How it started…

Til’ The Tape Pops: The Story Behind the Sound

Created May 2, 2020
A labor of love born during the pandemic, built to give music its context.

Til’ The Tape Pops was created on May 2, 2020, at a time when the world felt paused, uncertain, and disconnected.

The streets were quiet. Stages were closed. People were inside, trying to make sense of a moment none of us had ever lived through before. Music became one of the few things that still moved freely. It traveled through speakers, livestreams, playlists, late-night conversations, and whatever people could create from home.

Out of that stillness, Til’ The Tape Pops was born.

What started as boredom quickly became a labor of love — a show built around music, memory, context, and the people behind the sound.

The Beginning

At first, the idea was simple: dig through music, revisit records, talk about artists, and share the kind of details that do not always make it into the mainstream conversation.

But the more the show developed, the clearer the purpose became.

Til’ The Tape Pops was never meant to be just another playlist or background stream. It was created for listeners who wanted more than the record. It was for people who heard a song and asked questions.

Who made this?
Where did it come from?
What was happening around it?
Who were the people behind the music?
What part of the story did we miss?

That curiosity became the foundation of the show.

Anybody can play songs. Til’ The Tape Pops was created to tell the story behind them.

The Week It Began

Til’ The Tape Pops was born during a week when the country was caught between fear, fatigue, isolation, and the pressure to reopen.

By the end of April 2020, the United States had crossed more than 1 million confirmed COVID-19 cases, while the reported death toll had passed 60,000. The pandemic was no longer something people were watching from a distance. It had changed daily life, closed venues, interrupted work, separated families, and forced people to rethink how community could even exist when gathering was no longer safe.

At the same time, the country was divided over what should happen next. Some states were beginning to reopen parts of their economies, while others were still extending restrictions and warning people to stay cautious. Businesses, artists, workers, venues, and families were all trying to figure out what survival looked like in real time.

The economy was also falling hard. Just days after TTTP was created, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that April 2020 had brought a loss of 20.5 million jobs, with unemployment rising to 14.7 percent — numbers that showed how deeply the pandemic had disrupted everyday life.

So when Til’ The Tape Pops started on May 2, 2020, it did not arrive in a normal moment.

It came out of a strange pause.

People were stuck inside. Venues were closed. Artists were separated from their audiences. DJs, musicians, writers, selectors, and music lovers were all trying to stay connected to culture without the usual rooms, stages, record shops, bars, studios, and conversations that helped culture breathe.

Music became one of the few things that could still move freely.

It moved through headphones, livestreams, group chats, playlists, old records, digital crates, and late-night conversations. Inside that atmosphere, TTTP became more than something to do. It became a way to stay connected to music when the world around the music had gone quiet.

Later that same month, the killing of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, would ignite protests across the United States and around the world, deepening the national conversation around race, power, visibility, policing, and who gets to tell the story.

Looking back, that matters.

Because Til’ The Tape Pops was always about more than playing records. It was about context. It was about asking what was happening around the sound, who was behind it, and what stories needed more room to be heard.

The show was born in a moment when the world was asking bigger questions — and TTTP became one small way to answer through music, memory, and truth.

A Different Kind of Music Show

Til’ The Tape Pops was built to inform, not just entertain.

The goal was to give people something to carry alongside the music: facts, backstories, overlooked perspectives, and context that might not be widely known.

Maybe someone had heard the artist before, but never knew their journey. Maybe they had met the artist through us, but did not know what shaped them. Maybe they thought they knew the song, the era, or the scene — until the show opened up another side of the story.

That was the point.

TTTP created space for the details. The names behind the names. The history behind the hook. The people behind the movement. The moments that made the music matter.

Born During a Strange Time

The timing mattered.

In May 2020, people were isolated, restless, and searching for connection. The pandemic had changed how people gathered, how artists worked, and how listeners discovered music. In-person shows were gone. Conversations moved online. Discovery became more personal, more digital, and more intentional.

For a lot of people, music became a way to stay grounded.

Til’ The Tape Pops grew out of that atmosphere. It was a response to the silence. A way to stay connected to culture when the usual spaces for culture had been taken away.

It started from boredom, but it did not stay there.

It became a way to document, discover, and explain what was happening behind the sound.

The music hits different when you know the road it traveled.

More Than a Playlist

A playlist can introduce you to a song.

Til’ The Tape Pops wanted to introduce you to the world around the song.

The show became a place to hear music and also understand the people, decisions, eras, and circumstances that helped shape it. It gave listeners a point of view they could carry with them — something deeper than a title, a name, or a familiar hook.

Because music is never just sound.

It is memory.
It is history.
It is personality.
It is struggle.
It is timing.
It is community.
It is somebody’s story.

Til’ The Tape Pops was created to honor that.

The Mission

At its core, Til’ The Tape Pops is about giving music context.

It is about making sure the stories do not disappear. It is about helping listeners understand that every artist has a road, every record has a reason, and every sound comes from somewhere.

The show was created for the heads who care about the backstory. The listeners who want to know who was in the room, what was happening at the time, what the artist was trying to say, and why a piece of music still matters.

It is about the facts people may not know. The point of view they may not have heard. The missing pieces that make the music hit different.

Til’ The Tape Pops started in isolation, but it was always about connection.

The Road to Gemwork

Years later, the same instinct that created Til’ The Tape Pops helped shape the larger vision behind Gemwork.

Because discovery should not stop at hearing something good.

It should lead somewhere.

It should connect listeners to artists.
It should connect artists to opportunity.
It should connect culture to documentation.
It should connect people who care about music to the stories that make the music matter.

Til’ The Tape Pops became one of the early sparks for that bigger idea — a belief that music discovery should have depth, direction, and purpose.

What began as a show created during the pandemic became part of a larger mission: to build spaces where artists, listeners, selectors, storytellers, and culture can meet.

Closing

Til’ The Tape Pops was created from boredom, built with love, and carried forward by curiosity.

It started during a time when the world was shut down, but the need for connection was wide open. It gave people a way to listen deeper, ask better questions, and understand more about the artists and sounds moving through their speakers.

At its heart, TTTP is not just about playing music.

It is about the people behind it.
The moment around it.
The facts you may not have known.
The perspective you may not have heard.
The story that makes the music hit different.

Til’ The Tape Pops is the story behind the sound.

Want to hear the story behind the sound?

Listen to Til’ The Tape Pops and tap into deep cuts, artist backstories, overlooked history, and music conversations that connect the dots.

Button: Listen on Mixcloud
Secondary Button: Explore DNKYBongs TV