On today’s 5-on-5 we dig into the world of Solomon Fox, a North Carolina-born singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer who has quietly become one of the defining architects of the new soul wave.

Before he ever stepped to the mic as a solo artist, Fox was helping to shape the sound of others, co-creating the gospel-infused anthem “Stand Up” for the film Harriet and earning Grammy, Oscar, and Golden Globe nominations as a producer in the process.

His story runs straight through Durham, North Carolina, where he cut his teeth in the hip hop and R&B collective Young Bull, touring and helping revive a local scene while still in high school. From there he went to Harvard, studying Religion and Music under heavyweights like Cornel West, Vijay Iyer, and Esperanza Spalding.

That mix of church-bred harmony, producer discipline, and intellectual rigor would show up in his own records, where left-of-center soul arrangements, intimate vocals, and off-kilter lyrics sit comfortably next to funk-leaning grooves. Tonight, we trace that journey in five songs.

5 Essential Tracks by Solomon Fox

1: “Body’s An Ocean” (2021) 

Critics noted how Solomon leaned on stacked gospel harmonies, sparse keys and guitar, and heavy, unhurried bass lines that left plenty of space for his voice to sit front and center.

2: “Dreamcatcher” (2021)

Staying with the same album, we move to another cut that shows how he threads dreams, memory, and melody together. Across that project, Fox drew on R&B, soul, and gospel to build a slick, lovesick collection of coming-of-age musical snapshots that effortlessly glide into one another, showing an artist with a high ceiling of potential. That blueprint would carry forward as he moved from Bandcamp and word-of-mouth circles into a wider digital spotlight. 

3: “Weird” (2024) 

By 2024, his sound had jumped from local outlets to global timelines, thanks in part to a single that lived on Instagram and TikTok as much as in playlists. Along with its companion single “You Don’t Cook,” “Weird” racked up millions of views across Instagram and TikTok, putting his off-center R&B on the radar of listeners and legends alike, including Queen Latifah, Ty Dolla Sign, and T-Pain, who lauded his work.

This would set the table for his latest work, the 13-track fully self-produced album “Sweettooth.”

4: “Fallin’ Back (feat. Amaria)” (2025)

“Sweettooth” is a a five-year diary about one relationship and all the back and forth that came from it. One of the clearest windows into that story is a duet that unfolds like a 2 a.m. confession, written and produced in his bedroom and built around a hypnotic beatscape and dreamy chord structure. Solomon trades verses with songstress Amaria on a track that he pares down to warm synth washes, a relaxed groove, and two voices orbiting the same bad habit.

Compared to the boundary-pushing work he has done for artists like Smino and Thundercat, “Fallin’ Back” was less about him flexing his producer toolkit and more about letting vulnerability sit in the foreground. From there, Sweettooth opens out into a full emotional map: gut-punch breakups, sugar-rush infatuations, and the slow recognition that some connections are beautiful precisely because they cannot last.

5: “Blind Date Town” (2025)

Another cut that demonstrates Fox’s understanding of the music and cultural lineage of modern soul is “Blind Date Town.” It merges influences ranging from gospel choirs to D’Angelo to the contemporary soul renaissance. The result is music that feels familiar enough to hold you, and strange enough to keep you listening.

If you dig artists who embody the spirit of new-school soul and future-funk, keep listening to The Progressive Underground every Saturday evening at 6 p.m. on WDET 101.9 FM and wdet.org. For The Progressive Underground, my name is Chris Campbell. See you next time.

Each year, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is remembered through a narrow lens. A quote. A speech. A dream, often stripped of the urgency, conflict, and radical clarity that defined his final years. This MLK Weekend edition of The Progressive Underground resists that flattening. Instead, the playlist traces King’s full moral and political arc, from spiritual grounding and collective grief to economic justice, cultural resistance, and the unfinished work he left behind.

Martin Luther King Jr. was not only a civil rights icon. He was a strategist under surveillance, a critic of capitalism and militarism, and a leader willing to lose popularity in order to tell the truth. The music selected here reflects that complexity.

