The Muffs bassist Ronnie Barnett shares memories from his wide-eyed youth as well as his life as a touring musician inspired by the power pop of Big Star's 1972 debut album #1 Record. For guest playlists, new music influenced by this album, and full show notes, go to The500podcast.com. Join the movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Comedian Jeff Dye's boundless joy both contrasts and compliments the raging darkness of grunge superstars Nirvana's third and final album: 1993's In Utero. For guest playlists, new music influenced by this album, and full show notes, go to The500podcast.com. Join the movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Comedian and musician Nick Thune bares his soul and finds salvation in the dreamy folk rock of American singer-songwriter Beck's crushingly beautiful 2002 break up album Sea Change. For guest playlists, new music influenced by this album, and full show notes, go to The500podcast.com. Join the movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Comedian & actor Chris D'Elia discusses baller moves and internet beefs to the beat of rapper Lil Wayne's 2008 release Tha Carter III. For guest playlists, new music influenced by this album, and full show notes, go to The500podcast.com. Join the movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Comedian Margaret Cho dusts off her velvet suit and busts out her darkest eyeliner to embrace the inner goth of her youth and her undying love for The Cure's 1980 post-punk compilation album Boys Don't Cry. Check out her podcast The Margaret Cho. For guest playlists, new music influenced by this album, and full show notes, go to The500podcast.com. Join the movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson blows the minds of everyone who has ever thought of Sam Cooke as just another crooner, using the soul singer's second live album, Live at the Harlem Square Club, 1963, to unravel the mysteries of the universe. Get Neil's book Letters From An Astrophysicist. For guest playlists, new music influenced by this album, and full show notes, go to The500podcast.com. Join the movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Pogues' legendary accordion-player James Fearnley regales with the tales of how the Irish folk punk band began and, in some ways, ended using their second album, 1985's Rum, Sodomy & the Lash, as a guide through the back-alleys and barrooms of music history. For guest playlists, new music influenced by this album, and full show notes, go to The500podcast.com. Join the movement.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Comedian Fahim Anwar shares the highs and lows of his life and career over the soundtrack of Suicide’s influential self-titled debut. For guest playlists, new music influenced by this album, and full show notes, go to The500podcast.com. Join the movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

DEVO's drummer since 1996 Josh Freese shares stories from inside the studio and on the road focusing on the band's 1978 album 'Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are DEVO'. For guest playlists, new music influenced by this album, and full show notes, go to The500podcast.com. Join the movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Comedian Annie Lederman shares her hilariously raw account of growing up to the sounds of Cheap Trick’s 1977 album ‘In Color’. For guest playlists, new music influenced by this album, and full show notes, go to The500podcast.com. Join the movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

NBA Champion Caron Butler shares his rollercoaster ride of a life story through the prism of WAR’s 1972 number one record ‘The World is a Ghetto’. For guest playlists, new music influenced by this album, and full show notes, go to The500podcast.com. Join the movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Comedian Wayne Federman finds connections between the 1976 release of Steve Miller Band's hit-laden space rock record Fly Like An Eagle and his storied life and career. For guest playlists, new music influenced by this album, and full show notes, go to The500podcast.com. Join the movement.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Comedian Adam Ray's spirits are raised by the electrifying proto-punk of MC5's sophomore album, 1970's Back in the USA. For guest playlists, new music influenced by this album, and full show notes, go to The500podcast.com. Join the movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Comedian Jade Catta-Preta gushes with Brazilian pride over the bossa nova-infused jazz tracks co-created by legends Stan Getz and João Gilberto on their iconic 1964 collaboration Getz/Gilberto. For guest playlists, new music influenced by this album, and full show notes, go to The500podcast.com. Join the movement.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Comedian Dan Soder mercilessly mocks the maudlin pretentiousness of Sting on The Police's final studio album, 1983's Synchronicity. This episode was recorded live at Just For Laughs 42 in Toronto.