BLACKCORB DAY

BLACKCORB DAY is a weekly hip hop program broadcast live from Barcelona every Friday at 11pm on Radio Sant Feliu 105.3 FM. Jimmy Jimenez presents it, and his presence is the show's spine. He announces the studio he is sitting in. He repeats, cheerfully and often, that he has been on hip hop radio since 1992. The format is old-fashioned in the best sense. Records are played, then explained. New Spanish singles sit next to American material from the eighties and nineties, and the host treats both with the same seriousness. An episode on Liquid Swords works through the album's production credits. Another is dedicated to J.J. Fad and their 1988 record Supersonic, framed as a tribute to pioneering women in the culture. There is real archival memory here. The host recalls interviews he conducted on his own show in the nineties and wonders aloud whether he can dig the tapes out and play them again. Interviews take up substantial time rather than being squeezed into a corner. When L-MANDA and DJ JABA come in to discuss The Soul Station, the conversation drifts naturally into how the pandemic accelerated the scene's move to Twitch, video clips and social media, and whether the physical culture of parties and meeting people can be rebuilt. Nobody rushes the answer. Universo Pino is a recurring collaboration with Pino from Sevilla, whose installments are pitched as funny and personal, tracing the songs that marked different chapters of his life. Sessions from DJs and remembers of older tracks round out the running order. The language is Spanish throughout, colloquial and affectionate. Listeners are addressed as family, brothers and sisters. The register is unguarded and occasionally coarse when the host gets excited about a record, which is part of the appeal rather than a lapse. Two catchphrases anchor everything: the crows fly over the night, and peace and respect. It closes the same way each week, with a final track, a farewell, and an invitation to behave badly or well, whichever suits. For anyone who grew up on rap radio, or who wants a genuine window into what is happening in Spanish hip hop right now, this is a show that has never stopped caring.