The Bridge: Like the Legend of the Phoenix

[This edition of my Hit Parade—“The Bridge” bonus series is available to Slate Plus subscribers only. A link to the episode show page is below. To sign up for Plus—and tell Slate that Hit Parade sent you!—visit slate.com/hitparadeplus.]

In this mini-episode of Hit Parade, host Chris Molanphy welcomes Jason King, Chair of the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, who has advised producer Timbaland on music litigation and has had a front-row seat for Pharrell Williams’s mentoring of artists. Jason credits these Virginia Beach superstars with clairaudience, or clairvoyance of sound—the ability to hear into the future. And he says Missy Elliott, Pharrell’s and Tim’s peer from Virginia, still isn’t given enough credit for her David Bowie–like ability to shape-shift in a pop context and fuse the visual with musical genius.

Next, Chris quizzes a Slate Plus listener with some music trivia, gives him a chance to turn the tables with a question of her own, and previews next month’s full-length episode. Slate Plus members can sign up for a chance to be our trivia contestant on a future episode here.

Podcast production by Kevin Bendis.