Former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama’s media company Higher Ground announced a new Spotify podcast series titled The Big Hit Show.
New York Times contributor Alex Pappademas is set to host the audio documentaries which cover film, music, television, internet culture, and video games. The Big Hit Show will present in-depth conversations with the visionaries behind the content.
“Alex is a seasoned journalist who thrives at investigating the intersection of pop culture and changing social attitudes,” said Dan Fierman, Higher Ground’s Head of Audio. “While delivering the proper social and historical context, he speaks directly to the creators of these pop culture behemoths to understand the thinking behind their work.”
Fierman adds, “[Alex Pappademas] has chosen an incredible initial selection for The Big Hit Show and the contrast between a romantic vampire novel for teenage girls and a funk-drenched jazz-rap odyssey illustrates the potentially infinite remit of this series.”
The February edition of The Big Hit Show will recount Hip Hop superstar Kendrick Lamar’s classic 2015 studio album To Pimp a Butterfly. Alex Pappadema is also delving into the 2008 romantic vampire fantasy film Twilight beginning January 12. The remaining chapters will hit Spotify throughout the year.
“The shows and films and albums we explore have all been chosen not just because they’re massive pieces of popular culture,” says Alex Pappademas. “We’ve picked them because each has had a profound butterfly effect on our culture.”
Pappademas continues, “Whether we’re tracing how an author’s vivid dream about a sparkly vampire led to an entirely new fan culture or how a megastar reckoning with success, expectation, and survivor’s guilt crafted a masterpiece that became the soundtrack to the biggest protest movement in a generation, listeners will know from chapter to chapter they’re getting a high stakes narrative that explains how our culture has been influenced and shaped by these creations.”
To Pimp a Butterfly won a Grammy Award for Best Rap Album in 2016. Rolling Stone placed the Top Dawg Entertainment/Interscope Records release at #19 on the magazine’s 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time list. Kendrick Lamar’s critically-acclaimed effort is currently certified Platinum by the RIAA.
