Episode 21 - Cipha Sounds Featuring Cipha Sounds

Episode 21 of Lemme Ask You This with Talib Kweli and Tef Poe features New York City DJ and comedian Cipha Sounds. It starts with Talib asking Cipha about his children, which leads to a conversation about how video games impact the world. Talib and Cipha talk about Cipha's birthday party. Talib says the show is a pause free zone and talks about how gamers are more respected now. Cipha talks about having multiple skill sets and how he went from being a DJ to being a comedian. Talib asks Cipha how he feels about celebrities DJing. Cipha talks about being the dj on The Chappelle Show and how Dave Chappelle moves like a rapper. Cipha gives Ice Spice advice on how to rock any crowd. Tef asks Cipha about his relationship with Biggie and Cipha talks about when Bad Boy ruled the nightclubs. Talib asks about how it feels to play Diddy records right now. Cipha breaks down his experiences working at radio and how the radio does not represent real hiphop. Cipha talks about how being Black doesn't automatically make you an expert on hiphop and Talib talks about how too much of the gate keeping conversations in hiphop are had by people who don't participate in hiphop. Tef talks about how other regions did not play real hiphop on the radio. Cipha talks about being a fan of different regions of hiphop and signing Coo Coo Cal. Talib asks about the Latino participation in hiphop. Cipha Sounds talks about using the N word and how racial classifications get convoluted in Latino communities. Talib talks about being trolled by ADOS and FBA. Cipha talks about colorism in Latino communities and how Latinos can also be racist. Cipha talks about his experiences as a five percenter and how African Americans can sometimes gate keep Blackness. Talib talks about how conservatives try to co-opt Malcolm X. Cipha talks about breaking reggae records and what he learned from Funk Flex. Tef asks about Funk Flex long tenure in NY. Talib asks Cipha about his favorite comedians. Cipha shows love to Michael Che. Talib shows love to the Juan Epstein podcast. 

Shot and Edited By Chino Chase. Additional Filming By Aaron Ross Media Co.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:12

How old are your kids now? Whoa, what the hell?

SPEAKER_04 0:17

Is this the personal podcast? Oh man, we start. Jesus. Uh my I don't really get personal, so don't get too crazy. Okay. My son just turned. We'll start over. We'll start over. My son just turned eight and my daughter's 11.

SPEAKER_05 0:35

All right. Oh man. So sife.

SPEAKER_04 0:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 0:37

How you doing, sife? We started it off with jokes. It started off with jokes. No, because we were talking about how our kids watch people play video games as opposed to watching like stuff that's to me more involved or more creative.

SPEAKER_04 0:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 0:55

And do your kids watch people play video games?

SPEAKER_04 0:58

Yeah, it's weird. Like my son will watch somebody play Minecraft, but for like a long time, he used to play this other game called um Plants versus Zombies. You ever heard of that? Yeah. Plants vs. Zombies. And I thought he was playing it. And I'm looking at him, he's not touching the screen. I said, You just watching that? And I guess I don't know, like, they can't really explain why. I'm like, are you trying to learn from that? Is this like a YouTube tutorial to you?

SPEAKER_05 1:26

But I think I just figured it out, man. It's like we're in the era where, look, video games have impacted the world in a bigger way than we're giving them credit for. And people who are into gamers will be like, duh. Like people who are into games be like, yeah, I've been trying to tell y'all that. But I mean, if you think about like Steve Jobs started out as working as for Atari, he was a video game developer. Um, I feel like the current MAGA shift, you know, this is a political show. I don't know if you knew that. I thought it was a political show. Yeah, Cipher Sound said, oh, that political podcast.

SPEAKER_04 2:00

Last time we were together in Minneapolis when all the ice stuff was happening, and I thought you guys were like boots on the ground. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was like, oh, okay, they did this political podcast.

SPEAKER_05 2:11

Oh, this is let me ask you this. I am Talib Kwali. Yeah, I'm Tef Poe, man. Cypher Sounds our guest on the political podcast.

SPEAKER_06 2:18

Living legend, living legend on the political podcast today.

SPEAKER_05 2:22

Yeah, man. But um, I got some political questions for you, Cypher.

SPEAKER_04 2:25

I'm definitely whatever. I'm a first of all, I've I've been on some new ish lately. Man, I just met you recently. It's an honor to meet you. Likewise. Be working with you. Likewise. This guy right here, Talib Kwali, it's an honor to even be asked to do this. I know we're friends. We call each other all the time, we see each other all the time. I do not take it lightly how impactful it is that I know you and the things I've been through in my life with you, because of you, through you. Pause. And it's an honor, bro. And I don't take it lightly how we we do stuff for each other. I had a birthday show recently. You popped out, the crowd went crazy. That stuff really matters to me. And I don't think people say thank you enough lately. So I just want to say thank you, man.

