Noire World Radio Ep. 4 "IF NOT HIM, THEN WHO?"

WNWR Ep. 8 "MILK CARTON"

Well we’re back, I’ve been missing this so bad. There’s been so many times where I sat down to record and just didn’t have it in me to build the show. I also took up a new project in the new year by starting a pretzel pop up. Its been a fun ride, but also challenging as hell.I did a good amount of traveling that distracted me from the show, but boy did do a lot of record shopping. I cant wait to share them with you. I’ve got a lot to share with y’all from my time away. I’ve got interviews, records, and stories from my travels to Memphis, TN, Jackson, MS, and Clarksdale, MS, the site/setting for the beloved Sinners move. Now that I think of it, that movie may have inspired the creation of this radio show. This episode I get into my hiatus, but mostly focus on the music that I’m sharing with the show. If you’re reading this, I hope you grabbed some music on Bandcamp this Friday. If it’s not Friday, it’s still a great day to purchase music from an independent artist. Are you excited for any new music dropping this month? What’s y’all’s favorite music from 2026 so far? I can’t believe we’re THIRD of the way through already. Til next time, Nigel Noire aka Tito the Griot Noire World Radio @noireworldradio This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit noireworld.substack.com/subscribe [https://noireworld.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

Noire World Radio Episode 7 "A CHAT WITH THESMOOTHCAT"

Happy new year! Is it too late to say that? We’re over 2 weeks in. Oh well, it’s the first time y’all are hearing from me this year. Long time huh? I gotta get better at this. Fortunately I get to drop a meaty interview on this thing. This one was a doozy. The first ever guest on the show, _THESMOOTHCAT [https://www.instagram.com/shredsum]. He’s a super talented artist from New Orleans. He has a clothing line, a vast catalog of music, and even slings coloring books when he’s not working one of his 6 different gigs around the city. I caught him on my birthday last month (if you caught the last episode you heard me running out at the end) on my way to brunch and told him I needed him on the show. We locked down a date and got it done. _THESMOOTHCAT had one of my favorite albums of 2025, LIKE MAGIC [https://youtu.be/7C00v8Ro6Eo?si=1HxPuHhEteyTn6qt]. I thought it was hella creative and eclectic. The album was full of hard beats, slick raps, soft melodies, and dusty interludes for a very chill vibe. All of the production was handled by Baton Rouge based producer Custodian. There’s some blurred genre vibes that go from R&B to jazz, and right back to hip hop. I was very happy to get the change to cop it on vinyl directly from him. It came on a transparent vinyl record which made me think of one of my favorite tracks, “CLEAR SHIT”. This album needs ears and eyes on it. That’s why I’m here today. To put the homies on! If this is your first time hearing about him, you’re welcome, but also you’re in for a great time. THESMOOTHCAT has worked with a bunch of artists based in the New Orleans and Baton Rouge area, from his band The 9th Life [https://youtu.be/JnP7wWOJY_M?si=txVf9ZXPhtIXf723] to underground sleeper producer Wino Willy [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDnC45tLHgI], and a regular collaborator JUU [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlKsHZ_Tw14] who is a recurring guest star on LIKE MAGIC. _THESMOOTHCAT is sort of a local celebrity in Baton Rouge where he spent his college days from the critical acclaim of his 2018 album Breathe. He has since expanded that album into The Breathe Art Project to push his artwork in drawings and a clothing line. The dude does it all. He produces his own music, shoots his own videos [https://www.youtube.com/@thebreatheartproject/featured] (and for others), and books his own tours. Recently he did a show in Japan, yes Japan. We get into that in the interview as well as other stories about his background and passion for music and art. He shared about his experience walking into a record store in Osaka where they were playing deep cuts from Cash Money Records legend B.G. _Thesmoothcat was feeling the love overseas, but he also got to see how hip hop is appreciated and sometimes appropriated by East Asian cultures. At the end of the day, it was about the love of the music of our forefathers. We also got to chatting about the pressures of competing in the Tiktok age and staying consistent. There’s a lot more in the interview that I edited down for time, but if you want to get the entire unedited chat with some spicy talk about AI, then go ahead and drop me a Lincoln ($5) to support the show and you’ll get to tune in as well as lock in your name for some stickers I’ll be sending out to all paid subscribers (yes even the ones that canceled on me) very very soon. This was such a hard episode to edit as there was so many good conversations and a free flowing conversation. In between I slid some music from his album to break up the talk, but you should definitely check out the album in full. Also if you’re in the New Orleans area, _THESMOOTHCAT has a show coming up on Saturday, January 24th at Full Court New Orleans in the French Quarter. This show will be really special as his band The 9th Life will be reuniting for the first time in almost 2 years. Regular collaborators JUU and Wino Willy will also be performing. It’s for sure going to be a special evening. I will be in attendance to catch some live hip hop and art. Until then, the full interview will drop on here in a couple of days. I’ll be working on getting another episode rocking very soon to play some music I didn’t get to this go round. We got a lot to catch up on! You can follow _THESMOOTHCAT on instagram at @shredsum Thanks again for tuning in to Noire World Radio. I’ve got some big big plans this year including some live shows and more interviews. Big shout out to _THESMOOTHCAT for sitting down with me and hand delivering the vinyl record. You will be hearing from us on a track very soon! Peace, Nigel Noire aka Tito the Griot Noire World Radio @noireworldradio This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit noireworld.substack.com/subscribe [https://noireworld.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

