This is a word, a podcast from Slate. I'm your host, Jason Johnson.

June is officially Black Music Month, but really African American culture is an internal force shaping and defining what our society listens to throughout the ages.

This June, we're celebrating by digging into the hits of a pivotal period of Black music,

1994.

That's why I appreciate music and hip-hop so much especially from that time because it's like everybody's first shot to show the rest of us what life looked like in these places and they did it so well that we all became experts in places we've never seen.

The big hits and deep cuts of black music history coming up on a word with me, Jason Johnson.

Stay with us. Welcome to a word, a podcast about race and politics and everything else. I'm your host,

Jason Johnson. June is Black Music Month and it's a wonderful time to consider

what makes some songs or albums African American classics. So kick off your shoes, relax your feet, party

on down to this X-gate beat today. We're going to do that by going full Gen X and a little

bit of millennial nostalgia and

celebrating the greatest records in black music that turned 30 this year.

Join us to celebrate the sound of 1994 and talk about how it resonates today is Panama Jackson.

He's a longtime cultural commentator and columnist for the Black Online Journal

The Griot, Panama Jackson, welcome to a word.

Thanks for having me, Excited to be here.

I want to start with this as a cultural critic, writer, and consumer.

What is black music?

How are we defining, or how do you define black music to start?

Black music, I think anything created by black people in any facet of the process to me is going to be black music.

And it doesn't matter if it's country country I know we're all in the country

music now shout us to Beyoncé and you know however you got there we're a part of every

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