SPEAKER_05 3:11

Well, thank you, Saiy. Appreciate it. And you were very famous in New York because of things like this. And I was happy to be at your birthday party. It was one of the greatest birthday parties I've ever been to. I've been to a lot of good ones. My birthday party, I turned 50. I know, I missed yours, which I heard was. It was crazy. Split star. I was at Split Star's joint. That was crazy.

SPEAKER_04 3:29

I heard that was that was a dress-up event, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 3:31

People was, you know, suited and booted.

SPEAKER_04 3:33

Nice, suited and booted.

SPEAKER_05 3:34

Um, but yeah, man, I I love and appreciate you. And you've been there from the beginning of my career. You already did people's party, so we did like a whole retrospective of your career. So we're gonna have a different type of conversation. Yeah, man. Thank you for always coming.

SPEAKER_04 3:45

What's going on? Who knows if the straight of whore moves is open today? No, no, no. Is it? I wake up every day in a frantic, in a frantic frenzy, and I grab my phone. I wake up, I go, is the Straight of Whore Moose open or closed? Yeah, man. We need to know. I've never heard of the Straight of Hore Moose before two months ago, but now today.

SPEAKER_05 4:11

I need to know is it open? He's doing an impersonation of what he thinks happens on a political project. That's what he thinks happened. Niggas just scream about the news. Is this straight open? But I was back to what I was saying about the video games. I think I figured it out. Um the gamergate culture, it affected MAGA. This guy who tried to uh rush in the correspondence, which for you as a comedian must be very scary. But this guy, he was a video game developer. Oh, really? So we can't dismiss that this is a generation that grew up taking video gaming very seriously. Yeah. So the same way that you might sit around and watch a baseball game or a basketball game or a football game, they sit around watching video games.

SPEAKER_06 4:59

A good friend of mine is a brother from uh the west side of St. Louis by the name of Tasty Steve. Pause.

SPEAKER_05 5:06

See, and I was about to see, and I was about to tell you, Sife, I I'm gonna make a new rule. This show is a pause free. Pause free. No, I know. Now you could you could you could participate in the plethora of pause.

SPEAKER_06 5:20

This is an ongoing, let me ask you this.

SPEAKER_05 5:22

You don't have to do that on this show. Let's just do an overall pause.

SPEAKER_06 5:26

It's an ongoing debate on this show. Some dudes come ahead and be like, Y'all ain't gonna pause that? We'd be like, well, we don't really do pause. Back to tasty. Back to tasty Steve.

SPEAKER_05 5:34

I see I said that because I seen Maino, who's shout out to my guy, Maino. Um, I feel like I gotta pause when I say my guy, Maino. But I've shout out to my guy Maino. Um, I seen him getting very frustrated. He doesn't participate in. He got very frustrated because he was just trying to tell a story and he just couldn't get a sentence out. He got up, he was about to leave. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_04 5:52

He created it damn near. Maino is on a podcast. We're gonna get back to Tasty Steve. Right. Maino is on a podcast with two guys from Harlem.

SPEAKER_05 6:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 6:04

You you you're gonna be in Paul's hell. Like, they don't stop.

SPEAKER_05 6:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 6:10

What's going on with Tasty Steve?

SPEAKER_05 6:12

Hey, yo.

SPEAKER_00 6:15

What's going on with Tasty Steve? What's TC Steve doing?

SPEAKER_06 6:19

Tell us more. Man, that's the hobby. He's a super positive dude, right? Like, whenever you see him on the street, he would be the type of cat walk up to you. He wouldn't even know you'd be like, oh yo, you got the Jordans? You doing it, man. You doing it, right? I look up, this dude living in Vegas, living the life. I'm talking about going all over the world, jet setting. He's one of the most well-known, famous dudes in video games. Really? Announcing and calling it. He'd be at the Comic Cons and all of that. But growing up, he was just an extremely positive dude. Yeah. You know what I mean? So it fits him. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_04 6:50

Yeah, I like, I like how something that wasn't necessarily a talent back in the day is now morphed into a talent or a personality. You know what I'm saying? That guy would just be the cool guy at the office back in the day. But now the world goes through all this digital stuff.

SPEAKER_05 7:07

Now he's like a somehow got discovered or before you showed up, Teff was just saying how he appreciates people who transition from one skill set to another, one industry to another. And I gotta say, Saife, you were probably the best example that we've seen in our culture of doing that to make the transition from radio and DJing and clubs to comedy. And I was there at the beginning of that, and I'm not afraid to say this. I didn't think you were gonna make it.

unknown 7:38

Damn.

