Over a Christian Rich beat that feels more Atlanta than L.A., we get Staples’ signature cynicism and dark humor in trap mode — complete with a vocal sample of Future’s “Covered N Money” for full effect.

A simple, but no less chilling piano loop is juxtaposed with a booming, ominous bass line and clipped percussion to give Staples the perfect canvas on which to paint his vivid picture of gangbanger pathology: “That’s somebody’s son / but a war to be won / baby, either gon’ hunt or be hunted / We crabs in a bucket, he called me a ‘crab’ / so I shot him in front of the Douglas / I cannot be f***** with, we thuggin’ in public.” Momentary remorse gives way to survival instinct in his kill-or-be-killed world.

Sure, we’ve heard similar stories before, but Staples’ dexterous flow and gift for description — of both environs outside and conflict within — make him one of the most consistently impressive rappers around.

Copyright 2015 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

But the most important guest is you, of course. Tickets are available right now on NPR’s website, and they’re free. So snatch yours up, and start thinking about what song you want to talk about next week. There’s even a hashtag: #NPRsongswelove.

This event marks the end of NPR Generation Listen‘s month-long listening tour, which hosted conversations about public radio around the country.

The big night kicks off at 7 p.m. May 21, with doors opening at 6:15 p.m. (More specs are on NPR’s website.) After the panel, we’re planning to hang out, sip beverages and listen to even more music, so clearly, this is a prime opportunity for you to immerse yourself in public-radio nerdery. You can’t miss it.

Pop Zeus’ scrappy and heartfelt guitar-pop tunes caught the ear of Orange County label Burger Records, and the imprint put out Hodges’ 10-song debut in 2012. A year later, Hodges hit the road again; he relocated to Portland, Ore., then Los Angeles. He released a promising EP on Gnar Tapes and began working on more music with Wyatt Blair of the psych outfit Mr. Elevator And The Brain Hotel. But he would never finish those recordings. On the afternoon of Dec. 18, 2014, Hodges was killed in a motorcycle crash in downtown L.A. He was 29.

Blair is one of the founders of L.A.’s Lolipop Records. After Hodges died, the label tidied up and published the one song they’d finished: a nugget of squealing power pop that sounds descended from the ’70s pop band Shoes and supplemented by punk rock and Ariel Pink. It could be Hodges’ best song ever. But its words assume another layer of significance in the aftermath of his death. Singing a story about dumping a no-good lover, Hodges sounds relieved when he cries out, “I’ve never been more alive.”

Copyright 2015 WAMU’s Bandwidth. To see more, visit http://bandwidth.wamu.org/.