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Comedian Chris Garcia sings the praises and explores the mysteries of an album as influential as it is complex: Big Star's 1978 release Third/Sister Lovers. For guest playlists, new music influenced by this album, and full show notes, go to The500podcast.com. Join the movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Filmmaker Judd Apatow reveals just how many of his ideas for movies were subconsciously spawned by the sublime folk rock of Jackson Browne's 1973 release For Everyman. For guest playlists, new music influenced by this album, and full show notes, go to The500podcast.com. Join the movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Comedian and Actor Dulcé Sloan recalls the soothing sounds of Amy Winehouse’s words on Back to Black with the bittersweet echoes of destructive love lost. For guest playlists, new music influenced by this album, and full show notes, go to The500podcast.com. Join the movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Comedian Tim Dillon peers into the dark corners of American life and sees hope in its simple joys as told by folk legend John Prine’s 1971 self-titled debut album. For guest playlists, new music influenced by this album, and full show notes, go to The500podcast.com. Join the movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One of the most sampled hip hop acts in history, New York-based EPMD earned the respect of musicians the world over including our guest comedian Joe DeRosa. For guest playlists, new music influenced by this album, and full show notes, go to The500podcast.com. Join the movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alice Cooper’s lifelong manager Shep Gordon share stories from inside the studio as the band’s third album Love It To Death represents a pivotal point in the legendary entertainer’s career. For guest playlists, new music influenced by this album, and full show notes, go to The500podcast.com. Join the movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Character comedian Frankie Quinones gets in touch with his East LA roots via the blues rock sounds of the 1984 sophomore Los Lobos album How Will the Wolf Survive? For guest playlists, new music influenced by this album, and full show notes, go to The500podcast.com. Join the movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Comedian Roy Wood Jr. bears witness to the cold-blooded rhythm and blues of Marvin Gaye's musical reckoning of his divorce in the form of the 1978 album Here, My Dear. For guest playlists, new music influenced by this album, and full show notes, go to The500podcast.com. Join the movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SNL alum Brooks Wheelan reveals his zealous love for all things My Morning Jacket, especially their 2005 psychedelic rock triumph Z.   For guest playlists, new music influenced by this album, and full show notes, go to The500podcast.com.   Join the movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Radio legend Ron Bennington reminisces about growing up in an era defined by roots rock albums like Elton John’s 1970 release Tumbleweed Connection. For guest playlists, new music influenced by this album, and full show notes, go to The500podcast.com. Join the movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Comedian Erik Griffin raises some interesting questions about the integrity of the timeless soul classics included in The Drifters’ 1968 compilation Golden Hits.   For guest playlists, new music influenced by this album, and full show notes, go to The500podcast.com.   Join the movement.       Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Comedian JessiMae Peluso fully embodies the fearless but feminine grunge rock of Hole’s 1994 album Live Through This.   For guest playlists, new music influenced by this album, and full show notes, go to The500podcast.com.   Join the movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With former Sex Pistols front man Johnny Rotten at the helm, you’d think P.I.L.’s 1979 release Metal Box would be a slam dunk for anti-establishment types the world over, but that is not the case for punk rock-loving comedian Kyle Kinane.   For guest playlists, new music influenced by this album, and full show notes, go to The500podcast.com.   Join the movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the Premiere episode of The 500 as a Spotify Original, Comedy icon Bobby Lee runs wild with R.E.M.’s 1987 album Document revealing the hilarious highs and lows of his life and career as well as his passion for alternative music at the 2019 Just for Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal.    For guest playlists, new music influenced by this album, and full show notes, go to The500podcast.com. Join the movement.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There’s a time for happy songs, sunshine and general good cheer. And then there comes a time when it’s best to sit and stare pensively out a dirty window at bleak, rain-soaked landscapes and ponder the meaning of human existence in an uncaring universe. Krystina Hutchinson has had plenty of both; enough to know that sometimes it feels good to feel bad. After all, unrelenting self-reflection and brutal honesty are hallmarks of her stand-up, as well as the key ingredients in making her podcast, Guys We Fucked, one of the most successful and widely respected of all time. And what better theme music is there to those moments of dark ruminations on love and misery than the soulless soul music of Echo and the Bunnymen’s 1981 sophomore release Heaven Up Here?   