SPEAKER_05 7:39

Like I was like, I was just Syfe tripping. Like, you know, but I always felt like it's you know, the radio will always be there. He's very famous in New York. The radio will always be there as a fallback. So I wasn't worried about you, but I watched you grind it out, and you invited me to some of your earliest, you know, upright citizens, brigade, improv, shows, yep, shows, man. And and we're very proud of you, man. And it's it's such an inspiring journey to watch.

SPEAKER_04 8:04

It's it's it's a couple things to it. One, first, thank you for always quality always shows up when I ask. Um the the thing what would probably looked a certain way when I switched to comedy is because I was very, very particular about not disrespecting the comedy genre and the art form. And people, there's a lot of famous people who for some reason think it's just easy to do comedy and they just start doing stand-up without going through the the trenches of it and the boot camp of it. And I was very particular about not just using my name to just get on. I mean, I use my name a little to like I would ask Tracy Morgan or or or Joe Coy when I interviewed him on the radio, like, can I do five minutes on your show? That was me using my name. Yeah. But I didn't try to headline after six months of joking around. I so I wanted to be respected as a comedian. You know what I mean? And now I finally got that from my real comics of like, oh shit, you really, you really did it.

SPEAKER_05 9:08

I feel like your birthday party was a tentpole in that journey.

SPEAKER_04 9:12

The birthday party was the absolute culmination of what I'm trying to do. I'm I'm bro, I'm hip-hop first. Every day, all day. I'm New York, I'm hip-hop, that's who I am in my soul. I'm a hip-hop person that does stand up. Yeah, I didn't switch.

SPEAKER_05 9:33

I'm like a I'm an MC celebrity with quotes, who cause sometimes selects at the party. I'm more like a trade rocker selector than a traditional DJ, turn to tableist or someone who got to work in the clubs every day. That's a different level of celebrating.

SPEAKER_04 9:48

Yeah, but but what you do when you DJ, I never take it no type of way. Because sometimes we feel like celeb jump on and become DJs. Yeah, red man was a DJ.

SPEAKER_05 9:57

Yeah, but they started as DJs.

SPEAKER_04 9:59

I started the MC, it went the other way. I but I think it's the same thing. I think it's a nothing, ain't nothing. We love hip hop so much. We're like, oh, this song was so this song would sound dope right now. Yeah. I just gotta get the technical part. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We have the yo, this goes good with this, this goes good with this. Yeah. Scenario right here, and then into, you know, there's some this girl, these girl celebrity influences, DJs, they don't even know the music.

SPEAKER_05 10:24

I've heard about this new one that's popping up. DJ Horse? Horsehead or some shit? Somebody Google this. It's a girl that like dresses like a horse. She's popping up. We we don't, we that's a DJ Horse Girl. DJ Horse Girl. Oh shit. That's a real nigga. Brace yourself before you Google this shit. Damn.

SPEAKER_06 10:47

I don't know if I want to see it.

SPEAKER_05 10:51

Stella Stallion. Oh my god. Listen. German DJ's. She's known for wearing a horse head mask. Oh, Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_04 11:00

How are your mixing? How is your song selection? How's your party rocking? I don't care what you wear. I don't care if you got a costume. Right. But anyway, but yeah, so like, so my my birthday was the to me. Finally, I combined hip-hop and stand-up comedy, which to me are kindred spirits in the most perfect way. It came together at Jessica Kirsten, Daniel Simonson, Mo Ammer, Dave Chappelle, Tyler Kwali, Noriego, Buster Rhimes, Gorilla Nems, all on stage seamlessly.

SPEAKER_05 11:37

Everybody fit perfectly. He finally proved that Gorilla Nims and Mo Amor are not the same person. It was proven on stage that night.

SPEAKER_04 11:44

Yeah, it was like a Humpty Humph Shock G situation.

SPEAKER_05 11:48

Yo, speaking of like all those names, I just kind of described what happened last night. I'm still reeling from that. Give me what you saw last night at the Dave Chappelle show from your perspective.

SPEAKER_04 11:59

Fire. First of all, it was kind of slightly trying to be like a Dave uh Chappelle show reunion. I got cut from the show, which I was very upset about. You want to do a set? I was supposed to do a set. Dave told me I was. He didn't tell management. It got into a big thing. But Bill Burr, Donnell Rawlings, Dave Chappelle, and then Mohammer and Marshall Brandon. Mo Ammer and Marshall Brandon work with Dave a lot, but they were not on the Chappelle show. I was. So I was like, oh, this would have been a perfect show. Because then it was also like you, Yassine Best. I say Most Def. I'm just gonna say most Def. I'm sorry. I mean you also say I told him homothug. Damn. There's context for that. Keep it 90s. And then Robin. McDonald's and West Fourth. You had to be. What's third? What's third? Um so anyway, whatever. It's not about me not being on the show. It came together. Comedy was great. Dave kills. But Dave, to me, Dave Chappelle, not to name drop, because I'm a name drop. No, I'll drop some names. To me, Dave Chappelle moves like a rapper. Dave Chappelle is an MC. He just, when he gets on stage and grabs a mic, it's not rap. It's comedy, almost poetry sometimes. But his entourage, his presence, his music selection, the way he wants to bring all these musicians on stage, it's hip-hop. He's hip-hop.

