For their finale, the guys closed with “Down,” also from their self-titled LP.
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After strumming their last notes, P-Nut held up a hand heart. “Thank you so much!” a beaming Hexum told the in-house audience as they showered the band with applause. “Much love. Stay positive, love your life.”
In September, 311 released a 30th-anniversary edition of its 1993 debut album Music. In the years since the original Music, the group has notched 16 albums on the Billboard 200, 10 of which made it into the top 10.
The band’s most recent studio album, Voyager, arrived in 2019 and debuted at No. 18 on the Billboard 200.
In 2022, 311 went through “a bit of a rough time,” as revealed by Hexum on Billboard‘s Behind the Setlist podcast. P-Nut had tweeted that he was “planning on taking a break from the band” upon fulfilling his obligations; however, within the next five months, the group was able to resolve things behind the scenes.
“I think breaks are healthy, and we have had a fairly intense touring schedule” Hexum said at the time. “Everything feels pretty well on track. And we’ve we’ve had some really good talks and discussions lately. We’re excited about the next chapter — P-Nut included.”
Fans of the band celebrate every March 11 as 311 Day, so it’s only appropriate that they celebrate with a Tiny Desk Concert for the band’s custom holiday. Watch 311 take on Tiny Desk above.
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Over the past few years The NPR Tiny Desk concerts have become a fan favorite event for music lovers across the board and while not many Hip-Hoppers are up on the intimate affairs, quite a few rappers have participated in the series.
The latest rapper to get down at the NPR headquarters in Washington D.C. is none other than Jeezy (formerly known as Young Jeezy) who took his trap style to the nation’s capital and gave everyone in attendance a lesson in thug motivation. Churning out hits like “Go Crazy,” “Air Forces” and “Standing Ovation” amongst other songs, Jeezy gave the crowd what they wanted and maybe more during his 23-minute performance and continues to prove that rappers can indeed give dope performances with a live band in tow.
Check out Jeezy’s NPR Tiny Desk Concert and let us know which one of those concerts are your favorite in the comments section below.
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Scarface sat down for an incredible Tiny Desk Concert, and it’s getting all the praise. But it should be expected considering the legendary Houston rapper is a legit musical icon with a catalog to match.
You knew things were going to be special when Facemob commented that Backyard, a just as legendary Go-Go band from Washington, DC, would be backing his performance. Face went through some of his catalog’s greatest hits starting with “My Block” and including songs like “Smile,” “I Seen A Man Die,” and, of course, the Geto Boys classic “Minds Playing Tricks On Me.”
NPR also reports that it was during rehearsals Face brought in producer Mike Dean (who performed on the original tracks) to handle the work on the keys. The performance, which also included Face picking up a guitar, was full of passion as he kicked his classic bars while conducting his talented musical accompaniment.
Check out the performance below and some of the more excited reactions in the gallery.
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