The 500 is a production of Native Creative Podcasts.   For show notes, guest playlists, and fan blogs about the music go to The500Podcast.com.   New Artist/Song influenced by Echo & The Bunnymen:  ‘Medio Litro’ by Cosmonauts (Listen on Spotify)   Join. The. Movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Some artists speak for a generation. Some albums perfectly encapsulate a moment in time that, while perfect in that context, may seem out of place in any other time. English heavy metal icons Def Leppard’s contributions to the pantheon of rock are undeniable. But along the road to glorious immortality, there can often be a few questionable deviations. Without those somewhat dubious digressions, though, there would no opportunities for master comedians like Big Jay Oakerson and Randy & Jason Sklar to hilariously unpack the mullet-sporting, ripped jeans-wearing cheese of the 1987 album Hysteria, as they did for the first ever live episode at the 2019 Moontower Comedy Festival in Austin, Texas.     The 500 is a production of Native Creative Podcasts.   For show notes, guest playlists, and fan blogs about the music go to The500Podcast.com.   New Artist/Song influenced by Def Leppard:  ‘Panic Attack’ by The Glorious Sons (Spotify) (YouTube)   Join. The. Movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There’s a reason they call romantics hopeless, and it’s because while love can raise you up to dizzying heights of euphoria, it’ll also send you slamming into the ground with the speed of freight train and zero explanation. There aren’t many people in the world who know this better than comedian Tony Sam, host of the podcast Legally Insane and ‘Food: Fact or Fiction?’ on the Cooking Channel. He’s had his heart ripped out more than a few times, enough so to know he isn’t always free from blame when things go bad. But through it all, the lo-fi indie pop of the Magnetic Fields has helped him find some understanding through the curious chaos of intimacy, with their incredible 1999 three-volume release 69 Love Songs acting as something of a guidebook.   The 500 is a production of Native Creative Podcasts.   For show notes, guest playlists, and fan blogs about the music go to The500Podcast.com.   New Artist/Song influenced by Magnetic Fields:  ‘Dog Inside a Car’ by Fell Runner (Spotify) (YouTube)   Join. The. Movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Music can remind us of many things: a time in our lives we were happy or a place we never wanted to leave, a fleeting moment we can't return to a lover we can't forget. For comedian Kelsey Cook, few bands held such an important space in her head and heart as Coldplay, who came into their own just as she was navigating the fraught path towards womanhood. The post-Britpop of those gentle piano rockers' 2002 sophomore album A Rush of Blood to the Head provided Kelsey with no small amount of comfort as she maneuvered through turbulent relationships and the uncertainty of adult life, ultimately bringing her to the success of appearing on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Comedy Central's This is Not Happening, and the launch of her own podcast, Self-Helpless.     The 500 is a production of Native Creative Podcasts.   For show notes, guest playlists, and fan blogs about the music go to The500Podcast.com.   New Artist/Song influenced by Coldplay:  Luke Sital-Singh "Lover" (Spotify) (YouTube)   Join. The. Movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Little Steven hated the idea. One of the most raw albums Bruce Springsteen ever produced sets the scene for actor and comedian Jay Mohr to bare his soul discussing his own roller coaster ride following his heart to the bottom and back up again. The roots between these two prolific entertainers intertwine at a much deeper level than merely their shared home state of New Jersey. Saved by the Bell, the Boss takes a faint break from blue collar dreams to tell the story of straddling the fence in a relationship that shouldn't be saved despite pure poetry in the 1987 album Tunnel of Love.   The 500 is a production of Native Creative Podcasts.   For show notes, guest playlists, and fan blogs about the music go to The500Podcast.com.   New Artist/Song influenced by Bruce Springsteen:  Gaslight Anthem "National Anthem" (Spotify) (YouTube)   Join. The. Movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's a counterculture deep dive with the voice of the Los Angeles Dodgers Charley Steiner sharing his lesser known, but no less intense passion for music through the lens of the 1965 debut self-titled album by The Paul Butterfield Blues Band.  Emboldened by Jack Keroac's On The Road, the radio deejay-turned-sports broadcaster recalls leaving the country for the first time with the destination set for a small blues club in Montreal to watch Chicago's first integrated electro-funk-blues-rock-jazz fusion outfit making music history in more ways than one.  And just like 23 year-old Paul Butterfield adopted the sounds from a previous generation, Steiner confides he would practice announcing baseball games in his basement with the TV on silent, dreaming that one day, he'd be so fortunate as to follow in Vin Scully's footsteps only to realize the feat in his Gump-ian life of seemingly endless serendipity.   The 500 is a production of Native Creative Podcasts.   For show notes, guest playlists, and fan blogs about the music go to The500Podcast.com.   New Artist/Song influenced by The Paul Butterfield Blues Band:  Durand Jones & The Indications "Morning In America" (Spotify) (YouTube)   Join. The. Movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