SPEAKER_05 13:33

He just doesn't technically rap. And for context, I might say for the people watching that, Cypher Sounds was the DJ on the Shabella. Yeah, DJ on the Shabel. In case you forgot, again, know that.

SPEAKER_04 13:43

Yeah. So he had Robert Glasper. Um I don't know the musicians, the other band members then, but they were really good.

SPEAKER_05 13:50

Chris Dave was a drummer that used to work with Robert Glasper back in the days a lot more in his uh original trio. And they still work together, but Chris has his own thing going on. But Chris Dave pulled up. Yeah, he's and he jumped on the drums, which made the moment go even like.

SPEAKER_04 14:03

Yeah. So uh he brings out um Yassimbe, who never comes here anymore. Talu Kwali, they start doing songs, Black Star, Common comes up, um Rizza comes up, Bus the Rhymes comes up, Ice Spice was in the building. What was I spice doing? Okay, I like Ice Spice. We love Ice Spice. I like Ice Spice a lot. Yeah, man. I'm not one of these old hip hop heads, like these new kids don't know what they're doing. That's what they used to say to us.

SPEAKER_05 14:38

As a DJ, I play her records.

SPEAKER_04 14:40

My mom banged on the wall, like, turn that down. That's my shit. You know what I mean? My mom would bang on the turn it down. I'm like, mom, this is check the rhyme. You shut the fuck up. That's how you talk to your mom. Yeah, yeah. That's what happens in the Latino household. She's she's had me so young, she's almost like my oldest sister. So they they used to tell us to turn it down. Ice Spice went on the stage last night and just faced the band and just had her ass sh the crowd. Like, not like standing on stage awkwardly.

SPEAKER_05 15:12

Like she was standing on stage to show her ass. I was like, Well, I did ask her if she was gonna rap, and she was like, Not right now. Yeah. With the with the with the bars that was going on stage, she was just paying respect.

SPEAKER_04 15:21

No, it was Riza doing Wu Chang Clan ain't nothing to fuck with over the cream beat that the band was playing. Yeah, that's crazy, right? It was like an ill mashup. You know what's funny? A lot of Jamaican shows are like that. Yeah, doing it. Jamaicans will differ different rhythms, do their songs over any beat. Yeah. So that's how it was last night. But I I want to talk, I wish I could talk to these younger artists, but they don't listen. I wish I had I could have like an agency and teach them how to rock in moments like that.

SPEAKER_06 15:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 15:51

Ice Spice, she has a lot of personality, right? Icepice needed to go on stage. It's a comedy show. People already kind of roasted each other. Dave Chappelle's roasting people a little bit. Like Buster's like, I'm not rhyming, I'm just talking.

SPEAKER_05 16:05

And Bus is like, Buster try to uh reprimand Yassine for not returning his phone calls on stage. On stage. Without the mic, just standing there on stage having a conversation.

SPEAKER_04 16:15

So I was thinking Ice Spike, you gotta go up there, be the young girl that you are right now, the young hot artist, and be like, yo, no disrespect. All y'all is old.

unknown 16:29

Right?

SPEAKER_04 16:30

We would have opened up. No disrespect. She would have been like, what's this old shit? That'll work. That would have worked. I wouldn't listen to jazz.

SPEAKER_05 16:36

What's this jazzy shit? You're right. That's she could have she would have killed with that.

SPEAKER_04 16:41

If she would have told the drummer, yo, hold up, hold up, hold up. And then went and went her drink. Just give me this. Yo, just give me this, Mr. Drummer.

SPEAKER_05 16:49

And then went into like one of them joints. Right? And then they would have hit the little keys to it. And she would have said Jahi Sundance, who's the DJ for Robert Glasper, he got all them new sounds. He got everything. So he would have been, he would have been able to go right into that jersey type of house type of shit.

SPEAKER_04 17:03

And bro, 30 seconds of like dump dump something, like one of her songs, right? Something I don't know her song like jibba jet, a jibba jet, a jibba jib, a jibba jet.

SPEAKER_05 17:12

And he's like, Hold on, hold on. Please, one more time, give me your impersonation of Ice Spice. I'm not Ice Spice, just young rappers over those type of beats.

SPEAKER_04 17:20

A jibba jet, a jibba jet, a jibba jib, a jibba the jet, a jibba jet, jibba jet. So she would have did like a little verse from one of her songs, and then just thrown in. Um, I'm I'm here, man. I know I'm rapping too fast. It don't matter, all these old men is looking at my ass.

