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Raphael Saadiq, Live At NPR's Tiny Desk Fest

Raphael Saadiq with Lucky Daye performs during Tiny Desk Fest, on Oct. 31, 2019.
Mhari Shaw
/
NPR
Raphael Saadiq with Lucky Daye performs during Tiny Desk Fest, on Oct. 31, 2019.

Raphael Saadiq is a national treasure. He played bass on tour with Prince. Penned D'Angelo's biggest hits. Helped Solange grab A Seat At The Table. And stretched the legacy of soul with his own material — from Tony! Toni! Toné! to Lucy Pearl to an impeccable solo discography — in between.

But this time it's personal. His new album, Jimmy Lee, is an exorcism of family tragedy and trauma, personified in blood, bone and blues. It's the story of American dysfunction run rampant, while the survivors find the guts to music their way through the pain. This time, Saadiq lights up the darkness by revealing his own. He's never sounded brighter.

Raphael Saadiq is making a rare second appearance at the Tiny Desk as part of NPR's Tiny Desk Fest on Thursday, Oct. 31, along with rising R&B star Lucky Daye. You can stream his entire set live on this page, beginning at 7 p.m. ET.

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Rodney Carmichael
Rodney Carmichael is NPR Music's hip-hop staff writer. An Atlanta-bred cultural critic, he documented the city's rise as rap's capital outpost for a decade while serving as music editor, staff culture writer and senior writer for the alt-weekly Creative Loafing. During his tenure there, he won awards for column writing, longform storytelling, editing and reporting on cultural issues ranging from gender to economic inequality. He also conceptualized and co-wrote "Straight Outta Stankonia"—an exhaustive look at Atlanta's gentrifying cultural landscape through the lens of OutKast—which was voted as one of the Atlanta Press Club's Top 10 Favorite Stories of the Past 50 Years.