This first day of spring edition warms up alongside the rising temperatures, moving from soulful tracks by James Blake, Olivia Dean, and Jeremy Dutcher into rhythm-driven grooves from Kendrick Lamar, Parquet Courts, Kali Uchis, Thundercat, and Mac Miller. Light and airy moments from Mei Semones and Resavoir keep the mix floating. 

As the playlist unfolds, the energy rises with selections from Daft Punk, Lil Wayne, and Funkadelic, before closing out with vibrant songs from Marcos Valle, Nuyorican Soul, and 4hero. 

Check the playlist below and listen to the episode for two weeks after it airs using the player above. 

In The Groove with Ryan Patrick Hooper playlist for March 20, 2026 

• “A Couple Minutes (A COLORS SHOW)” – Olivia Dean & Colors 

• “Trying Times” – James Blake 

• “Parasite” – English Teacher, Graham Coxon & War Child Records 

• “Mehcinut” – Jeremy Dutcher 

• “Deep Harbour (feat. Alfa Mist)” – Commodo 

• “Carry Me Higher (Elite Mix) [10 Inch Version]” – The Blessed Madonna, Joy Anonymous & Danielle Ponder 

• “Four Women (DESIREE Remix)” – Nina Simone & DESIREE 

• “In Person (Matthew Herbert’s Eat the Sun Dub Remix)” – Low Island 

• “Advantage Points” – Chilly Gonzales 

• “Make Something Up” – James Blake 

• “PRIDE.” – Kendrick Lamar 

• “Up to Chance” – Ista 

• “Violence” – Parquet Courts 

• “Before the Water Gets Too High” – Parquet Courts 

• “Avalanche” – Grace Ives 

• “Strange (Dan the Automator Remix)” – Foxwarren 

• “She Knows Too Much” – Thundercat & Mac Miller 

• “After the Storm (feat. Tyler, The Creator & Bootsy Collins)” – Kali Uchis 

• “Lose Yourself to Dance” – Daft Punk & Pharrell Williams 

• “Let the Beat Build” – Lil Wayne 

• “Can You Get To That” – Funkadelic 

• “Everlasting Light” – Piano Tribute Players 

• “Girlfriend Is Better” – Georgia Anne Muldrow 

• “Once In A Lifetime” – WITCH 

• “Visions” – José González 

• “Blue Morpho” – Ed O’Brien 

• “Diversey Beach” – Resavoir, Matt Gold & Mei Semones 

• “Dumb Feeling” – Mei Semones 

• “The First Day of Spring” – The Gandharvas 

• “Parabéns” – Marcos Valle 

• “Les Fleur (feat. Carina Andersson)” – 4hero 

• “I Am the Black Gold of the Sun (feat. Jocelyn Brown) [4hero Remix] [Mixed]” – Nuyorican Soul 

Listen to In the Groove with host Ryan Patrick Hooper weekdays from noon-3 p.m. ET on 101.9 WDET or stream on-demand at wdet.org. 

Each year, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is remembered through a narrow lens. A quote. A speech. A dream, often stripped of the urgency, conflict, and radical clarity that defined his final years. This MLK Weekend edition of The Progressive Underground resists that flattening. Instead, the playlist traces King’s full moral and political arc, from spiritual grounding and collective grief to economic justice, cultural resistance, and the unfinished work he left behind.

Martin Luther King Jr. was not only a civil rights icon. He was a strategist under surveillance, a critic of capitalism and militarism, and a leader willing to lose popularity in order to tell the truth. The music selected here reflects that complexity.

Across six carefully sequenced and curated sets, this special moves through gospel-rooted endurance, protest music that forced America to confront itself, songs that examine dignity and self-worth, and contemporary voices carrying King’s questions forward. From Mahalia Jackson, Nina Simone, and Curtis Mayfield to Kendrick Lamar, D’Angelo, and Kamasi Washington, the playlist treats music as historical witness and moral record. It also honors Detroit’s role in shaping King’s legacy, particularly through Stevie Wonder’s campaign to make Dr. King’s birthday a national holiday.

This is not a nostalgia set. It’s a listening experience designed to engage King as he actually lived and evolved, challenging, demanding, and unfinished. 

Check the playlist below and listen to the episode for two weeks after it airs using the player above.

1st Hour

• “Let the Sunshine In”–Jimetta Rose & The Voices of Creation
• “Why? (The King of Love Is Dead)”–Nina Simone
• “People Get Ready”–Curtis Mayfield
• “Wholy Holy”–Marvin Gaye
• “Someday We’ll All Be Free”–Donny Hathaway
• “A Change Is Gonna Come”–Sam Cooke
• “Strange Fruit”–Billie Holiday
• “Winter in America”–Gil Scott Heron
• “A Dream”–Common feat. Will.i.am
• “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”–Gil Scott Heron
• “In the Name of Love”–U2
• “Compared to What”–Roberta Flack
• “Respect Yourself”–Staple Singers
• “Thinkin’ About Your Body”–Bobby McFerrin
• “Happy Birthday”–Stevie Wonder

2nd Hour

• “Alright”–Kendrick Lamar
• “The Charade”–D’Angelo
• “The People”–Common
• “6 Summers”–Anderson Paak
• “We The People”–A Tribe Called Quest
• “Everybody Loves the Sunshine”–Roy Ayers
• “I Am the Black Gold of the Sun”–Rotary Connection
• “Think of You”–Terrace Martin
• “Better Than I Imagined”–Robert Glasper
• “Faith, Courage & Wisdom”–Indie.Arie
• “Expansions”–Lonnie Liston Smith
• “Journey in Satchidananda”–Alice Coltrane
• “Truth”–Kamasi Washington
• “The Creator Has a Master Plan”–Pharoah Sanders
• “You Take Me Higher”–Fertile Ground