SPEAKER_05 17:39

Ah Bye. Oh man, see, this see, this is too much. Done. You've been on the road too much doing hip hop and comedy. So I've seen Cypher Sounds, and I hope I don't. Can I talk about some of your bits? Sure. All right, so Cypher does a bit where he's DJing and he's like, he's working the crowd. He's a very good DJ, one of the best party DJs I've ever seen at a party, right? But he's DJing for the comedy club, right? So he'll play like some music, he'll play some, say, where the white people at and play some rock shit.

SPEAKER_00 18:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 18:13

Right? Said, where my black people at? No, no, this is how I start. Oh, please. Please do the beat. Don't tell the black one. Okay, that's why I had to ask. I start. I had to ask. We're gonna we're gonna chef this up.

SPEAKER_04 18:22

But I'll tell you, I start. There's you if I'm doing Dave Chappelle's show, there's usually a lot of white people in the audience. Not only, but a lot. So I will, yo, I'm I I gotta bring Dave, I gotta hype y'all up first. Y'all gotta get crazy. I need everybody to sing along. Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun fuck them other thing down. And I look at white people, and I turn the music off, I go, uh, maybe I shouldn't have started with that one.

SPEAKER_05 18:48

Pop, laugh. Right. See, now you're asking Ice Spice to do that without the 10, 15 years of experience to know the but which is why you start in the school.

SPEAKER_04 18:58

That's why I want to teach them. Like, not necessarily that, yeah, but like just know how to just rock for a second. No, this is not my audience, this is not my crowd, this is not my scene, right? But I'm on stage, and let me just do something that will work with this, or be like, yo, I ain't gonna lie, my dad likes all of y'all. Right, right, right, right. You know what I'm saying? That would have worked. Anything, because you gotta know this is not a hip hop show, even though it turned into one. This is comedy. Yeah, these is you're at a comedy festival. One good slick joke, stand in the back, give Riza a hug, give most of a hug. You'll be gold. Everybody be like, yo, she died. She's right.

SPEAKER_01 19:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 19:44

I mean, not that they say anything bad about it, but like you could tell it wasn't her crowd. She's like, I'm not rapping here. You shouldn't. Not the way you think, not the way you probably murder at your show. Yes. And then Dave was going on stage, like, I'll tell you something, Ice Spice. I'm a munch. I'm a munch. Self-deprecating.

SPEAKER_01 20:04

Right.

SPEAKER_04 20:05

Little joke, out of here. Yeah. She would have had a, she would have had the night.

SPEAKER_01 20:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:09

Shout out to Ice Spice. And she didn't do nothing. She wasn't, she didn't do badly.

SPEAKER_01 20:13

Right.

SPEAKER_05 20:13

But I'm saying you could have got a pop. Right. And it was good, it was dope that she was there. It was multi-generational. It was dope.

SPEAKER_04 20:18

I seen her watching the show. She was enjoying the whole show.

unknown 20:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:21

You know, somebody, I think Robert Glassman dragged her on stage. It was like, you know, I don't know if he told her to do something or she just gotta know how to. As a DJ, I'm gonna play most of the same songs usually. But do I start? Is this a white corporate crowd? Or is this a black Jamaican crowd? Is this a West Coast hood crowd? Or a Canada, you know what I mean? Like, so I read the room, I go, okay, this is corporate. I'm gonna play all the gangsta shit I always play, but I gotta get them on my side first. So I start with some, you know, popular, you know, flow rider get low, never fail. A never fail. This is how we do it, never fail. And then they the sauce is sauced up. Then you start getting into like the gangster shit, and they're in. A hot song is a hot song.

SPEAKER_06 21:20

I don't know. They don't know. Man, we I see you got the B I on your shirt, bro. Yeah, B I G. What does he represent for people who don't? This generation be sleeping on Biggie a little bit. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_04 21:30

Well, he represents Brooklyn, New York City, where they paint murals of Biggie.

SPEAKER_06 21:33

That's true.

SPEAKER_04 21:34

Damn. Nice one.

SPEAKER_05 21:38

Cypher Sounds was an AR brocus. He was someone who helped break those Black Star records, and he was the first, one of the first Black Star DJs.

SPEAKER_06 21:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 21:47

So he knows. No, but Biggie. And he was Lil' Kim's DJ before he was a Black Star DJ.

SPEAKER_06 21:51

That's crazy. See, I got the man face on my arm.

SPEAKER_05 21:54

Oh, whoa.

SPEAKER_06 21:54

Yeah. He goes with me everywhere I go.

SPEAKER_04 21:57

Um, but what does he represent? I don't know. Biggie was the best. Biggie was to me was the best. He did everything. He he he did girly sing-along songs, club songs, party songs, sad songs, hood. Bro, he got the locks. He got a on Biggie's album, he got the locks with a beat made by Havoc.

