Rodney Carmichael is NPR Music's hip-hop staff writer. His stories combine reporting and criticism to focus on Black cultural production and its sociopolitical implications. Carmichael is also the creator and co-host of the podcast “Louder Than A Riot,” which traces the interconnected rise of hip-hop and mass incarceration in America. Previously, he was music editor, culture writer, and senior writer for the alt-weekly Creative Loafing. Prior to this, Carmichael was a culture reporter at the Atlanta urban-lifestyle weekly, Rolling Out. He started his career at the Waco Tribune-Herald in Waco, TX, where he received a Cox Rookie of the Year nomination for enterprise reporting and feature writing on religion, health, and social services. Carmichael’s honors also include Association of Alternative Newsweeklies awards for column writing, long-form storytelling, special projects, and investigative and feature reporting.