Jazz Rules Everything Around Me, Part 2, curated by Mumu Fresh, brings together visionary artists Kassa Overall and DJ Lance for a listening party and conversation exploring the creative exchange between jazz and hip-hop. Through recorded selections, dialogue, and personal insight, they will discuss how sampling, improvisation, rhythm, and beat-making inform their artistic process, and how they navigate tradition and innovation in their work. This dynamic program offers a rare opportunity to hear the music that inspires them while examining the deep and evolving relationship between jazz and hip-hop culture.

DJ Lance Reynolds is a Washington, DC–based DJ, producer, and cultural curator known for genre-spanning sets rooted in hip-hop, jazz, funk, soul, and global grooves. A respected force in DC’s creative music community, he is recognized for deep listening, innovative programming, and connecting audiences through sound. As a selector, collaborator, and host, DJ Lance brings a producer’s ear and historian’s sensibility to conversations about music, culture, and creative process.

Kassa Overall is a groundbreaking drummer, producer, emcee, and composer whose work is redefining the future of jazz through a bold synthesis of improvisation, hip-hop, and electronic music. Raised in Seattle and shaped by influences ranging from Ornette Coleman to Public Enemy, he developed an artistic voice rooted in experimentation and social consciousness. After studying at Oberlin Conservatory of Music and building his career in New York, he emerged as a sought-after collaborator with artists including Geri Allen, Jon Batiste, Vijay Iyer, and Gary Bartz.

His acclaimed solo recordings—including Go Get Ice Cream and Listen to Jazz, I Think I’m Good, Animals, and Cream—have established him as one of the most innovative voices in contemporary music, blending virtuosic drumming, incisive lyricism, and visionary production. A dynamic live performer and 2025 Doris Duke Artist Award recipient, Overall continues to expand the possibilities of jazz as a living, evolving art form.