SPEAKER_06 22:22

Insane.

SPEAKER_04 22:23

I mean, what?

SPEAKER_06 22:24

Classic.

SPEAKER_04 22:24

What do you what do you want?

SPEAKER_06 22:26

Right. I hate our era because you're right. That's super crazy. And we just like, oh yeah, another day at the office.

SPEAKER_04 22:34

Bro, he got um, he got um, you know, some of the hardest beats. He got Buck Wild, uh, Nasheem, who did Who Shot Ya, and um I think My Downfall. You know, he got um and then also like funny stuff like Player Hater.

SPEAKER_06 22:53

I love Player Hater.

SPEAKER_04 22:54

You know what I mean? It's like Nasty Girls, one of my favorites.

SPEAKER_05 22:57

He got something for everybody. When you were DJing for Kim, and also around that time you were on the radio in the clubs, particularly around the tunnel. Can you describe the era where bad boy was running the tunnel and bad boy was running the city? And if you wasn't in the tunnel, you wasn't official. Bro, first of all, I was putting up flyers and putting up posters in the tunnel. I was working for Jessica at that time.

SPEAKER_04 23:20

The tunnel nightclub. It was a Sunday night in New York City. It was the most grimiest street gangster party night ever. It was like, it's Sunday night. It's 2,000, 3,000 people. I used to be like, these people don't have jobs. Yeah, we sell drugs. I guess we have jobs, sir.

SPEAKER_05 23:43

You ever seen that movie Party Monster? No. It's a based on a book. It stars Macaulay Coughlin, but the movie is about the book, the movie is a little bit not as much. The book is about Peter Gation.

SPEAKER_04 23:55

Yeah, Peter Gation.

SPEAKER_05 23:57

And playing everything that was going on around that time.

SPEAKER_04 23:59

But but that's um Friday and Saturday night. Friday and Saturday was like white, techno, house. Sundays was the hip hop night, punk master flex. But um the tunnel, that era is, you know, let's when I got there was 95. I wasn't, I was just carrying DJ Riz's crate. And then I got 97. Shout out to DJ Riz. Mob Deep, MOP, Capone Noriega, Locks, you know, Buster Rhymes, DMX, Cameron, uh, Jay-Z, the whole Rockefeller, and then Bad Boy Ranit. And I I I remember I I I was talking to Puff once. I was I wasn't at the after party if you were gonna ask. I was at the I was at the Where was this conversation being held at with Puff? Uh it was right before the after party. I used to DJ the before party, and then I would open up for Flex. I remember this. I was young, I was young, I was not the main DJ, I was the opener. I did the before party, I hung out during the party, and then we would leave, and then then we heard there was after parties. So Puff came up to the hot 97 one day, and um, he talked to all the DJs, and he said, this is like 98, 99. He said, let me ask y'all a question. If I took out all the bad boy records in your crate, could you do a party tonight? And we were like, it wouldn't be good.

SPEAKER_05 25:31

We could do it, but there'd be a chunk of records missing where people would be like, um And you know what that's crazy about you telling that story is that that really happened in our lifetime. If you remember when them tapes first started coming out with the Cassie, which was very hard for people to watch, and all the allegations, and I say allegations because a lot of that shit, who knows what people did, but I know what I saw on that tape. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? So it's like you can't get around that. But me, I'm spinning in clubs at this point, I'm talking to other DJs, and it's whether or not you want to play a record with Diddy voice on it is irrelevant to the fact that you know as a DJ that there are vibes when when back to back dropped, people didn't want to hear Meek Mill in the club. Yeah, Drake had it on lock. All last year, you wasn't really hearing Drake records like that. People was you people didn't want to hear it. It's not because these records are not good. They're not the same like it was before. It's a feeling. So I remember like playing records that had Puff's voice on it around the time it's cringe. You feel the cringe, the energy in the in the air is wild, bro.

SPEAKER_04 26:34

Like even Who Shot Ya, where he don't rap on it, but his voice is throughout the whole song.

SPEAKER_05 26:40

Like, and it's again, it's not, I'm not passing no judgment because I don't know who did what. I'm just talking about the energy in the room. Yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_04 26:47

Like, like I, you know, Puff to me, all before all this crazy stuff, Puff was a hero of mine. The New York City party scene, it did, he made it a whole people don't talk about the good stuff that he did, right? Obviously the bad stuff, you know, whatever. But he said, if we take all your records out, can you do a party? And we're like, not well. And like he really knew how to make club party radio records, but also loved underground dirty hip-hop. That's why Smith Wesson is on the Mary J. Blige remix. That's why um Mr. Cheeks was on the other Mary J. Blige song. And why um the Faith beat, the uh You Don't Love Me Anymore, uh I remember Used to Love Me, Used to Love Me remix beat, also is a crazy locks biggie freestyle.

