Stew and The Negro Problem

The Negro Problem
Invariably, first one must discuss the matter of the name. The name the Negro Problem is meant ironically, but it's in no way used for simple shock value. Indeed, the name illuminates the entire raison d'être of the band: although artists as disparate as Jimi Hendrix, Love, the Chambers Brothers, and the Fifth Dimension were making psychedelic rock music in the late '60s, a disturbing racial divide has reasserted itself since then....

Stew
Indie rock is hardly a traditional path to success on the Broadway stage, but Stew has never been an ordinary musician. As leader of the group the Negro Problem, he's crafted witty, literate, and intelligently constructed pop music that didn't bear much resemblance to the work of his peers, and the fact he was an African-American artist working outside the widely accepted confines of "black music" only made him seem that much more unique....