This playlist is an exercise in memory.

Not just nostalgia but coded memory. The kind passed down through music, side-eyes, and backyard family functions. Each track holds something— love, struggle, hustle, material, art, family. It's blues in every shade. Blue as identity, as utility, and a medium for liberation.

When I created this playlist, I started with a quote and ended up in my own family photo album. The photos, like the songs, feel like memories you can hear. Blue-tinted black-and-white portraits from my first Jenkins family reunion.

“We didn't start out Black. Nor did we choose it first. Black was a hard-earned love.” - Imani Perry

After reading Black in Blues, I started seeing and hearing blue everywhere. It made me want to keep remembering through color. So I turned to the two mediums I live with—music and photography.

The photos are all faces of family, some of whom I had never met until that day. The Jenkins family, originally from South Carolina, hosts a reunion in a different city each year. When we gathered in Philadelphia a couple years ago, I saw the whole spectrum—different lives, different styles, different stories. But all tethered by something undeniable as undeniable as the blue sky—blood.

One of my grandfather’s cousins was there. He looked just like him. I haven’t seen my grandfather’s face, outside of my own memory, since middle school. Looking into his cousin’s face was surreal. And comforting. Like hearing a song you forgot you knew the words to.

What You’re Hearing

You're hearing JAY-Z navigate the streets in pursuit of legacy. Nipsey hustle toward eternity. Aretha mourn in real time. Marvin ache under the weight of survival. You're hearing Coltrane stretch time. Beyoncé whisper love and wisdom into her daughter’s ear. Nina wrestle with the pressures of romance. Jhené find love in the blue where the ocean meets the sky.

Our blues carry more than sorrow. They are sensual, defiant, patient, proud, and always— cool. They inform us of where we’ve been, where we are and where we’re going. Like the indigo workers whose arms were permanently stained, we too carry blue through the daily toils of our crafts, our materials, and our hustle. Imani Perry describes it as a “tattoo of bondage”. Ironically, it is that same well-earned blue skin that leaves the world in awe of our beauty.

Chime in

What’s the last book that inspired you to see the world through a new lens?
If you’ve read Black in Blue: How a Color Tells the Story of My People let me know how it resonated with you.

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🎧 Me vs. me

The NFL Draft is tomorrow.

And someone asked me a question I haven’t stopped thinking about:

“If you could go back to your draft day, what would you tell yourself?”

If I could go back to 2009 and speak to that version of me, sitting in a room full of family waiting to hear my name…

I’d tell him this:

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🎧Monday's in the Matrix

Life can feel like it’s stuck on repeat—wake up, work, grind, sleep, repeat. The same streets, the same traffic lights, the same endless to-do lists. It’s easy to feel like you’re on autopilot, moving through the motions, just another piece in the system.

But here’s the thing—I control how I exist in it.

This playlist is for those mornings when the world feels too loud, but you need to cut through the noise. When the grind feels redundant, but you need the motivation to keep pushing. When the Matrix tries to lull you to sleep, but you refuse to be a passenger in your own life.

Tap in. Move with intention. The grind never stops—but neither does your power to shape it.

🎧 Listen now:

💬 What’s your go-to track when you need to break out of autopilot? Drop it in the comments.

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What Winners Won’t Tell You

The Soundtrack of Resilience, Hustle & Self-Discovery

Every great story has a soundtrack—songs that capture the grind, the doubt, the wins, and the moments of self-reflection. This playlist is the inner soundscape of a champion’s mind.

These are the songs that resonate with the themes of What Winners Won’t Tell You—some were in heavy rotation while I wrote the book, others have shaped how I think about adversity, leadership, and success.

🔊 Press play & step into the mindset of a champion.

👉 Listen to the full playlist on Spotify

🎧 Featured Tracks:
✅ The Story of O.J. – JAY-Z
✅ man at the garden – Kendrick Lamar
✅ Love Yourz – J. Cole
✅ What It Feels Like – Nipsey Hussle & JAY-Z
✅ Mortal Man – Kendrick Lamar

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