The Sunday Music Drop is a weekly radio series hosted by the KQED weekend news team. In each segment, we feature a song from a local musician or band with an upcoming show and hear about what inspires their music.
Berkeley-raised producer and vocalist Isaiah Mostafa says there’s a certain authenticity within the art scene in the Bay Area, in part because of the historical legacy of revolutionary movements and organizations like the Black Panther Party.
Mostafa’s father was a producer, MC, DJ, and member of Aztlan Nation, a political Chicano hip-hop group from West Berkeley and Oakland. His mother was a singer and MC and his grandmother was a folk musician as well.
Mostafa describes his style as “music to stretch to.”
“I like focusing on music that isn’t even too focused on the words sometimes,” he said. “I like to listen to music that I don’t know what they’re saying…it’s in different languages.”