They say all good things must come to an end, and for the golden era of hip hop, there is no exception. Tastes change and styles are rewritten, remixed and repurposed. But no one can deny that for a brief moment in time, The Fugees captured lightning in a bottle through the equal parts true-to-life storytelling, vicious wordplay and heart wrenching musicality in their second and, ultimately, final studio album: 1996’s The Score. Few appreciate that more than comedian, actor and podcaster Andrew Santino. His love of the supergroup’s creativity and uncompromising vision has helped him blaze his own path, leading to appearances on Showtime’s I’m Dying Up Here and the film The Disaster Artist, as well as the creation of his widely successful podcast Whiskey Ginger.   The 500 is a production of Native Creative Podcasts.   For show notes, guest playlists, and fan blogs about the music go to The500Podcast.com.   New Artist/Song influenced by The Fugees:  The Internet "Girl" (Spotify) (YouTube)   Join. The. Movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Russell Peters has been many things in his life. Breakdancer, DJ, very nearly a chef, and groundbreaking comedian beloved by people all over the world; he's done it all. But no matter where his many interests and achievements have taken him, he's never forgotten his roots as a lonely Anglo-Indian kid growing up in the Toronto suburbs, just catching wind of the strange new music called hip hop that emanated from across the border in New York in the early 80's.   Essential to the era was LL Cool J, whose debut album Radio smashed onto the scene in 1985, showing eager young minds like Russell's the possibilities of a new genre and the success that could come from not just belief in your own greatness but also taking risks on things no one else had ever done.   The 500 is a production of Native Creative Podcasts.   For show notes, guest playlists, and fan blogs about the music go to The500Podcast.com.   New Artist/Song influenced by L.L. Cool J:  Lute "Still Slummin'" (Spotify) (YouTube)   Join. The. Movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hope can be hard to come by, faith sometimes falters, and love might be fleeting. But as the tender guitar tones and soulful harmonies found in the brighter tracks of Richard and Linda Thompson's 1974 folk rock masterpiece I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight suggest, all three of those qualities are an essential balance to the heartbreaking pain that life has to offer. Comedian, actor and musical savant Avery Pearson is no stranger to both joy and sadness. And it is his ability to accept both the good and the bad with an unceasing zest for living that makes him perhaps the most qualified of all to pick apart an album that, while having little success in its day, is nearly unmatched in its equal share of exuberant musicality and woeful lyricism. After all, it's Avery's boundless positivity that has drawn audiences to his performances in Showtime’s Masters of Sex, USA’s Suits, and on stage in his own monthly comedy showcase at the Hollywood Improv, 'The 88 Show with Avery Pearson.' The 500 is a production of Native Creative Podcasts. For show notes, guest playlists, complimentary documentaries, and audiobooks about the music go to The500Podcast.com. New Artist/Song influenced by Richard and Linda Thompson:  David Ramirez "Watching From A Distance" (Spotify) (YouTube) Join. The. Movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bursting through the English pop scene with WHAM!, 24 year-old George Michael went solo in 1987 with the release of the Grammy award-winning album Faith producing seven singles including I Want Your Sex, Father Figure, and the title track finding its inspiration from Elvis and porn, it is decided. When actor Nia Renee Hill first heard Faith in the late '80's she couldn't help but be inspired by the rebellious truth inherent in breaking free from conventional norms. Hearing the call to pursue a full-time career in film, she moved to New York working in casting for MTV and on TV shows including Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn where she met her husband Bill Burr. With a ton of hard work and a renewed self-belief, she rediscovered her love of acting recently making appearances on Santa Clarita Diet, Crashing on HBO, and F is for Family on Netflix. Hear her regularly on The MM Podcast. The 500 is a production of Native Creative Podcasts. For show notes, guest playlists, complimentary documentaries, and audiobooks about the music go to The500Podcast.com. New Artist/Song influenced by George Michael:  January Jane "Take The Lions On" (Spotify) (YouTube) Join. The. Movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a world of sickening brightness, the best way to stick out is to go dark. That’s why when Christina Pazsitzky was growing up in the San Fernando valley, she sought out the eerily romantic weirdness of the 80’s blossoming goth culture. It’s been