Noire World Radio Ep. 6 "Mavi's World"

Hey family, It’s been a minute! I hope everyone had a good thanksgiving and spent time with your people or just yourself. Ain’t no shame in being alone around the holidays. This time around I am bringing some interesting vibes to the show. I went to Earl Sweatshirt’s “3L World Tour” supporting his latest album Live, Laugh, Love which is one of my favorites of the year. The lineup featured Cletus Strap, Mavi, Zelooperz, Liv.e and of course Earl Sweatshirt himself. I decided to bring my camera to grab some footage but thought the audio would be dope to splice into the show. So that’s what y’all are getting this episode! I’m not going to lie, I didn’t copy all my notes over and I gotta go attend to some festivities as I’m writing this on the anniversary of my birth. I gotta make some moves today, but if you would like to give me any gift this birthday, share this show with at least one person. I promise the new year will be very much more fruitful on this platform. There will be more album reviews, interviews, and more as I wanna keep this project fun and interesting. Also trust and believe a xmas episode is coming! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit noireworld.substack.com/subscribe [https://noireworld.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

Noire World Radio Ep. 4 "IF NOT HIM, THEN WHO?"

Spooky season is here. I’m sure y’all were scared you’d never see me again, but I’m back like Jason Voorhees. This episode is a lot more trim. I kept it to 1 hour so you ain’t gotta slog through too much. A lot of the hold up on this was truly on some imposter syndrome shit. I realized fully after the last episode that my audio was cooked and I was stressing out over how to get it right. The goal is to get my recording setup a little cleaner. I really need a proper mixing board. Nothing too crazy, just need to get my levels right. But in the meantime between time, I got more intentional with my playlist and theme. Throughout the episode, you’ll hear a lot of the soundscapes from the HIM original movie score. HIM was a super hyped film this fall. They slapped that Jordan Peele name all over it. Aaaand it was cool. I thought it was a really well shot film. It didn’t seem like a big production, but there was really a lot of intention behind it. One thing that really stuck with me from the beginning was the music. Bobby Krlic aka The Haxan Cloak, was responsible for the score, and man did he kill it. He talks about tapping into childhood sounds like lullabies and toy soundboxes. It really built up the tension and suspense. The protagonist Cameron Cade, is a young athlete trying to navigate this unknown situation to move on in his professional life. I thought the soundtrack did a good job of putting you in a place of wonder, curiosity, and exploration. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNRyI7yADoE [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNRyI7yADoE] Movie soundtracks are forgotten art these days. I remember when the music did half, if not more, of the marketing for films. Wild Wild West, Men In Black, Bad Boys II. And these are just Will Smith movies haha. But we used to get full rollouts and music videos with original music specifically made for or inspired by the film. Sinners was practically a musical with a lovely soundtrack that still gets spins on a regular from me. HIM continues that trend, especially in the horror/suspense genre. I think that's where Jordan Peele's Monkey Paw Productions keeps their name strong. I fondly remember the Us trailer with a haunting version of Luniz's "I Got 5 On It" or 2021's Candyman creepy version of Destiny Child's "Say My Name". HIM follows right along in that trend. All of the original songs from the soundtrack sample parts Bobby Krlic's score and it fits perfectly. I thought HIM itself as a movie was alright. If I was a ratings guy I'd probably give it a 3/5. Fun right until the ending. I ended up checking out the deleted scenes and I think they would've been good for extra context. Now a days these movies have a minimum runtime of like 2 hours, so for HIM to land at only 96 mins, it probably would've been a fuller picture with the scrapped scenes and maybe that alternate ending which i thought was better. Also the whole time in the movie I'm like, you know there's other teams in the league, why you going through all this just to replace your idol? But that's what you get when your brain is mush before you turn 25. Anyways, that's my time. Thanks for checking in for another episode. Hope this reaches you well and wishing everyone a happy spooky season. Also important update, I am pushing this radio show out as a podcast so you can now listen on Apple Podcasts. If there are any other platforms (not Spotify) I should add it to, let me know! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit noireworld.substack.com/subscribe [https://noireworld.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

Noire World Radio Ep. 3 "READ THE FINE PRINT"

This is episode 3 of Noire World Radio This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit noireworld.substack.com/subscribe [https://noireworld.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]