Season 3, Episode 13
Mark Katz is John P. Barker Distinguished Professor of Music at UNC Chapel Hill; Alim Braxton is a rapper on death row, who has been incarcerated in Central Prison in North Carolina since 1993. In 2019, they struck up a correspondence, and then a friendship, and are now writing a book. This is their story.
Alim Braxton raps as Rrome Alone; Mark Katz is John P. Barker Distinguished Professor of Music at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
If you’re interested in learning more about their work, check out:
- Rrome Alone’s music on SoundCloud
- Braxton’s Instagram, @rromealone
- Braxton’s music video for “Live on Death Row”
- An article Braxton wrote about his latest song for Scalawag
- An article by Katz about his work with Braxton
- The book Inside: Voices from Death Row, to which Braxton contributed
- Katz’s 2019 book Build: The Power of Hip Hop Diplomacy in a Divided World
- Katz’s 2022 book Music and Technology: A Very Short Introduction
Sound Expertise is hosted by Will Robin (@seatedovation), and produced by D. Edward Davis (@warmsilence). Please subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and/or Spotify. Questions or comments? Email soundexpertise00 @ gmail
A written transcript of this episode is available here; thanks to Andrew Dell’Antonio for volunteering to prepare transcripts for the show!
Sound Expertise 