many years since Christina donned all black and danced the reckless dance of the lonely to the morose crooning of androgynous new wave. Now she’s a wife, mother of two and a wildly successful stand-up comedian, with two Netflix specials to her credit: Mother Inferior and The Degenerates, and her own podcast: Your Mom’s House. But no matter what, there’ll always be a part of her that’s still that twelve-year-old girl smoking cigarettes, listening to The Smiths’ 1984 debut alt rock classic self-titled debut, knowing full well how alone we all really are. The 500 is a production of Native Creative Podcasts. For show notes, guest playlists, complimentary documentaries, and audiobooks about the music go to The500Podcast.com. New Artist/Song influenced by The Smiths:  Flora Cash "They Own This Town" (Spotify) (YouTube) Join. The. Movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When life is bleak and times are tough, there's often no choice but to look for an escape through whatever means are available. For Felipe Esparza, who immigrated from Mexico as a child and grew up poor in a crime-ridden neighborhood of east LA, that escape came in the form of watching the likes of Richard Pryor and George Carlin tell jokes and fantasizing of one day following in their footsteps. After many years and no small number of barriers to overcome, that fantasy became reality: Esparza eventually won NBC's Last Comic Standing competition and has gone on to appear in television shows such as Superstore and The Eric Andre Show, as well as launch his own podcast What's Up Fool. All the while, he has managed to stay positive by keeping in mind how far he's come and drowning out the darkness of the world with a soundtrack to his life that includes the beautifully eclectic, multilingual Latin stylings of Manu Chao's 2001international hit record Proxima Estacion: Esperanza. The 500 is a production of Native Creative Podcasts. For show notes, guest playlists, complimentary documentaries, and audiobooks about the music go to The500Podcast.com. New Artist/Song influenced by Manu Chao:  Victizzle "Oshé Gan Gan" (Spotify) (YouTube) Join. The. Movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Words have power, and if you know how to wield that power in just the right way, you can take the world by storm. That’s why comedians and musicians both can have such lasting impacts, more so than many other forms of creative expression. For a founding member of the new-wave movement like Elvis Costello, the ability to emit dark, brutal honesty through otherwise bright and cheerful wordplay is what made albums like his 1979 post-punk release Armed Forces such a sensation. It proved so powerful that even though comedian Dana Gould didn’t discover it until a few years later, its clever lyricism shaped his notion of how important it is to assemble your ideas in just the right way. After all, a way with words is what launched Dana into a career that has led to four comedy albums, roles on The Ben Stiller Show and Stan Against Evil, and a seven-year term as a writer on The Simpsons. The 500 is a production of Native Creative Podcasts. For show notes, guest playlists, complimentary documentaries, and audiobooks about the music go to The500Podcast.com. New Artist/Song influenced by Elvis Costello:  All Day Sucker "Quality Problems" (YouTube) Join. The. Movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Every so often the universe sees fit to gift a person with the ability to keep others desperately clinging to their every word, so enthralled with the details of even the simplest anecdote that all sense of time and purpose are lost, and all that matters to the eager audience is what happens next. It's even less common that two talented orators cross baths in such a brief and spectacular way as comedian and storyteller Bert Kreischer and rapper Notorious B.I.G. For one brief second in 1997, the two shared the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. Notorious B.I.G. had been murdered just weeks after the release of Life After Death, a double-album rife with tales of the opulence and violence of the New York City drug trade. Bert was being named America's top partier, and would go onto release two comedy special, host two television shows, produce his own podcast Bertcast. Now, nearly 25 years later, Bert reveals just how important that shared moment and Biggie's music was to him.   The 500 is a production of Native Creative Podcasts.   For show notes, guest playlists, links to new music inspired by this week's album, go to The500Podcast.com.   New Artist/Song influenced by Notorious B.I.G.: Benny the Butcher - "97 Hov"   Join. The. Movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Producer, director and actor Peter Billingsley puts the nearly 40 years of boozing, brawling and broken spirits of outlaw country legend Merle Haggard's career-spanning retrospective collection Down Every Road into perspective for the modern era. Much like with the story of America, a look back on the life of outlaw country legend Merle Haggard reveals as much pain and hardship as it does hope and inspiration. But without the harsh realities of growing up poor and spending time in prison to shape him, the world might find itself sorely lacking the hard-bitten truths and forlorn beauty of that classic Bakersfield Sound he spent nearly forty years shaping with his music, to which the 1994 release of roughly 100 songs from every period of his career Down Every Road is an eternal testament. The same might be said of one of Merle's biggest fans: director, producer and actor Peter Billingsley, whose humble beginnings in yogurt commercials and after school specials led him to not only star in one of the most beloved holiday films of all time, A Christmas Story, but also helped bring to life hit movies and televisions series such as The Break Up, Sullivan & Son, and F is for Family.  