James Brown vs. Nas (feat. Ben Hanson)

A rap classic meets a piece of soul history in the inaugural episode of MinnTrax! Host Matt Helgeson and guest Ben Hanson discuss the music they chose for each other – Ben chose James Brown’s 1971 live album Love, Power, Peace for Helgeson, while Helgeson chose Nas’ inimitable Illmatic for non rap-listener Ben – to see if they can find middle ground between the music they love and the music they’ve never heard. Then we go through some great community questions to learn more about Helgeson and Ben’s music tastes, the songs that defined their childhoods, and what streaming services mean for the future of the music industry before diving headlong into this episode’s community-suggested track. MinnTrax is produced by Jason Dafnis.

To jump to a particular discussion, check out the timestamps below...

13:02 - Why Hanson loves James Brown and Love, Power, Peace

16:25 - Why Helgeson’s loves rap and Illmatic

24:36 - The longevity of Love, Power, Peace

48:39 - The influence of Illmatic

1:07:10 - Comparing Illmatic and Love, Power, Peace head-to-head

1:21:18 - MinnTrax community questions

1:39:14 - The Community Song Of The Week - STFU! by Rina Sawayama

Support MinnMax on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/minnmax

Illmatic on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/album/3kEtdS2pH6hKcMU9Wioob1?si=NbExJMfhRm6SHz5gRgOOpg

Love, Power, Peace on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/album/17CzII6yMCKvKupQtq7zbW?si=P-9NJ7s_QSqekNZ4lT2m3g

MinnTrax Community Playlist: https://spoti.fi/3aRRgox