Carbon Sound, a Black music stream, website and app from Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) and The Current, in partnership with KMOJ, is expanding the narrow definition of what number of see Black music. It was launched on June 16, 2022, and joined MPR’s other musical streams, including Purple Current and Rock the Cradle.

In keeping with its website, Carbon Sound “is devoted to celebrating…Black musical expression through genres including hip-hop, R&B, Afrobeats, funk, electronica and more.” It celebrated its first anniversary on June 19, on the High quality Line in Minneapolis.

Content director Julian Green, midday host Sanni Brown, and community engagement specialist Andre Griffin are the guiding force behind Carbon Sound. Last week, Green and Brown spoke to the MSR in separate interviews.

“It’s just been a journey,” said Green. “It’s weird to think that we’ve been in a position to accomplish that much in a 12 months. It looks like just yesterday when the whole lot began. I believe all of us—myself, Sanni and Andre—are very happy with what we’ve put together.”

Brown added, “I call myself the host with probably the most. I would like to take up three hours of your time. I would like you to find out about music, and I would like you to find out about positive stuff. The goal of my show is to brighten people’s day and make it slightly bit higher. I would like them to walk away with music, to walk away with a positive message.”

Brown, a Chicago native and 2008 Concordia University-St. Paul graduate, was already working at The Current when Green hired her to affix Carbon Sound. “I asked my supervisor on the time what it was about, and when the chance to use got here out I went through the interview process, and I got it,” she noted.

Before coming to MPR in 2018, Brown previously worked at KMOJ and myTalk 107.1 FM.  After graduating from Concordia with a psychology degree, Brown applied for a “Do you wish to be a DJ?” scholarship from Globe University within the late 2000s; she was accepted and attended the University of St. Louis for journalism and broadcasting.

Together with being Carbon Sound’s original host, Brown still hosts “The Message,” a hip-hop and R&B show, every Wednesday on The Current.

Green, who grew up in Milwaukee, studied journalism on the University of Minnesota and graduated in 2021. He first gained his broadcasting experience working at the varsity’s student-run radio station Radio K in various roles, including program director. In his senior 12 months, he founded The Vanguard, a 24-hour hip-hop stream that also exists.  

He joined MPR in late 2021, first as an intern. “My superiors let me learn about a brand new grant they were applying for from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to fund an alternate stream,” recalled Green. “Things lined up in order that luckily I used to be in a position to be accepted for this position to steer the project called The Urban Alternative Project.

“It was really from the bottom up and fortunately with the ability to use my experience at Radio K… working with people inside MPR and others to construct what was obligatory for Carbon Sound to turn out to be what it’s,” continued Green.

Each he and Brown proudly boast ​of ​their musical love that was first nurtured as children growing up of their family homes.

“My mother would come home with barbecue and fries and a six-pack of beer on Fridays, sit next to the radio, turn it up. We might eat ribs and fries,” recalled Brown. “She was jamming by herself. I remember, I’d hear songs and go in there and dance. I actually consider that’s the ability of music.”

Said Green, “I believe music was just about throughout me for quite a lot of my life.” He remembers getting the Rock Band video game for Christmas, when he was about nine or 10. “The concept of the sport is to play together with all those [music] alternatives. I’d just obsess over that game once I was a child. All those different sorts of music turned me right into a listener of the whole lot.”

Brown and Green are each determined and dedicated to pushing Black music locally, beyond its typical boundaries. “There’s just a lot talent here within the Twin Cities that we actually feel honored to give you the option to spotlight and to bring them potentially to a national audience,” said Green.

“I actually like what we’re doing,” said Brown. “There’s a magic here. And I do know that the Black artists…haven’t had a platform. We have now a platform like Carbon Sound…to essentially elevate them.”

 Listeners can tune in to Carbon Sound at carbonsound.fm or via the Carbon Sound app, which could be found on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store.