Benji B did this interview in 2017, but it’s even more essential in 2026: Mike Banks talks about the meaning behind techno music, with legendary tracks mixed right in. And let’s go around the corner to hear from Waajeed and the Underground Music Academy from this summer.
Here’s Mad Mike on Benji B; it’s a full music mix with chat mixed in there here and there.
Benji B’s whole radio backlog is a treasure trove; here’s the latest episode with one Saul Williams:
Benji shared this snippet, which I deeply appreciate — talking about the roots of the music with sub-$200 pawnshop gear:
It’s real ironic that techno come from the hood, but these manufacturers making all these $5000 pieces of gear — it’s almost like you’re taking the tools away from the creative people that pioneered these genres of music. Korg, they’ve been supporting UR for quite a while and they made this little piece called volca series. They’re little $160 pieces, and they’re very dangerous tools in the hands of a poor person who ain’t got a lot, but who’s got a lot of creativity.
Onto the current moment — and crucially, not just fetishizing the past, but looking at a new generation and how it builds from those roots.
There was a tree growing in the building of the NAACP — but now something else is growing. Waajeed, co-founder of the Underground Music Academy, talks about the teaching hub he’s building in that site:
Hanif’s full series, Living for the City, is a must. Check the complete series, out this year.
So it’s not only talk, here’s Waajeed jamming live on some percussion:
Here, just to close out, with all this illumination, it seems only right to play this: