HEAVY ROTATION: AMAZON MUSIC'S ROCHELLE BALOGUN GOES DEEP

Amazon Music Curator, Hip-Hop and R&B Rochelle Balogun is responsible for some of the service’s most beloved playlists, notably the DSP’s highly lauded Rotation program. Maintaining these vital properties requires deep knowledge of the genres in question, which Balogun certainly possesses. But it also takes real passion for the music, which is abundantly evident when she talks about it.

Let’s talk about Rap Rotation and how it’s being deployed in the context of hip-hop’s 50th anniversary.

When I joined the team almost five years ago, Rotation did not exist. It’s something the team, including [Head of Hip-Hop and R&B] Tim Hinshaw and I, built from the ground up. My job description called for me to launch a global hip-hop playlist, because we didn’t have a product in the market that was competitive with what was out there. That’s what Rotation became. It’s been our flagship brand with respect to hip-hop and speaking to that customer—surfacing music and artists, trends and subgenres for our hip-hop consumer.

With respect to the 50th anniversary, our slogan for this celebration is “50 and Forever”; that’s how Amazon Music is recognizing the past 50 years of this genre and its impact. Hip-hop was born in the Bronx in New York, but 50 years later, it’s grown to reach every pocket of the world.

My role is to chronicle that story for our customers, how women, developing artists, subgenres and sampling have all played a role in that. We do that through decades/era programming, where fans can rediscover catalog of the ’80s, ’90s, 2000s and 2010s, looking at regional hip-hop, rediscovering Midwestern and Southern hip-hop, East Coast and West Coast hip-hop.

I know from talking to Tim that it was about breaking away from the most familiar subjects and expanding listeners’ understanding of the range and depth of the music.

Absolutely. We have casual listeners who are “hip-hop curious,” who might listen to our Country Heat playlist and then mosey on down to Rap Rotation. And when [Memphis rapper] Young Dolph passed and we created his Rediscover, it was one of the top-performing playlists for us. There’s an appetite for Memphis rap and rap coming from the South in general. For us, it was really important to paint that colorful picture of what hip-hop is.

I’m not sure those people in the Bronx at that block party in 1973 knew what they were doing would have the impact it has. When Roxanne Shanté was the pioneer of rap in Queens for women, I don’t think she knew she was inspiring some girl in Harlem or Brooklyn. So, for me, it’s been really important—and a fun challenge—to give our customers the Lil Kims and the Lauryn Hills but also to dive deep and do Roxanne, Queen Latifah, Monie Love and all the other women who’ve contributed to hip-hop.

The past four or five years have seen a huge evolution in terms of women in the genre. When I started at Amazon Music, Megan Thee Stallion wasn’t even close to being a household name―“Big Ole Freak” was still underground. Now, you’ve got Latto, Doechii, BIA… My role has been to showcase that narrative but also to pay homage to all the contributing factors that have brought us to where we are today, 50 years on.

When I was creating regional Rediscover playlists, you’ve obviously got the East and the West, but let’s not forget about that Midwest, where you had artists like Bone Thugs-n-Harmony [from Cleveland] and Common [Chicago]—things that were mainstream but you forget they emerged from this middle pocket of the country. It’s about getting that full spectrum. Yes, we know Outkast, but what about Three 6 Mafia, Scarface or UGK? These are legends in their own right from the world of Southern hip-hop. When we think about hip-hop, authenticity has always been our North Star, and we couldn’t be authentic if we weren’t providing a full picture.

In terms of your personal experience, what do you recall as your first encounter with hip-hop?

I’ve always been a fan of hip-hop. I’m a native Angeleno, from South Central L.A. My earliest music memory is Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg. I come from an era where there was an East Coast versus West Coast beef. But I come from a Haitian family, so I had family back East and was introduced very early to Wu-Tang and ODB and Nas, and I absolutely loved all that too. I remember having to hide from my friends here that I liked ODB and 36 Chambers. And I had to hide hip-hop from my mom altogether because of the language. I did listen to songs with curse words, but I also remember hearing “U.N.I.T.Y.” by Queen Latifah, and she says, “Who you callin’ a bitch?” and it was very in-your-face. However, I understood that there was a message, that there was depth to it, and I loved that. I also remember loving Fugees because my father is Haitian and Wyclef Jean is Haitian and I have an Uncle Jean.

You were a hip-hop omnivore, even then.

It was really 2Pac, Biggie, The Chronic, Death Row and on the East Coast side, Wu-Tang, Nas and Mobb Deep. On the female side, Fugees and a deep dive with Lauryn because she could sing and rap, which was novel at the time. Mary J. Blige, too—I know she’s R&B, but she’s the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul. The storytelling in what she did had a real impact on me.