SPEAKER_01 27:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 27:42

He knew how to blend the worlds, I think better than anybody.

SPEAKER_05 27:46

Yeah, I agree with that.

SPEAKER_04 27:48

There's some RB records, there's these Mary J. Blige remixes that in New York, you don't even play the regular one, you play the remix one. I DJed an RB party out of town. I thought I was gonna kill it. They didn't even know these versions because they're so regional. Yeah, so New York, but he made it like he Smith and Wesson.

SPEAKER_05 28:07

That that whole like boom boom boom boom. That's a real New York. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? You could do any type of record over that.

SPEAKER_06 28:16

Yeah, man. Think about being regional in New York, you you worldwide.

SPEAKER_05 28:20

Yeah, well, at one point.

SPEAKER_06 28:21

It was Atlanta now, I think. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 28:24

It was Cali 7.

SPEAKER_04 28:26

Hot 97 was the where all radio stations look to the well, if hot 97 was playing it in New York, maybe we should play it.

SPEAKER_05 28:34

And then the game changed after that, when the the radio station started being bought up, and now the playlists start getting like um you left radio. Um you didn't have a good time when you left radio.

SPEAKER_04 28:48

No. 15. I was at Hot 97 for 17 years, 15 great, too horrible. Too horrible. Like just new bosses. Bro, I had I had hot 97 on my back, bro. Yeah, I remember that. On my back. I was I had when I look back now, when I look back now, I had Stockholm syndrome, bro. I loved my captors. But anything I ever did DJ-wise, in my mind, I was like, if they're not hot 97 listeners there, why am I going? Right? Yeah. One Oak and all those bungalow egg, those flashy clubs, they would ask me to DJ. I mean, ah, that shit's just too bougie. Me being a dumbass, all the promoters from Europe and Dubai and all those places are in those sexy parties where I would have got more of a worldwide, you know, fame or at least uh opportunity. But I was doing all the grimy New York parties because that's where the Hot 97 listeners were. I was like, I want to give to my listeners, which I should have diversified a little more. So when I left Hot 97, all my shit just stopped because it was only based on me being on the radio. All the gigs, you know, the club gigs.

SPEAKER_05 30:03

You always strata the line between like underground music as important underground and also doing the whatever was commercial on the radio at the time. But I've heard you speak about having to explain to people who get frustrated with the fact that the radio doesn't represent the underground culture that it's not supposed to.

SPEAKER_04 30:20

That the radio is corporate. Can you break that down? Yeah, radio, radio is not for us. We're we're grimy. We want to listen to whole albums and play albums. Radio is for passive listeners who drive a certain amount of time or work in an office and there's background music, right? As far as hot 97 got with being that, but playing some real shit, playing DMX in the middle of the day, and they did a really good job. But there's all these people that are like, yo, why don't you play this? Why don't you play that? Why you don't, why you not playing this? I'm like, those aren't radio songs, those are underground, grimy, mixtape, college radio smoking weed songs. That's where they go, like things go in certain places. You want this slow ass, you want this slow ass weed song to play at 1 p.m. when a girl's at the work at the doctor's office. It's not for that. And I was like, if you love hip-hop that much, you're not gonna like radio. It's not for us, it's for like people who kind of just play it in the background. And the people listening to it on the radio think they love hip-hop.

SPEAKER_05 31:41

Like it's for consumers, not people who participate in it. Yeah. And sometimes people think that just because you consume hip-hop, that you are a participant in hip-hop culture, that's not always the case.

SPEAKER_04 31:51

Not true. You you can you can love I told okay, there's a friend of mine. He's a black kid from Houston. He's a comedian named, I'm gonna say his name. His name is Trey Tutson. I love him to death. Funny guy, he opens for Mohammer, he's from Houston. And we were shooting Mohammer's special in DC, and the new ghost face album came out. And I said, Listen, I know you guys are setting up cameras and everything. I'll be up in my room listening to this ghost face. He comes in, he goes, What is this? I go, This new ghost face. Mass appeal's doing. I'm gonna explain to you. Mass appeal's doing all these different I'll slick Rick and Mob Deep is the Ghostface. He was like, which one? He's from Wu Chang, right? I'm like, is he joking? Jesus. I said, Well, at least he knew he was from Wu Chang. At least he knew he was from Wu Tang.

SPEAKER_05 32:42

He could have been like, he could have been like, the the fucking villain from Scream has an album. You know what I'm saying? He could have said that, bro.