Across six carefully sequenced and curated sets, this special moves through gospel-rooted endurance, protest music that forced America to confront itself, songs that examine dignity and self-worth, and contemporary voices carrying King’s questions forward. From Mahalia Jackson, Nina Simone, and Curtis Mayfield to Kendrick Lamar, D’Angelo, and Kamasi Washington, the playlist treats music as historical witness and moral record. It also honors Detroit’s role in shaping King’s legacy, particularly through Stevie Wonder’s campaign to make Dr. King’s birthday a national holiday.

This is not a nostalgia set. It’s a listening experience designed to engage King as he actually lived and evolved, challenging, demanding, and unfinished. 

Check the playlist below and listen to the episode for two weeks after it airs using the player above.

1st Hour

• “Let the Sunshine In”–Jimetta Rose & The Voices of Creation
• “Why? (The King of Love Is Dead)”–Nina Simone
• “People Get Ready”–Curtis Mayfield
• “Wholy Holy”–Marvin Gaye
• “Someday We’ll All Be Free”–Donny Hathaway
• “A Change Is Gonna Come”–Sam Cooke
• “Strange Fruit”–Billie Holiday
• “Winter in America”–Gil Scott Heron
• “A Dream”–Common feat. Will.i.am
• “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”–Gil Scott Heron
• “In the Name of Love”–U2
• “Compared to What”–Roberta Flack
• “Respect Yourself”–Staple Singers
• “Thinkin’ About Your Body”–Bobby McFerrin
• “Happy Birthday”–Stevie Wonder

2nd Hour

• “Alright”–Kendrick Lamar
• “The Charade”–D’Angelo
• “The People”–Common
• “6 Summers”–Anderson Paak
• “We The People”–A Tribe Called Quest
• “Everybody Loves the Sunshine”–Roy Ayers
• “I Am the Black Gold of the Sun”–Rotary Connection
• “Think of You”–Terrace Martin
• “Better Than I Imagined”–Robert Glasper
• “Faith, Courage & Wisdom”–Indie.Arie
• “Expansions”–Lonnie Liston Smith
• “Journey in Satchidananda”–Alice Coltrane
• “Truth”–Kamasi Washington
• “The Creator Has a Master Plan”–Pharoah Sanders
• “You Take Me Higher”–Fertile Ground

Today marks the 67th birthday of Sade Adu, the voice and frontwoman of Sade, and we are marking it by honoring the full body of work behind her name. While her presence is unmistakable, Sade has always been a band first. A collective built on shared restraint, patience, and long-term vision. What you hear is not just a singer out front, but a unified musical philosophy carried by bass, keys, guitar, rhythm, and silence working together.

Sade Adu’s mystique has never come from disappearance or distance. It comes from musical discipline; knowing when to sing, knowing when not to. That discipline only works because the band around her is equally committed to economy and control.

This is why today’s dive is not a 5-on-5. It is a 6-on-6. Six b-sides and deep cuts that reveal how the band shaped an identity by resisting excess, trusting space, and letting atmosphere do the heavy lifting.

6 Essential Tracks by Sade

1. “Cherry Pie” (Diamond Life , 1984)

Before Sade Adu became shorthand for late-night radio and adult elegance, Sade the band entered the early 1980s British music landscape as a quiet counterforce.

“Diamond Life” arrived during an era of stylistic maximalism, and the group responded with precision. This first cut sets the blueprint. Paul Denman’s bass stays measured. Andrew Hale’s keys leave room to breathe. Stuart Matthewman builds a restrained framework, and Sade Adu sings with observation rather than accusation.

Clarity over spectacle.

2. “War of the Hearts” (Promise, 1985)

If “Diamond Life” was arrival, their sophomore 1985 album release “Promise” was confirmation. The band deepened its commitment to mood as method and authenticated it with a rhythmic musicality that added a layer of sonic sheen to their jazzy and ethereal sound.

