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Pastor T.L. Barrett has been known on Chicago’s South side as a religious and community leader for 50 years. But it wasn’t until recently that people started to uncover Barrett’s trove of gospel music. In the 1970s, Barrett began making recordings of the music performed in his church. These were sermons he’d turn into songs that sat around for years until rappers started sampling them in the last decade. People like Kanye West, T.I., DJ Khalid, Alicia Keys. All this recent attention on Pastor T.L. Barrett has culminated in a new box set from the Numero Group called “I Should Wear A Crown.”

On today’s episode Justin Richmond talks to Pastor Barrett about his distant relation to the Reverend C.L. Franklin and of course his daughter, the great Aretha Franklin. He also talks about how he went from a high school dropout to a community leader and what it was like for him to have his music discovered after decades.

 

The Hosts

Rick Rubin

In addition to being a podcast host, Frederick Jay “Rick” Rubin is an American record producer and former co-president of Columbia Records. Along with Russell Simmons, he is the co-founder…

Malcolm Gladwell

Malcolm Gladwell is president and co-founder of Pushkin Industries. He is a journalist, a speaker, and the author of six New York Times bestsellers including The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers,…

Justin Richmond

Justin Richmond is producer and co-host of the music podcast Broken Record with writer Malcolm Gladwell, New York Times editor Bruce Headlam, and music producer—and Def Jam co-founder—Rick Rubin. Justin…

Bruce Headlam

Bruce Headlam is one of the co-creators of the music podcast Broken Record. He worked at The New York Times for 19 years, including two years running the 50-person Video…