I’m pretty out of touch on a lot of popular music because I’ve been just a local music scene girl for so many years. From Portland to Boston, and now Cleveland, I definitely have a lot of independent faves.

It can be hard to find new music when you don’t know what you’re looking for, so thankfully, this week I’m the first to report about “The People’s Playlist” from Cleveland Public Library. Keep reading to find out how to listen to 25 albums, all from artists based in the city.

This week’s pop culture recommendations are random, but I finally threw in my first and probably last basketball-themed one. At least, until it’s time to recommend One Tree Hill. (Actually though, the soundtrack on that show is 10/10.)

Separately, it’s just under two weeks until I head to Georgia. The 250lb cast iron historical marker has been delivered and I can’t wait to see the darn thing finally in the ground. If you can throw a couple bucks my way for the trip, every little bit helps → venmo or cash app.

Thanks for reading,
Dakotah

Listen to 25 albums from Cleveland-based musicians, totally free.

When talking about Cleveland’s music scene, it’s easy to jump to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame or the Cleveland Orchestra. Cleveland Public Library launched its inaugural “The People’s Playlist” to give people something else to talk about: the vibrancy of the city’s local artists. 

The playlist is totally free and features 25 artists who were selected by library staff and members of Cleveland’s arts community. There is a wide range of music to choose from, from folk, jazz, classic, hip-hop, rock and more.

“This project celebrates local artists, connects community members through shared experiences, and highlights the creativity that makes Cleveland’s music scene so special,” Hope Wondowsky from Cleveland Public Library told Upbeat Nonsense. In addition to working for the library, they also used to perform with The Frans, a public transit-themed rock band.

The People’s Playlist sets itself apart from other streaming services by paying its artists a $250 stipend to participate. It is also hosted on its own streaming service, avoiding controversial platforms such as Spotify. 

“Is it really an honor to have our work included alongside so many other artists,” Alonzo Johnson from the band Fox Ears said. “The fact that the organization reviewed and believes that our music should be shared with the community really feels good and lets us know that we are doing something right.”

Retro Pharaoh, a lyrical hip-hop artist who grew up in Shaker Heights, said he looks forward to sharing his work with a wider audience. 

“As a local independent artist, being recognized by CPL and having my music featured on the first People’s Playlist is an incredible opportunity,” he said. 

Over the last few years, elected officials, musicians and venue owners have put their heads together to try and find new ways to financially support its local music scene. For example, only 25% of the city’s music venues turned profits in 2024, according to a 2025 study, compared to the national average of 36%. 

The People’s Playlist is the next step in the library’s “ongoing commitment to celebrating local music and culture through free programming and performances across the city,” according to the press release. 

If you’re looking for free live music, you can find Cleveland Public Library’s full schedule here.

A few recommendations about the systemic failings of capitalism and the prison industrial complex. Plus, Mega Ran rapping about basketball.

Get yourself down to the movie theater and see Boots Riley’s latest film, I Love Boosters. The colorful fashion and whimsical score create a feast for the eyes and ears, while calling out capitalism for, well, being the worst. It’s an “absurdist crime comedy film,” and certainly is one I will remember for a long time.

I Love Boosters follows Corvette (played by Keke Palmer), an aspiring fashion designer who steals – or “boosts” – high-end clothes with her friends and resells them. Lakeith Stanfield (Sorry to Bother You, also from Riley) also makes a pretty intense – but ultimately hilarious – appearance. For what it’s worth, this movie was a lot less weird than Sorry To Bother You, and I mean that in the best way. 

Just watch the trailer, or better yet, buy a ticket.

If you’re wondering why I even know an album about basketball, it’s because Mega Ran is first and foremost a nerdcore rapper. 

Despite my dad’s best efforts, I really don’t know much about sports. I probably know the most about basketball, but even then, only enough to know that I should wait to recommend this album until there was some distance from the Cavs’ implosion in Game 1 of this year’s Eastern Conference Finals.

So, instead of saying anything else about sports, I’ll let Mega Ran’s Live ‘95 album take it from here.

“Comeback Player of the Year” is my favorite track on the album, but the whole thing is full of witty basketball references and shout-outs to revolutionary players such as “Craig Hodges.”

Hodges played for the Chicago Bulls from 1988 to 1992 and famously wore a daishiki to the White House to protest police brutality. He regularly tried to put pressure on other players, like Michael Jordan, to use their platform to amplify social justice issues. Jordan didn’t listen, a point Mega Ran is happy to throw around.

It’s probably surprising to hear that I never actually finished The Wire – technically, I still haven’t. I didn’t grow up with HBO, so it took me until after college to watch the first season, and I just lost momentum.

Set in Baltimore in the early 2000s, the series is commonly brought up when talking about problems in Cleveland’s government institutions. It’s a pretty standard police procedural, but it digs way deeper into systemic issues within labor, education and politics. If you haven’t seen it before, you’ll recognize some pretty famous faces, including Idris Elba, Michael B. Jordan and Michael K. Williams, to name a few.

The show is more than 20 years old, but it's still a masterclass on how systems fail people and how the people behind those systems pull at the levers, mostly for the worse.

I still have a season and a half left, but I’ve enjoyed that each season focuses on a different sector. The third season was about politics, and my jaw dropped when one of the officers suggested a harm reduction approach to crime prevention. They didn’t keep it, of course, but I was still stunned to see the idea floated in a positive light.

It’s kind of a weird show to recommend when the world is on fire, but here we are. It’s also wild how much of the show would be cut nowadays, because our constitutional privacy rights have been eroded so much over the last two decades. For example, a significant amount of the show is spent with cops navigating warrants and actually having to put in the work, as opposed to relying on highly criticized surveillance technology, as we are literally doing right now in Cleveland.

Tired of streaming and miss the days with actual channels? Someone created a free online TV simulator to watch a range of shows from the 50s through the 90s. It’s a pretty fun way to flip around and find something you’ve probably never seen before, especially as streaming services continue to short change us and charge more for less.