Photo by Awa Mally
Julian Green
In spring of 2022, MPR’s The Current will launch the Urban Alternative Project (UAP), an initiative that brings new hip hop and R&B music to radio listeners through programming, community engagement, and content that highlights the sound of the Twin Cities.
That project will be led by Julian Green, a recent University of Minnesota graduate. Green has made waves in local radio—first at the U’s Radio K-KUOM, where he spent his four years doing everything from program-directing to eventually creating the Vanguard, a 24/7 hip hop stream, and now at The Current with UAP.
“A lot of people say math is a universal language. But I feel like music is truly a universal language,” Green said. “Even if you don't really speak the language of a song, you can still feel the rhythm, you can still get inspired by the melody and you can still have it affect all these moments in your life. I just want to share that with other people. I want this new project to be a vessel for that to show people new music that they haven't heard before, to give alternative artists a platform locally and nationally, and share great music, because that's one thing I really love to do.”
What radio stations did you listen to while you were growing up?
I'm originally from Milwaukee, so when I was really young, I was listening to a lot of the hip hop and R&B stations there. The two big ones were 98.3, which was more of a classic oldies, R&B station, and then the other one that I probably listened to more of was 100.7, the current hip hop station. As I got older, I started listening to XM radio’s The Heat, their underground stations, or their decades stations, as they became more available to me.
A couple of artists that I remember really liking from a young age are people like Kanye West and OutKast. I remember loving hearing singles from "Speakerboxx/The Love Below" and "The College Dropout" on the radio. "Jesus Walks," "The Way You Move," "Through The Wire," and especially "Hey Ya" are top of mind. I've been listening to both artists for as long as I can remember, and I still love them today.
When did you realize you had a passion for music?
The most foundational experience I had was playing Rock Band 2 when I was 9. It opened my eyes to songs that I would've never heard without that game, or at least I would've heard them much later in life. Playing those songs made me pay attention to the intricacies of the production and song structure. I didn't realize the elements of a song before I played that game and I obsessed over trying to learn each song. Playing the songs with such repetition made me love them, and those were some of the first songs I ever searched for on YouTube. I always loved music as a kid, but I credit that game and experience with making me obsessed with it. I still listen to a lot of those songs today and I keep a copy of the game and a plastic guitar in my apartment. I wouldn't work in music without that game.
In 2020 you launched The Vanguard through Radio K, an online, uncensored college hip hop stream. Is the Urban Alternative Project an extension of this?
I definitely see that logic. But I also see it as something completely different. I was at a completely different part of my life when we were building the Vanguard, we had completely different sets of resources when building the Vanguard, and we kind of just had to play it by ear. I'm really proud of what the Vanguard became, and what the Vanguard is, and in some ways, this might end up being slightly similar, since it's in a similar kind of format. But it's definitely not just going to be the Vanguard part two. But I plan on using what I learned to build on that to create things that we couldn't do before.
How did you find your way into broadcast journalism? Was that something you knew you wanted to pursue as you began college?
So I went into college really interested in things like sociology and political science. I got a scholarship for being focused on doing things with the community, reaching out to underprivileged parts of society and just helping them make things better, specifically in Milwaukee. I thought that sociology and political science would be a way to do that.
But in the classes, we were already just saying things we already knew, and just kind of patting each other on the back, so it didn't really feel gratifying to do that kind of work. But my first semester in college, I remember just following the music blogs and realizing that music journalism is an actual thing. You don't really get taught that in high school. They don't talk about creative industries.
So once I actually thought about it, journalism made the most sense to go into more than any other field. I wanted to make these changes, but sociology and political science were too theoretical. I felt like music was a more practical application; music connects people so much. So I felt like music could be a way to build community and affect change.
What are you looking forward to accomplishing through this project, and how has your experience at Radio K informed this?
Placing importance on teaching the music, the history behind the music, and just showing the diversity of Black musical expression, because there's so much to it, it's so deep, and it's so foundational to the canon of American music. That's something I became really passionate about at Radio K. I had a specialty show focused on just showcasing all kinds of Black music when I was like a freshman and a sophomore. And then also, through my work on the Vanguard, too. With that, focus on history, and, you know, showing the diversity of this musical expression.
How do you constantly seek out new and interesting music?
Social media helps a lot. I try to follow people who also like music and look for their recommendations. I like to follow rabbit holes, playing a song I like on Spotify or YouTube and then seeing what songs the algorithms offer up from there. I read a lot of music journalism and I get recommendations from there. It's also nice to hang out with friends in a car and see what they play on the aux cord. I'm always hunting for new, exciting music to listen to or use in a DJ set. It's a really satisfying process. There's nothing like listening to a great song for the first time.
What is one issue public radio faces in reaching younger and more diverse audiences, and how does the UAP serve to engage a younger, diverse listenership?
I think maybe one of the biggest challenges of today is that, if you know exactly what music you want, you can just straight up get it. But I think sometimes it is fun to put it in another person's hands and see someone else's perspective and have new music discovery, which is something I think people really appreciate. So I think we will appeal to younger audiences by having a strong voice, having a strong focus on new music discovery, and maybe not necessarily giving people exactly what they want. So I think we appeal to younger demographics by reaching them where they're at with a language they can understand. And just by having a cohesive strong vision that people can learn from or just see themselves in.
How do you see the urban music genre changing in 2022, and how has it already changed?
The urban category is a very wide, very subjective net. It seems to mean something different to everyone. As we go forward, I see the definition mutating more, and maybe even going away completely. If you look in the past, you'll see the urban category has had many names: "Harlem Hit Parade," "Race Records," "Hot Black Singles," then eventually the hip-hop and R&B charts that we know today. The wording will change with time, but the sentiment of separating the achievements of artists on the basis of race will likely remain, unfortunately. We plan to use the subjectivity and width of the Urban Alternative category to achieve our goal of creating a diverse, eclectic mix of music and challenge the status quo by showing the ubiquity and influence of these artists.
