What started as a low-key folk set behind a desk in a newsroom has become one of music's most iconic stages. This year, NPR's Tiny Desk Contest drew a record-breaking nearly 7,500 entries. Among them were 75 hopefuls from San Diego, all dreaming of a breakthrough moment.
In this episode, we spotlight two rising artists who stood out for their originality and emotional depth: Aleah Discavage, whose raw, autobiographical ballad is rooted in personal healing, and The Neighborhood Kids, who turned protest and passion into a high-voltage performance.
Plus, we'll unpack the fascinating origin story of Tiny Desk, explore why this unconventional contest continues to resonate with artists and fans alike and hear what drives these musicians to keep creating — even when the stage is small and the odds are long.
Guests:
Tiny Desk Concerts mentioned in this episode:
Aleah Discavage's influences:
The Neighborhood Kids' influences:
Mentioned in this episode:
- South by Southwest (SXSW) | Annual festival and conference in Austin, Texas, focused on tech, film, music, education and culture
- Auto-tune | Common term for pitch-correction software used to fix or stylize vocals in music production
- "American Idol" | Reality TV singing competition that began in 2002 and popularized the rise of unknown singers to music stardom
- Voice memos | Mobile recording feature that many musicians use to capture song ideas and drafts on the go
- Ringo Starr | Drummer of The Beatles and solo artist, often cited by musicians as a musical influence and cultural icon
- Keds | American shoe brand known for its simple canvas sneakers
- "Shrek 2" | 2004 animated sequel starring Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy and Cameron Diaz, following Shrek as he meets Fiona's royal parents
- "Beavis and Butt-Head" | 1990s MTV animated series starring two dim-witted teenage metalheads known for crude humor, social satire and music video commentary; later revived for new seasons and a 2022 film
Sources:
- "Ruby Ibarra: Tiny Desk Concert" (Elle Mannion, NPR, 2025)
- "Laura Gibson: Tiny Desk Concert" (Bob Boilen, NPR, 2008)
- "Tiny Desk Unit: A deeper history" (Michael Barron, BobBoilen.info, 2007)
- "The 'T-Pain Effect' Is About Way More Than Auto-Tune" (Bryan Parys, Berklee, 2020)
- "Oakland artist Fantastic Negrito wins yet another Grammy Award" (Jim Harrington, East Bay Times, 2021)
- "Naia Izumi Gets a Premium Wash in 'Soft Spoken' Video for Original Tracks" (Dean Brandt, Flood Magazine, 2019)
- "Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, ending right to abortion upheld for decades" (Nina Totenberg and Sarah McCammon, NPR, 2022)
From KPBS Public Media, The Finest is a podcast about the people, art and movements redefining culture in San Diego. Listen to it wherever you get your podcasts or click the play button at the top of this page and subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Pocket Casts, Pandora, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.
Have feedback or a story idea? We'd love to hear from you. Email us at thefinest@kpbs.org and let us know what you think.
Episode 9: Tiny Desk Contest Transcript
Julia Dixon Evans: Today, NPR Tiny Desk is one of the most recognized names in music. The stripped-down performances garner 20 million views a month on YouTube. Almost any current artist you can think of has done one. It's become kind of a rite of passage and a way to see a different side of a performer. It can also be a launchpad for lesser known artists.
In May, NPR announced Bay Area rapper Ruby Ibarra as the winner of its 2025 NPR Tiny Desk Contest.
[Music: Ruby Ibarra's "Bakunawa"]
Evans: She won from a pool of nearly 7,500 submissions, a record for the contest. About 75 of those entries were from the San Diego region. We divvied them up among five KPBS staff members, and each of us picked a favorite based on things like songwriting, innovation, musicality and performance — and even creative use of a desk. You can see all of our picks on KPBS.org.
Evans: But today on the podcast, my producer Anthony and I are going to talk about why we loved our own winners. We love them so much, in fact, that we gave them a call to learn more about their careers and the songs they performed, and we'll share those conversations too.
Aleah Discavage: I just had built up stuff, so then I just exploded. I was writing first thing in the morning. Go to work, come back home, stay up all night, write more, go to bed, wake up, write some more. So I wrote eight songs a week.
