Current Celebrates Black History Month With Playlist Featuring Wilco, Tame Impala

Throughout the month of February, The Current will feature a special playlist celebrating African-American artists both on-air and available to stream on its website. The playlist, curated by The Current’s sixteen on-air hosts (fifteen of whom are white), aims to celebrate important musical contributions by African-Americans in a way that is palatable to people who listen to The Current.

In a heartfelt curator’s statement signed by on-air staff, The Current hopes the playlist, which prominently features multiple songs by Wilco and Tame Impala, will celebrate “the full breadth of the African-American experience, from Chicago to Western Australia and beyond [sic].”

“At The Current, we lift up those who lift up others,” the statement continued, “those brave artists who celebrate and further African-American music; artists like Amy Winehouse, Sam Smith, Adele.”

When asked about the notable absence of Prince and Lizzo songs from the playlist, a spokesperson for The Current noted that Purple Current, the online stream of Prince and Prince-adjacent artists, has a separate but equally as great playlist celebrating Black History Month that heavily features Prince and Lizzo songs.