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NPR Music: Tiny Desk Concerts
Tiny Desk Concerts from NPR's All Songs Considered features your favorite musicians performing at Bob Boilen's desk in the NPR Music office. This is the AUDIO only archive.Are you a fancy A/V nerd and need video? Visit our new Tiny Desk Concert video channel. Eye-popping video and all of the music you've come to expect.

Oddisee: Tiny Desk Concert

By Suraya Mohamed
Published June 26, 2015 at 7:03 AM MDT

Amir Elkhalifa, a.k.a. Oddisee, is an emergent standout in hip-hop. The Prince Georges County, Md., native says he made his new album, The Good Fight, as a reminder that music comes beforehip-hop; that music can trigger indescribable feelings; that music is a meditation on our capacity to love; and, finally, that our ambition and greed are in constant conflict with our sense of propriety.

Simply put, Oddisee's music is genius. He creates just the right amount of space, allowing it to breathe with perfectly timed cadences and vamps. His deceptively intricate rhythm tracks interlock with complementary harmonies and brilliantly constructed bars in ways that appeal to both diehard hip-hop heads — those who decipher and analyze lyrics as a hobby — and those who just want a clutch beat. He's got it all.

Set List

  • "That's Love"

  • "Contradiction's Maze"

  • "Belong To The World"

    • Credits

    Producers: Suraya Mohamed, Maggie Starbard; Audio Engineer: Brian Jarboe; Videographers: Bob Boilen, Colin Marshall, Maggie Starbard; Assistant Producer: Michaela Gugliotta; photo by Colin Marshall/NPR

    Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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    Tiny Desk Concerts
    Suraya Mohamed
    Suraya Mohamed is a three-time Peabody Award-winning producer, sound designer and editor. She currently serves as the project manager for Jazz Night In Americaand isa contributing producer on the Alt.Latinopodcast.She also produces NPR's holiday specials package, including Tinsel Tales, Hanukkah Lights, Toast Of The Nation, Pink Martini's Joy To The World: A Holiday Spectacular and most recently Hamilton: A Story Of US.You'll also find her work on the Tiny Desk series as either a producer or engineer.
    See stories by Suraya Mohamed
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