Louder Than A Riot

About Louder Than A Riot

Hip-hop emerged from the voices of the unheard. But freedom doesn't ring the same for everyone. Inside all corners of the culture, Black women and queer folk have dealt with the same oppression the music was built to escape. Season 2 of Louder Than A Riot examines who hip-hop marginalizes, and how misogynoir — the specific racist misogyny against Black women — is embedded into the fabric of the culture that we love. From Rico Nasty facing harassment from toxic fans, to Saucy Santana's unapologetically femme aesthetics in a queerphobic industry, to the assault case that put Megan Thee Stallion's image on trial, each episode of Louder Than A Riot unpacks the unspoken rules of rap that discriminate against a select few and have held the entire culture back. Hosted by NPR Music's Sidney Madden and Rodney Carmichael, Louder Than A Riot confronts power from every angle – from the power the genre wields over its artists, to the power plays that its rulebreakers take in order to get heard. In the midst of a so-called Renaissance for women in rap, these stories reveal a rot at the core of the culture that reflects how voices, bodies, and rights are still policed in America.

Publisher

NPR

Category

music · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

16 Sept 2020

Latest episode

31 Jul 2026

Latest episodes

1 of 29 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   31 Jul 2026TRANSCRIPT

   Featuring “We Keep Us Safe” from NPR’s Embedded Podcast

   Hosts Sydney Brownstone and Will James investigate the unsolved death of Antonio Mays Jr. during the CHOP protests in this interview episode.

2. 

   1 Jun 2023

   Watch the queen conquer: MC Lyte, Quay Dash, the cast of 'Rap Sh!t'

   In the first nine episodes of our season, Louder has tackled the unwritten rules of rap. For the finale, we dig into the root of all those rules: the scarcity mindset. It's the belief that access and resources are so limited for those marginalized in hip-hop that you need to fight tooth and nail for them, and that only one can make it to the top at a time. And the Louder team says goodbye, as scarcity comes for our own podcast. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices (https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices) NPR Privacy Policy (https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy)

3. 

   25 May 2023

   Like poppa, like son: Rodney Carmichael

   For Louder host Rodney Carmichael, interrogating misogynoir in hip-hop means confronting some hard questions — as a man, and especially as a father. As Rodney thinks about raising the next generation without replicating his mistakes, he's looking more closely at how hip-hop shaped his definition of masculinity. On this episode, something a little different: part meditation, part conversation — between Rodney and writers Kiese Laymon and Jamilah Lemieux — about beats, rhymes and life. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices (https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices) NPR Privacy Policy (https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy)

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

4.3 / 5

3,081 ratings

Spotify

4.9 / 5

423 ratings

Contact Louder Than A Riot

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

Shows with a similar audience

• 

  Code Switch

• 

  It's Been a Minute

• 

  Throughline

• 

  Reveal

• 

  Consider This from NPR

• 

  Embedded

Questions about Louder Than A Riot