[Music: Aleah Discavage's "runaways"]
Amon the MC: We're just very tired of hearing music that doesn't represent the people or just very nonsense or just dumbing people down. People wanna relate to the music that they're listening to. People wanna hear people's stories or struggles.
[Music: The Neighborhood Kids' "BIDDI BOMB x HUSH"]
Evans: But first, a little history 'cause it's a good story. How did Tiny Desk get so huge? The whole thing started in 2008 in Austin at South by Southwest. NPR'S Bob Boilen, who started All Songs Considered, and music editor Stephen Thompson went to a bar to see folk singer Laura Gibson. It was so loud in the bar and so packed with people not paying enough attention to the music that Boilen and Thompson decided Gibson deserved a better setting.
They invited her to D.C. to perform at Boilen's desk at NPR headquarters. They filmed it and uploaded the video to NPR's website. People loved the simplicity and rawness of the performances, and it attracted big artists. Adele, Yo-Yo Ma and The National all did Tiny Desk Concerts in the early years. The rules? No amplification, no autotune. The series really took off in 2014 when the king of autotune himself, T-Pain, came to perform with his natural voice and it blew people's minds.
[Music: T-Pain's "Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin')"]
Evans: Since then, Mac Miller, Dua Lipa and Anderson .Paak have Tiny Desk performances each with more than 100 million views.
Fun fact: The desk is actually not tiny. In fact, it's kind of on the large side. The name Tiny Desk came from an old band Boilen used to play in called Tiny Desk Unit.
In 2015, NPR launched the Tiny Desk Contest, open to unsigned artists from across the country. The rules are: musicians must perform an original song, appear with a desk in the video and they cannot be signed to a major label. The winner gets to play a real Tiny Desk Concert at NPR headquarters in Washington D.C., goes on a 10-city tour and is paired with a music industry mentor. It's kind of like a new version of "American Idol," and several winners have gone on to major successes. The very first winner, Fantastic Negrito has since won multiple Grammys.
[Music: Fantastic Negrito's "Lost in a Crowd"]
Evans: Naia Izumi signed a major label record deal with Sony Music following his win.
[Music: Naia Izumi's "Soft Spoken"]
Evans: We were rooting hard for a San Diego winner, but we'll have to wait at least another year. Shua, who you may remember from our second episode, came close and got a shoutout on NPR's Instagram page.
[Music: Shua's "Broken"]
Evans: Still, there were plenty of great entries from our region: artists creating beautiful work, dreaming of that big break and trying to find their place in the music world.
From KPBS Public Media, this is The Finest, a podcast about the art, movements and people redefining culture in San Diego. I'm Julia Dixon Evans.
[Theme Music]
Evans: OK Anthony, tell us about the song you picked.
Anthony Wallace: The video that I picked is for a song by an artist named Aleah Discavage, and the song is called "runaways." So first, let me just play a little bit of it for you.
[Music: Aleah Discavage's "runaways"]
Wallace: What do you think of it?
Evans: I love it. I mean, I think what I like about this project — seeing all these videos — is every so often you'll get one that's just really good songwriting. And that is like the lyrics are complex and it's also really catchy. It's great. And she's just leaning back in her chair with her feet up.
Wallace: Yeah. She does have a very interesting posture with her guitar. I don't think I've ever seen someone play a guitar like that. But yeah, I think the songwriting and the melodies are what really drew me to the song. I think that's what I'm always looking for in music. And it's not by mistake that she's gotten so good at songwriting. She's really put her time in. And I think that the story of how she got to where she is now is really interesting and I really loved talking to her about that.
[Phone ring]
Wallace: Hello.
Discavage: Hey, I'm back in my hometown in Mississippi, so it's 90 degrees and very humid and disgusting.
Wallace: Oh, wow.
Discavage: I got really, really used to the San Diego weather, that's for sure.
Wallace: So when did you move to San Diego?
Discavage: I moved a little like a year and three months ago. My husband is in the Navy, so we got stationed out there.
Wallace: Do you like it?
Discavage: Yeah. The traffic is terrible, but yeah. Other than that, it's one of the most beautiful places I've been.
Wallace: That's cool. So can you just tell me about that song? Like what are the influences for you? Who most inspires you as a songwriter?
Discavage: It's going to sound really basic, but I love Taylor Swift. I think, I don't know, she's just catchy, but also has meaningful stuff in her lyrics. I also love Hozier and Olivia Rodrigo too, and Paramore. And I like a lot of very not popular indie bands: Briston Maroney and Krooked Kings.
[Music: Krooked Kings' "Bird Scooter"]
Discavage: I just turned 25 and I've been writing songs since I was about 6. But I had crippling anxiety, so I didn't start actually performing in front of people till about three years ago. So it hasn't been very long, which sucks. I wish I would've started way sooner. It took me a long time to realize that I was somewhat talented. There was something there. Not everybody can sit down and write a song. But also I get really, really insecure about aging and looks because if you look at females the age they were when they got famous, it's 17, 18, or they look like supermodels and stuff like that. So that really eats at me sometimes. Just on TikTok, posting yourself, it's hard to just look at yourself sometimes. I just turned 25, so I feel like I'm running out of time and it drives me crazy. I felt like I was too old the moment I turned 19. I was like, it's it for me. I'm done. I'm not 16.
Wallace: You're good. You're not too old at all, in my opinion.
Discavage: Thank you.
Wallace: In my opinion. But I understand where that comes from.
Discavage: I feel like a lot of people too… I didn't grow up with money or support or people who are able to support, so it took me till I was 22 to get into a place where I could start believing in myself and trying. There's probably so many kids out there that want, this is their dream but they have a crappy home life and can't get availability. So then they're 22 and they're like, dammit I'm too old. That's why I'm happy stuff like Tiny Desk exists. You don't have to have fancy equipment or anything. You can just sit there with a little desk and just go for it. And then people will see you and like you, maybe.
Wallace: It seems like confidence is a big factor for you.
Discavage: Yeah, I was a gangly thing in high school. I guess being bullied and stuff like that, it sits with you. As you're an adult, even if you don't want it to, it's just kind of there and then it's hard to break out of that, but I'm working on it. It'll get better.
Wallace: When did you first start realizing or believing that your music was good?
Discavage: I was in a really terrible relationship from when I was 17 till I was 21. As soon as I finally got away, I just started writing. I would write, it was like I just had built up stuff 'cause he wouldn't allow me to write or anything or be by myself. So then, I just exploded. I was writing first thing in the morning. Go to work, come back home, stay up all night, write more, go to bed, wake up, write some more. So I wrote eight songs a week, just going and going and going. And then I found my sound by doing that. And then I started playing at open mics, and then people just started walking up to me like, oh my gosh, your voice, or, oh my gosh, I love that song. And then I was like, wow, that f---er was wrong. I am good. And so, yeah. So that helps just writing and then sending it to my sister. My sister's like, oh my gosh. My sister's a big part of that too. She really pushed me to keep going.
Wallace: So you've written 100 songs, at least, at this point?
Discavage: Yeah. My voice memos are crazy. Yeah, I have probably 2,000 of them.
Wallace: Really? Actually?
Discavage: Yeah, actually.
Wallace: Oh my god. You've got to make sure you don't forget any great ones. They don't get lost.
Discavage: Sometimes I'll forget.
Wallace: Yeah, yeah.
Discavage: I'll go through my voice memos one day just randomly to see if I have a cool melody or a little diddy in there that's just tucked away. And then there'll just be a whole finished song and I'm like, wow, 19-year-old me knew what was going on and she's pretty good. And so yeah, I do that a lot.
Wallace: So now you believe that, for example, "runaways" is a good song.
Discavage: Yeah.
Wallace: Why'd you enter the Tiny Desk Contest?
Discavage: To be honest, my sister begged me to. My husband helped me set it all up, and then I just put myself out there 'cause I am so anxious about how I look and how I sound and all of that. But I decided that, you only get one life, so I might as well record a Tiny Desk and try to be a little bit confident in myself, and I was really proud when I finished it. I know it wasn't as good as everybody else's or as high quality, but I was just proud that I did it.
Wallace: I mean, it was my favorite of the ones I saw.
Discavage: That means so much. I was so excited when y'all texted. I was like, oh my gosh, I'm a favorite.
[Music]
Evans: I think the idea of confidence is such a factor in whether somebody goes past that point of, almost like the point of no return as an artist of any kind. The moment that you have to put yourself out there to try and grow, to try and build an audience to even just share your art with the world, you have to believe in it. You have to like what you're doing yourself. And I think it just really resonates with me to hear her talk about that because I've gone through it. I've gone through it as a musician. I've gone through it as a writer, too. Yeah, I felt for her. Also, 2000 voice memos is wild.
Wallace: Yeah. I was pretty blown away by just the quantity of songs that she's written.
Evans: And one of the things I like about Aleah is she also seems to really know how to write for her own voice.
Wallace: Yeah. I think one of the things I liked a lot about her compared to the other videos that I watched is I just noticed that a lot of people tried to push the limits of their capabilities a lot. They tried to play complicated or difficult parts on their instruments or sing crazy notes and stuff that just didn't really sound good because they're just going past where they're at. But her stuff was very simple. There's nothing super challenging about the parts, but she just did them very well and they suited her really well, like you said. And I really appreciated it.
Evans: I mean, she jumped octaves and had vocal stylings. It's complicated. It's not, don't downplay it.
Wallace: OK. I don't want to downplay it. No, I just come from a tradition of like Ringo Starr-style, 'cause I'm a drummer, so keeping your parts simple and serving the song, which is actually pretty rare. I think it actually does take writing a ton of songs…
Evans: Get that maturity…
Wallace: … to come back there because your instinct is always to play to the threshold of your ability to always be almost showing off what you can do. But it's kind of an advanced thing to come back and it sounds good. I like that, when people do that.
The song itself actually has a pretty good story behind it. I mean, you can hear in the lyrics, it's someone that doesn't have it all together. They're in a kind of chaotic time of their life and it is very autobiographical. And she told me everything. She did not hold back.
Discavage: Two years ago, I went through very much college girl behavior and going out all the time and making a lot of mistakes and doing a lot of reckless stuff. The party girl era was because of the bad relationship. I feel like if you went through my voice memos, you could hear it flow. In this song I say, I only have one friend. She saw my ass get thrown in the back of a cop car.
[Music: Aleah Discavage's "runaways"]
Discavage: That's a true story. I did go through that, so I decided to make the best of it and write "runaways" to make myself feel better 'cause I was pretty embarrassed about it all.
So I was out with my friend and they had just announced that they overturned Roe v. Wade in the bar. So I was like, wow, that's terrible. So we just started getting shots, and then my friend picked me up and she got pulled over and I started just freaking out 'cause I thought she was going to get arrested 'cause she was driving. So I was like, you know what? My drunk self was like, I'm gonna jump outta the car so I look worse and she'll be let go. And it did work. She got let go and then I swung at him.
Wallace: You swung at him?
Discavage: Yeah.
Wallace: Oh wow.
Discavage: He's like, you need to calm down. And I was like, I looked so dumb. I was in this hot pink little tank top and white shorts and some Keds, and I'm just swinging at police officers on the interstate, so that's that. Very embarrassing, but we laugh about it now.
Wallace: So it sounds like you're not in that phase anymore.
Discavage: Definitely not, no.
Wallace: How did you get out of it?
Discavage: I met my husband and I was like, wow, I'm way happier just watching "Shrek 2" with this person. So now we just, if we go out, we go out together and I don't go swinging at cops anymore.
[Music]
Evans: First off, I was struck by how honest she is. And I think that's what I look for in songwriting too is someone who gets really raw and she's not afraid to tell you about swinging at a cop.
Wallace: Yeah. I think she's very authentic as an artist. And I think you can see with the artists that she looks up to, even though they're some of the most famous people in the world, Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, but also Hozier and these other indie artists, they are very autobiographical artists that sing about their own lives it seems like.
Evans: Yeah, and I think that's one of the things that you and I have talked about before and lyrics and songwriting from some of the local artists we've talked about. The ability to paint a picture and describe a scene and turn a song into real storytelling is so valuable. I love it.
Wallace: Yeah. I really do think that she's very good at that. And where she's at right now, she's really kind of at the beginning of her career. She's recording this song and a couple others right now here in San Diego. That'll be her first professional recording.
Evans: Nice.
Wallace: So, yeah, I'm really excited to hear this song recorded. I was coming up with ideas for it. I was like, I want to produce this song.
So the official version is coming soon but, with Aleah's permission, I did do a little remix of the chorus — just for fun. I couldn't help myself.
[Music: Aleah Discavage's "runaways"]
[Music]
Wallace: OK, so that was Aleah. So now tell me about your pick.
Evans: All right, so I picked this band called The Neighborhood Kids. They had a song they submitted. It's actually a mashup of two songs, "BIDDI BOMB" and "HUSH," in one video. So let's play it.
[Music: The Neighborhood Kids' "BIDDI BOMB x HUSH"]
Evans: All right, Anthony, what'd you think?
Wallace: That was really cool. That was impressive. There's a lot of energy. They must be very tired after that. Yeah, just like a lot of passion. It was cool. They were wearing matching vests. They're a really good pair. They seem like they have a lot of chemistry. The band was really good. The guitar player and the drummer were really good.
Evans: And I really loved this combination of energy like that with total precision.
Wallace: Oh, yeah.
Evans: The delivery, the rhymes, the songwriting, it was just…
Wallace: It's very tight.
Evans: Yeah, masterful.
Wallace: Very good.
Evans: One thing that struck me also is that you can tell that they're really collaborative. They're a couple also, which is — I love that, and I love the synergy in the songwriting and just in their performance too, that back and forth. You imagine like, oh, to be able to write like that with someone else, there's like a total intimacy there just inherently. And the fact that they're a couple is really cute.
Wallace: The way that they perform it's like they're finishing each other's sentences. They trade off so seamlessly. It's really cool.
Evans: And I mean, that's basically how they write. And I asked them about that, like how they write their songs.
Verde: So I'm Verde. I am a songwriter, performer, beat maker here for The Neighborhood Kids.
Amon: I'm Amon the MC, songwriter, performer and one of the leads of The Neighborhood Kids. The origin story of the band started with Verde and Amon doing shows together. One day we were playing with the kids across the street from us and somebody told us, hey, I saw y'all hanging out with the neighborhood kids, and then it clicked that that should be our name. We formed a band and we make alternative, revolutionary hip-hop music, and our whole mission is to just better the world through the music that we make.
Evans: Where would you say that you are in your musical career as The Neighborhood Kids, as a band?
Amon: Oh.
Verde: It's a good question 'cause it always feels like we're on a mountain, honestly, and we're climbing it and sometimes we fall a little bit and then we're still climbing like, I could see the top or maybe there isn't even the top, right. This is just infinite, right?
Amon: We do this full time too, and we've been doing this, I think I quit my day job five years ago, going on six years this year. And we're just really working on everything: our platform, our band, our group, our business, so that for years to come, it leaves behind a legacy, you know?
[Music: The Neighborhood Kids' "BIDDI BOMB x HUSH"]
Evans: If we could start with "BIDDI BOMB," can you tell us about the writing process for that piece?
Amon: Yeah, it was a very fun way of writing that one. When we do stuff like that where it's back and forth, you can't not be in the same room writing at the same time with somebody like how other songs, you could make your verse in a completely different time and space than somebody else. This one, you have to be right there. And I don't know if you've ever played that game where you would draw something on a paper and then you pass it to your friend and they'll draw a little something until you have a full picture. That's basically what had happened. I think when you do stuff like that, there's no real way to plan it 'cause you don't know what the next person's gonna think. So it was just whatever comes, comes and for the best reasons possible, it is what the song it is today.
Verde: I will say, doing it together, it's like such a special thing versus doing it by yourself. I feel like by yourself, there's not really any outside opinion. I feel like I second guess a lot of stuff by myself. I'm like, oh, is this good? Or is this like the right thing?
Evans: And maybe talk about "HUSH," if you had a slightly different writing practice or what that song means to you.
Verde: Yeah, kind of similar. And I will say, that was the first one we ever wrote back and forth like that. And he had that beat for even longer.
Amon: Probably years ago. I had on my laptop that before we were even in a relationship, I bought it off someone years and years ago. I always had stuff written to it and it was just such an important beat to me that I was like, this needs something. This needs the right words and the right energy. And I brought out my laptop from the graveyard. It was my grandma's old MacBook that she used for work that I used to record music on. And I had it under the bed, dusty. I had to charge it up for it to come on, and the beats were on there. And that was the one that I was telling her, I was like, this one is gonna be the one. And that ended up being "HUSH." When you feel that powerfully, it takes awhile for you to really bring those words into fruition.
Verde: I remember vividly, this is what I was gonna mention, is that we were cleaning his mom's backyard and we were, I just was playing the beat over and over and I was like, come on, just give me a freestyle, you know? And I was voice memoing it.
Amon: That's how we do a lot of music is we'll keep freestyling it and voice memoing it. And if we felt like, oh, in that one we said something, then we'll write down the couple little golden nuggets from the freestyle and then we will write around that.
[Music: The Neighborhood Kids' "BIDDI BOMB x HUSH"]
Evans: The way that you're talking about the creative process is it's so free. Literal freestyle is how a song might get its start, but watching the video, there's such precision. How do you go from that just organic in the garden coming up with something — to, like, nail it?
Verde: It is a lot of practice because I feel like when I met him, he was, he is freestyle king. He can rap off the top and it'll sound like you wrote it down. And that's just years and years of practice and 10-plus years of really putting in freestyling. You just get really expert level at it. He's really good at freestyling, I just gotta say, and it definitely just comes out of the soul, really. It's something your soul is just trying to put out, you know.
[Music: The Neighborhood Kids' "BIDDI BOMB x HUSH"]
Evans: All right, what do you think of that deep dive on their songwriting process?
Wallace: That was great. It strikes me that it's a pretty unique partnership that they have. And it really does seem like they need something like that, or at least a very close connection and a lot of time together to make songs like this where, like they're saying, it's so back and forth. And I love the story of them doing yard work. And just playing the song and just coming up with it. Almost like jamming, that's kind of a songwriting style where you're just improvising and just waiting to see when something cool happens. And like, all right, that was good.
Yeah, I think there's also a really cool parallel to Aleah where Verde was talking about Amon's ability as a freestyler and how it's come from years. It's just a really impressive skill that he's honed over years.
Evans: Right, over years and voice memos. Apparently, this is a theme.
Wallace: Voice memos are just the most important thing in modern music, I think.
Evans: I also think the way that Verde was talking about self-confidence is also like it factored into their songwriting as a group.
Wallace: Yeah. I think that's just the beautiful thing about bands to me and why I love bands. Bands are just a group of people that come together and make something that no one of them could ever make on their own. It's kind of like bands become a person — they morph into one. And I think that's a part of it, where it's like just finding trusted collaborators where you can make something and you don't know what to think of it, but you can trust their opinion of it.
Evans: Right. And I think that these two are also really like-minded in so many other ways. Their approach to writing songs that are activist in nature, like conscious hip-hop. Their lyrics address a myriad of global issues. In that way, it's very universal and relatable, and also weirdly applicable on a smaller scale, right? You can find things that impact local life and culture.
Wallace: It's giving Rage Against the Machine.
Evans: Oh my god, just you wait.
Wallace: OK.
Evans: Yeah, and I asked them about how they think about activism on a global level versus on a local level.
Amon: Our music is like activism for worldwide because at the end of the day, while borders and religions and governments may be like the divide and the separation, at the end of the day, we're all human. We're under the same sun, the same moon, the same sky. We all eat food. We all have the same basic human needs. So when human rights are violated, I feel like as humans we should come together to stop that and to be a voice that can speak out for those people because we all have voices and we all have — whether some people's platforms are bigger, it doesn't matter.
I really believe in domino effects of, you see somebody stand up, it makes you inclined to stand up. We're just creatures of evolving with what we see, and learning from the actions of ourselves and others. So I feel like since everybody likes music and it's something that we always wanted to do — as just artists, we have to create even if there was not this platform or even if there was no internet, we'd still be making music.
And people, they wanna feel. People listen to music to feel any emotion, whether you're sad, you want a song to make you happy, or something that could relate your sadness with. Our music on global activism, it's very much, so many people are frustrated about what's going on and we take it to our heart and want to speak to what people are feeling because sometimes if you don't have the words to say what you're feeling, sometimes an artist will have that.
Evans: Did you have role models or leaders in activism when you were younger?
Verde: That's a good question.
Amon: Probably the music we listen to, huh? In school you learn about Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, and I don't think you really understood — I still don't understand the weight of what they did. But what really hit me was hearing artists that speak out about what's going on. Immortal Technique being one of those, the biggest people that I was really into when I was in middle school to high school. And then KRS-One, he was preaching knowledge into power, talking a lot about, he has songs about police brutality, also has songs about the land being stolen from the natives. Rage Against the Machine, I feel like we get that comparison a lot because it's like hip-hop with instruments. And I like music where you learn something, it's dope hip-hop, good production and inspires you to think for yourself, critical thinking skills.
[Music: The Neighborhood Kids' "BIDDI BOMB x HUSH"]
Evans: That's The Neighborhood Kids.
Wallace: Yeah, they are talking about these very, very big issues. I guess you might have the thought, well, how is music made in a bedroom in San Diego going to really make a dent in this stuff. But I really liked what he said about we believe in domino effects.
Evans: Right. We talked a lot about their influences because I was really fascinated by that. They have this throwback style. And I also thought it was really interesting that a lot of their activism influences, like who inspired them early on politically or to speak out, they're also musical influences too. Not even hip-hop per se, but it just speaks to the impact that music with a message has on young people.
Originally when we were setting out to do this project, I hadn't really listened to the one that you had chosen — to Aleah's video, and I certainly hadn't heard your interview. I just remember thinking from the thumbnail of the video, these are two wildly different artists. Their sound is, but hearing the interviews and seeing some of the things that happened to both of them or the similar approaches and just the way that making music has so much universality, is really cool to see how similar these were.
Wallace: Yeah, there are a lot of similarities between them. I mean, for one, they've both spent years perfecting what they do. And for both of them, it's really clear that their message and their music is very reflective of them. And I guess that's something that is really beautiful about local music.
Evans: Yeah, love that. It also speaks to the breadth of the local music scene. The Neighborhood Kids have been doing this work for awhile — they're kind of established, they have a following. And then Aleah is new, she's new to San Diego and hasn't put out any recordings yet, plays open mics. It's just really cool to see, not just like the diversity in their styles but also just where you can find talent on local stages. It's kind of amazing.
Wallace: I'm excited to see where they both end up. We'll be watching.
Evans: Yeah.
[Music]
Evans: What if we have a series that's just like us playing music videos and then we comment along?
Wallace: Isn't that what "Beavis and Butt-Head" is?
Beavis and Butt-Head: [Laughs]
Evans: Thanks so much for listening. If you enjoyed the show, please leave us a rating on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen. It really helps new listeners discover the show. And best of all, if you can think of anyone in your life that might like The Finest, please share it with them.
A special thanks to Aleah Discavage and Amon and Verde from The Neighborhood Kids. You can see their full Tiny Desk videos at our website at KPBS.org/TheFinest.
And a shoutout to all 75 San Diego artists who sent in their videos to the 2025 NPR Tiny Desk Contest. There truly were so many good entries, and it was tough to pick favorites. You can check out more of them on our website.
We're off next week, but in two weeks on The Finest: Birding is hot right now. We explore this fast-growing subculture, and Anthony goes on a mad dash to see more than 100 birds in a single day in America's Birdiest County: San Diego.
Rick Grove: The stories of some of these birds that travel six days without stopping, shutting down one half of their brain at a time — one hemisphere at a time. There's nothing as amazing, I don't think, in the animal kingdom as bird migration.
Evans: The Finest is a production of KPBS Public Media. I'm your host, Julia Dixon Evans. Our producer is Anthony Wallace, who also composed the score. Our audio engineer is Ben Redlawsk, and our editor is Chrissy Nguyen.
This transcript has been edited for clarity and conciseness.