That Time 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' and Coltrane Landed on the Same Album

When does Afro Blue and Smells Like Teen Spirit belong on the same record? When it's a Robert Glasper album! In 2012, Glasper's Black Radio brought together artists like Erica Badu to bring a jazz standard, Afro Blue, back into the popular music canon. Black Radio hit #1 on the jazz charts, while simultaneously reaching #4 on the hip-hop R&B charts and #15 on the Top 200.

The Blue Note pianist has been bending genres since the 90s, bringing together the best of traditional jazz and weaving it seamlessly with R&B, hip-hop, soul and rock & roll. And it all fits, because Glasper is equally at home in all of these categories. He grew up listening to all kinds of music, like Nirvana, Billy Joel, Busta Rhymes -- everything. Black Radio, he says, was a way to put his "life on wax".

Rob Harvilla from 60 Songs to Explain the 90s: The 2000s joins Adam and Peter to dive into what makes this album great, and how it refutes from any attempt to categorize it. From the J. Dilla Influence, to Casey Benjamin's album-defining flute, to the Erica Badu of it all, you'll never hear this album the same way again.

And this album inspired what is possibly our best YHI outro yet. Let us know if you agree!

2:10 - Welcome to Our Special Guest!
3:30 - Why We're Talking About Robert Glasper's Afro Blue
5:40 - The Herbie Hancock Detour
6:55 - The Unexpected Origin of Headhunters
10:15 - 1978: The Year Herbie's and Robert's Paths Collide
12:00 - Robert Glasper's Herbie Hancock-Radiohead Mashup
13:30 - How Herbie Hancock and Robert Glasper Upset Traditionalists
15:00 - How the Young Lions Paved the Way for Glasper
16:40 - When Peter First Met Robert Glasper
18:10 - How Glasper Earned Respect from an Early Age
22:30 - Let's Talk About Glasper's Black Radio
23:45 - Robert Glasper's "Smells Like Teen Spirit"
26:30 - The Many Interpretations of "Afro Blue"
29:30 - Robert Glasper's "Afro Blue"
33:00 - The Erica Badu of it All
36:30 - Why Everyone Said Erica Badu was the Next Billie Holiday
38:00 - What is Black Radio Without Casey Benjamin
40:00 - The J. Dilla Influence
42:05 - The Busta Rhymes Influence
44:00 - Chris Dave's Influence on Drummers
47:40 - Our Favorites From Black Radio and Beyond
50:00 - What You Should Be Listening to Next
52:35 - The Best YHI Outro of All Time?