Recorded largely at Power Plant Studios in London and produced by the band themselves, “Promise” signaled Sade’s early insistence on creative control and cohesion, privileging atmosphere and emotional tension over radio immediacy. This is where Sade separated themselves from their peers with tracks that presented a complex urgency set amidst love as conflict.

3. “Keep Looking” (Stronger Than Pride, 1988)

By the late 1980s, success was no longer the question. Longevity was. Their next album “Stronger Than Pride” marked a deliberate shift in Sade’s trajectory.

Released in 1988 and largely recorded at Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas, the album resisted the polish and immediacy that had driven the success of “Diamond Life” and “Promise.” The band leaned into more of an exotic sound built more for mood than momentum. It was their most inward-looking record to that point and a clear statement that Sade was uninterested in chasing radio comfort.

This next track sits squarely at the center of that evolution. The lyrics acknowledge uncertainty as a constant rather than a problem to be solved. Musically, Paul Denman’s bass anchors the track, while Andrew Hale’s keys remain submerged and atmospheric.

4. “Like a Tattoo” (Love Deluxe, 1992)

When the band released “Love Deluxe” in 1992, they had fully stepped outside the prevailing direction of contemporary R&B. As the genre leaned toward New Jack Swing and hip-hop-driven production, Sade slowed everything down, thinning their arrangements and widening their thematic scope. Love Deluxe became their most critically revered album and eventually sold more than four million copies worldwide, distinguished by its restraint, emotional weight, and refusal to chase trends.

This next cut sits at the center of that evolution. Influenced by stories Sade Adu encountered from people shaped by war and displacement, the band shifted toward narrative distance and acoustic minimalism. This song unfolds as testimony rather than performance, with sparse instrumentation and no emotional cueing. Sade does not resolve or dramatize the story. She bears witness, trusting the listener to carry the meaning. In that restraint, the band reached a new level of artistic authority. 

5. “Skin” (Soldier of Love, 2010)

The group would release a commercially well-received album “Lovers Rock” in 2000 and would then step away at the height of their influence. Sade Adu would withdraw from public life to focus on family, and the band overall resisted industry pressure to produce quickly, resulting in a full decade without a studio release.

When they returned in 2010 with “Soldier of Love,” the absence gave the music added gravity. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and reaffirmed the band’s authority. This track reflects that passage of time, confronting desire, regret, and emotional exposure with uncommon directness. Its restrained production places the focus squarely on Sade Adu’s vocal, shaped by experience rather than nostalgia.

6. “Should I Love You” (Unreleased)

To understand Sade fully, you have to look not only at what they released, but at what they chose to hold back. From the beginning, the band operated with collective discipline, treating restraint as part of the art itself. Songs were not issued simply because they were finished. They were released only when they aligned with the band’s emotional economy and long-term vision. That approach is why Sade’s catalog feels curated rather than accumulated, and why absence became a form of authorship rather than retreat.

We’ll end with a song from the early “Diamond Life” era, recorded while the band was still defining its identity and standards. Even at that stage, the song reveals a principle that would carry through their entire career. Love is not assumed. It is questioned.

And there you have it, six songs, six eras and one quiet revolution, on the birthday of Helen Folosade Adu, the lead singer of the band Sade.

If you dig artists who treat soul music as a discipline rather than a trend, who understand restraint as power and atmosphere as language, you are listening to the right place. Keep it locked to The Progressive Underground every Saturday evening at 6 p.m. on WDET 101.9 FM and anytime at wdet.org.

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This week we are tapping in with GENA, a new project from Dallas-born, now L.A.-based vocalist Liv.e and legendary Detroit drummer and producer Karriem Riggins. The name is loosely inspired by Gina from the classic sitcom “Martin,” and the music moves in that same playful but grown lane, blurring jazz, R&B and left-of-center soul.

“Circlesz” is the first single from their collaboration, and it plays like a late-night loop: dusty drums, fluid keys and Liv.e’s floating vocal lines all orbiting each other in motion.

Here is GENA with “Circlesz,” and it is my Pick of the Week.

That was “Circlesz” from GENA, the duo of vocalist Liv.e and artist-drummer Karriem Riggins.

