NME’s latest star of The Cover, PawPaw Rod, has created an exclusive playlist to accompany the story’s launch – check it out below.
The American indie-funk singer is on this week’s (June 8) edition of The Cover, a manifestation of NME’s commitment to supporting emerging talent across the globe on a weekly basis. Every week, a rising artist will feature on The Cover – you can read PawPaw Rod’s profile here, written by Erica Campbell and featuring photography by Matt Baron.
Alongside his The Cover story, PawPaw Rod has curated an exclusive playlist, titled ‘Records I Always Return To’, featuring songs by the likes of Earth, Wind & Fire, Mac Miller, Tevin Campbell and more. He told NME that the songs “have stayed with me over the years” and ones that he keeps coming back to “because they bring me a sense of peace, no matter where I’m at in life”. Listen to the full playlist on Spotify below and on Apple Music.
A self-proclaimed “military brat”, PawPaw Rod was born in Hawaii and raised mostly in Oklahoma, and before the time he dropped out of high school had already lived in Texas, South Carolina, Washington state and Germany. The would-be singer and rapper soaked up new traits and sounds from each new place, all of it feeding into his sound: a restless amalgam of hip-hop, ’60s funk, alternative rock, and more besides.
The diversity of inspiration he drew from his itinerant life can be heard on his debut full-length, ‘Picture Day: A PawPaw Rod Album’, released last month. Lyrically, the album shines a light on the ups and downs of not quite belonging anywhere, each track a snapshot of his identity and a collective homage to the one day of school when prized photos were taken – when he felt anchored, like he fully belonged, and in his own words, “like a real boy”.
Despite his friend groups constantly changing because he lived on military bases where no one stayed for long, Hulsey still tried to recreate the camaraderie he saw in groups like The Temptations and Jackson Five. “I would try to get homies to start an R&B group with me,” he chuckles. “We would go down to this little basement and sing songs. That’s what gravitated me towards [music] in the first place. And the fact that you could just escape into something.”
Read PawPaw Rod’s full Cover story here and find out who else has been on The Cover here.
Every year, NME produces 50 Cover stories, showcasing the future of music via in-depth profiles and exclusive photoshoots. Check out our coffee table book NME The Cover 2024-2025, which features the likes of Kneecap, Lola Young, Amaarae, LE SSERAFIM, Oklou and many more.