Bobby Carter
Bobby Carter is a leader on the Tiny Desk Concerts team for NPR Music. He's brought an ever growing roster of big names and emerging artists through NPR's HQ to squeeze behind the desk of All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen and record standout performances, including Usher, Mac Miller, Noname, Anderson.Paak and H.E.R.
From 2020-2022, Carter and the music team adapted to the challenges of the pandemic to produce the innovative Tiny Desk [Home] Concerts series with artists like Kirk Franklin, Tame Impala, Tems, Jazmine Sullivan and C. Tangana.
Carter has created new initiatives and programs to grow and diversify the Tiny Desk audience. He helped usher the Tiny Desk audience into new spaces through partnerships with Complexcon, HBO's Insecure and the 2021 film Coming 2 America. He also conceptualized a Black History Month Tiny Desk showcase in 2021. With that programming serving as a catalyst, he's since led the development of additional packages for Black Music Month, LatinX Heritage Month, Asian American/Pacific Islander Month and Indigenous People Month. His work in recent years has led to multiple Webby Award wins, an Anthem Award and a BET Hip Hop Award nomination. He's also a music writer, a judge for the Tiny Desk Contest and a busy veteran DJ (DJ Cuzzin B).
Carter originally joined NPR as an intern with NPR's digital media team in 2000, and soon after landed work as a digital media engineer. Following the launch of NPR Music in 2007 — while still working as an engineer processing on-demand audio and video for breaking news, special coverage, and live streams to reach all of NPR's digital platforms — Carter began writing end of year music roundups and producing Tiny Desk Concerts. He left his engineer role to become a full-time producer for NPR Music in 2018.
Carter hails from St. Louis, and is a graduate of Jackson State University, where he also worked at Member station WJSU while a senior in college.
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The hip-hop duo delivers its best live performance ever recorded and one of the hardest Tiny Desks of all time. -
NPR Music received a record number of entries to this year's Tiny Desk Contest: 7,500. The judges discovered so many amazing entries, and now we're sharing some of those standouts here.
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The R&B singer and her fans have anticipated this concert for years. It was worth the wait. -
The king of dancehall powers through a decades-spanning set of club classics behind the Tiny Desk. -
The Pittsburgh emcee reimagines tracks from his classic mixtape, Kush & Orange Juice, with the help of Tiny Desk veterans, Pennsylvania natives and DJ Bonics. -
Bay Area ambassador E-40 packs in three decades' worth of hits at the Tiny Desk for Black Music Month. -
Madison McFerrin, who creates instruments in real-time out of her looped vocals, previews songs from her upcoming album SCORPIO backed by a Chicago-based band and a sister vocal trio. -
The rapper shines as a masterful storyteller at the Tiny Desk with a host of musicians and singers, including his mom. -
Saya Gray offers light and soulful interpretations of her experimental pop songs at the Tiny Desk. -
Not even a snowstorm could keep Leon Thomas, the most exciting artist in R&B music today, away from the Tiny Desk.