The 500 is a production of Native Creative Podcasts. For show notes, guest playlists, complimentary documentaries, and audiobooks about the music go to The500Podcast.com. New Artist/Song influenced by Merle Haggard: Mick Fury "Front Porch of America"(YouTube) Join. The. Movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Two veritable rebels sustain us in this supremely honest conversation about love and relationships. While stand-up comic Jenny Zigrino bares all on her appearances on Conan and Comedy Central, Loretta Lynn lambasts her long-time husband for every wrongdoing in the book in this, her Greatest Hits album, a classic in the eyes of pioneers looking for historical footholds. For show notes, guest playlists, complimentary documentaries and audiobooks about the music, go to The500Podcast.com. New Music influenced by Loretta Lynn: “A Dream Without Pain” by Nicole Atkins (YouTube) Join. The. Movement.  #FleeceArmy #KingofFleece #The500Podcast The 500 is a production of Native Creative Podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Good luck trying to pin a label on Baron Vaughn, because he is an artist who has built a career out of defying expectations. Learning from an early age that humor can be both a weapon and a shield, he has carved out a unique identity for himself through his eclectic stand up comedy albums, performances in Netflix's Grace & Frankie and Mystery Science Theater 3000, and creating the series The New Negroes for Comedy Central. Vaughn takes an unflinching look at the world's expectations of what it means to be black in America. But in reaching the position he is in today, much is owed to the groundbreaking work of the creative forces that came before him, including psychedelic funk godfathers Funkadelic, who shattered genre stereotypes while also getting people to shake their asses to the drug-fueled grooves of their 1971 release, Maggot Brain. For show notes, guest playlists, complimentary documentaries and audiobooks about the music, go to The500Podcast.com. New Music influenced by Funkadelic: “El Moran” by Mascaras (bandcamp)  “Bay City Blues” by Jack McCue / Idle Hands (Soundcloud) Join. The. Movement.  #FleeceArmy #KingofFleece #The500Podcast The 500 is a production of Native Creative Podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The world can be a cold, hard place that suffers no fools and shows now mercy to those in suffering. Few artists have ever been able to capture the dark underbelly of America the way that hip-hop giants the Wu Tang Clan have. And among the supergroup, Raekwon stands out as a master of lyrical storytelling and mindboggling wordplay, to which his 1995 debut solo album Only Built for Cuban Linx is an eternal testament. So densely crafted with harrowing true-to-life tales of the New York drug trade, it only seemed fitting that this album be deconstructed by none other than Ron Funches. Ron is known for his bright, positively jovial persona, having quickly positioned himself as one of the fastest rising stars in comedy, with appearances in Curb Your Enthusiasm, Blackish, New Girl, and his own Comedy Central special, Giggle Fit, under his belt. For show notes, guest playlists, complimentary documentaries and audiobooks about the music, go to The500Podcast.com. New Music influenced by Raekwon: Armand Hammer – “No Days Off” on (Spotify) (YouTube) Join. The. Movement.  #FleeceArmy #KingofFleece #The500Podcast The 500 is a production of Native Creative Podcasts.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Perception is reality, or so they say. But for an emotionally complex, yet inherently antagonistic public figure like Michael Rapaport, the image and persona people see from the outside doesn't fully plumb the depths of his character. Born in New York City, the actor/director is very much a product of his environment, ever ready to deal out bristling, sometimes caustic arguments, opinions and wordplay at a rapid fire rate, much like the gritty lyricists who laid the foundations of the hip-hop music he is so passionate about right in his own hometown. Still, there is more to Michael than a quippy tweet or profanity laden viral video might convey. He loves his children deeply, looks back on his Jewish heritage with great pride, and has a powerful affinity for the sexually incandescent, neo-soul vibrations of D'Angelo's instant classic from 2000, Voodoo. For show notes, guest playlists, complimentary documentaries and audiobooks about the music, go to The500Podcast.com. New Music influenced by D'Angelo: Dijon "Skin" (YouTube) Join. The. Movement.  #FleeceArmy #KingofFleece #The500Podcast The 500 is a production of Native Creative Podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices