'Make Dynamic Music to Move the World'—an Icon's Parting Words to His Incarcerated Protégés

In celebration of the finale of our Track Change podcast, our founder and executive producer sat down with the host, Speech Thomas, for a conversation about music, jail and hope.

Images courtesy Resonant Pictures

Hi, everyone. Today’s a big day at Narratively. We released the final episode of Track Change, our five-part documentary podcast that follows Grammy-winning musician Speech Thomas of Arrested Development — known to many as the “Godfather of Conscious Hip-Hop” — into Virginia’s Richmond City Jail to record an album with four incarcerated men, inside a makeshift recording studio. I decided it was only fitting to give Speech the last word about a project that means so much to him and to which he’s dedicated so many years of his life. I hope you enjoy it, and that you’ll listen to Track Change if you haven’t yet!

Noah: Speech! Here we are, our Track Change podcast is fully out in the world and we’re getting a phenomenal response. Congratulations! For me personally, it feels like we’ve just finished a marathon, since we first began developing the podcast four years ago. But you were involved in this project years before that, back when you were shooting the…