Soundcheck

Pumping Up the Music Biz

Thursday, January 17, 2008

50 Cent, Timbaland and Mary J. Blige are among the artists linked to shipments of steroids in a newspaper story citing confidential sources. Today, we examine what attracts musicians to performance-enhancing drugs and why the public has become conditioned to think that they're for athletes only. Also: Vocalist and composer Sofia Koutsovitis mixes music from her native Argentina with sounds from Peru, Brazil, and American jazz. She and her band join us for a live performance.

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Steroids, Music and Image

With the sports world grappling with performance-enhancing drugs, the music industry might be next. Wyclef Jean, Timbaland, Mary J. Blige and 50 Cent were named this week in an Albany Times Union story about steroids trafficking. The article cited confidential sources. We look at the role of performance-enhancing drugs in music.

Bob Port, senior editor of investigations at the Albany Times Union and adjunct professor at Columbia School of Journalism and James Peterson, assistant professor of English at Bucknell University and founder of Hip-Hop Scholars join us to discuss the issue of steroid use and image in hip-hop.

Weigh in: Does it matter if musicians take steroids? Should rap stars be role models?

Albany Times Union story on steroids and human growth hormone

Sofia Koutsovitis

Argentinian-born singer Sofia Koutsovitis moved to the U.S. in 2001 and began absorbing Afro-Colombian, Indian and African music traditions. The Buenos Aires native landed first in Boston, then relocated to New York -- a perfect laboratory for her musical explorations. Koutsovitis talks about her debut album, "Ojala," and performs live in our studio.

Sofia Koutsovitis' website