If jazzy, future-soul cuts like this are your lane, tune in to The Progressive Underground every Saturday evening at 6 p.m. on 101.9 WDET and at wdet.org. 

This week we are tapping in with Detroit emcee, producer and sonic shape-shifter Ilajide. A former member of the acclaimed underground crew Clear Soul Forces, he has carved out a deep catalog on his own, dropping five full-length projects and seven EPs along the way.

Ilajide is back with a new release, “Pocket Jams 2,” a record that blends late-70s and early-80s funk and hip hop with the future-leaning sound of 2025. It is proudly Detroit to the core and carries the kind of cosmic swagger you could imagine The Electrifying Mojo spinning during his late-night transmissions.

The cut we are about to get into is a standout. It channels Rick James energy, P-Funk flavor and Ilajide’s signature rhythmic snap, with Radio Galaxy riding shotgun for an extra layer of groove. Here is Ilajide featuring Radio Galaxy with “Stallion,” and it is my Pick of the Week.

That was Ilajide featuring Radio Galaxy with “Stallion,” from his latest release “Pocket Jams 2.”

If this kind of Detroit-bred funk hits your bloodstream, lock in with The Progressive Underground every Saturday at 6 p.m. on 101.9 WDET and at wdet.org.

This week’s pick comes from multiple Grammy nominated artist and producer Solomon Fox, who has been steadily building a reputation as one of soul music’s most intriguing emerging voices.

After a much acclaimed mixtape in 2021, he is back with his proper solo debut album “Sweettooth,” loaded with collaborations from rising talents like Duckwrth, Samm Henshaw and Mai Anna.

The cut we are about to get into features vocalist Amaria. Their back and forth on this track is all chemistry and feel, wrapping tight melodies around a warm, future soul groove.

Here is Solomon Fox featuring Amaria with “Fallin’ Back,” and it is my Pick of the Week.

That was Solomon Fox with “Fallin’ Back” featuring Amaria, from his debut album “Sweettooth.”

If future soul sounds like this move you, tune in to The Progressive Underground every Saturday at 6 p.m. on 101.9 WDET and at wdet.org. 

This week we are rocking with the legendary De La Soul, who just dropped a new album called “Cabin In The Sky.” It is part of Mass Appeal’s Legend Has It series, which links up classic rap crews with new projects for a new era.

De La steps back into the spotlight missing a core voice. Trugoy the Dove, also known as Dave, passed two years ago, but he is here posthumously alongside Pos and Mase, trading verses with a who’s who from progressive hip hop and beyond: Nas, Killer Mike, Black Thought, Q-Tip, Yukimi from Little Dragon and more, with production from heavyweights like Pete Rock and DJ Premier.

The cut we are about to get into is classic De La: laid-back, witty, conversational and groove-centered. Here is De La Soul with “The Package” off “Cabin In The Sky” and it is my Pick of the Week.

That was “The Package” from De La Soul, the lead single from their new album “Cabin In The Sky.”

If progressive hip hop like this moves you, lock in with The Progressive Underground every Saturday at 6 p.m. on 101.9 WDET and online at wdet.org.

Thanks for listening, and we will see you next time.

This week we are locking in with UK singer, songwriter and guitarist Lianne La Havas, who has carved out her own lane in alternative soul and folk, drawing on influences that range from Nina Simone to Lauryn Hill.

She first turned heads in the early 2010s with a mostly acoustic, intimate blend of folk and soul. Now she returns after a five year break with a single that puts everything back in focus. This track is built on sparse, airy guitar and that unmistakable voice, delivering emotional weight without a lot of extra production. It is stripped down, honest and vulnerable in a way that feels almost conversational.

Here is Lianne La Havas with “Disarray” and it is my Pick of the Week.

That was Lianne La Havas with “Disarray,” her first new material in five years and an early signal of what is coming on her next album.

If you are into raw, acoustic soul like this, tune in to The Progressive Underground every Saturday at 6 p.m. on 101.9 WDET and online at wdet.org. 

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