SPEAKER_04 32:49

Barely. So I'm like, what you said? Yo, this he's he's one of like the Wu-Tang. I said, bro, don't, don't do that, man. Don't I said, you do you know Wu-Tang? He goes, yeah, I know some of it. I go name the members. If you ask me to name the members, I automatically go to the intro of Method Man, which doesn't say Master Killer. You have to add Master Killer. Because he was new to the group that was Jiz's homeboy. Say Rizza, the Jizza. Oh, dirty bastards. You know what I mean? Ray Guarda Sherry. And so he's like, um, who's a um uh something bastard? Something bastard, right? And then like my bad scissor. Scissor, not scissors.

SPEAKER_05 33:31

I said, oh Scissors in the Wu-Tang clan. I said, oh, bro.

SPEAKER_04 33:35

Can't trust you with a pair of scissors. No, I fuck with you. I fuck with you. You my man, but we I can no longer talk this shit with you. Right, you are disqualified from this conversation. I said, you, he goes, no, no, I'm hip hop. Da-da-da-da-da. I said, no, you black. Okay. Black?

SPEAKER_06 33:55

Okay. But we're gonna get into this. Yo, where he is walking down. I have to walk people down that road every day. I was sitting in the car with somebody, and they told me, Nas don't got this and that. I said, Yeah, I got you, pull over. Yeah, get out. You might as well just let me out the car.

SPEAKER_04 34:11

Let me out or you get out.

SPEAKER_06 34:12

Nas isn't that phenomenal of a rapper. It was something like that. I said, yeah, just let me out the car. We was on the highway. I said, Yeah, I'll just walk. I'm good. I'm good. I can't, people. What you say is just profound. People really do think growing up black make them hip hop.

SPEAKER_05 34:28

Oh, let's talk about it. Let's get into this. I've been very excited to talk about this with Cypher Sound. For real. Okay? For real. Let's get into that. Because you have a great joke. Yeah. And I don't want to burn all your jokes on the podcast. You know what I'm saying? But the premise of it is around how the N-word is different for Latino people in New York than it is. And when I say Latino, I really mean Afro-Latino. Right? And there's a big debate in our culture. This is the perfect political podcast to talk about this. It's political podcast, bro. We're gonna go into now. I'm gonna qualify us starting this conversation, this part of the conversation with what y'all just said, which is very important.

SPEAKER_00 35:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 35:07

Far too much of the scuttle butt and the commentary on whether or not Latinos was there at the start of hip hop, whether or not Latino people could say the N-word, or they black, or this and that. Way too much of that around hip-hop is being started and had amongst people who don't give a fuck about hip-hop. Y'all don't listen to rap, y'all don't support rap, y'all, y'all are consumers. You might hear it on the radio. It might, you might have a song you like that you like to buy bottles at the club with your girls.

SPEAKER_06 35:37

You can't be a part of the goddamn weekend brunch crew trying to determine what's culturally.

SPEAKER_05 35:43

What we doing hip hop, bro.

SPEAKER_06 35:44

In the crime de la crime of hip-hop.

SPEAKER_05 35:46

But we've been doing in hip-hop.

SPEAKER_06 35:47

Nigga, you were you just passing through.

SPEAKER_05 35:48

Yeah, Jay Rue, we had him on the podcast. That episode's not out yet, but he said hip-hop is new urban New York City culture. And I agree with that, because that encompasses everything. And it's it's for everybody, right? It's not just for, but that's how it starts. So at the start of it, yeah, there were white people there, but they were sparse. But there were black people and there were Latino people. Something I heard Enough say recently, which I never even thought about, was he didn't know that Charlie Chase and Whippa Whipping them was Puerto Rican until he was well into adulthood. He thought they were black because he said with Latino people, Puerto Rican people, Dominican people in the city, they be black, living in black spaces, but don't tell you they Latino don't identify as that until you ask them. Clark Kent is Panamanian. Yeah. Clark Kent speak rest in peace, spoke fluent Spanish. That's right. So what are we talking about when we say black versus Latino? Bro, I mean Latino versus ethnicity is not even a race. There are white Latin, they're white Latino people, white Hispanic people, white, black Latino people, black Hispanic people.

SPEAKER_04 36:46

I'm glad I'm I'm here on this political podcast. So I told Trey Tudson, I say, you black, you like some rap music. Right. But that don't make you hip hop. And he was fighting on it. I'll just give you this quick example. Then I want to talk about you said. I go, I go, bro, we arguing for weeks, arguing, arguing, arguing. I said, yo, Trey, Trey, I go, what did you wear at your wedding? He goes, I wore a suit, and I said, you wore shoes, right? You wore hard bottom shoes. He goes, Yeah, of course, at my wedding. I said, I wore, I wore custom-made Jordan. I'm hip hop. With my name and my wife's name on the You not hip hop. And then I go, what song did you walk out to? He said, I think it was like a Luther Vandro or something other. I said, that's a beautiful song. Beautiful for a wedding, marriage, love. I walked out to Noriega banned from TV. He said, bro, he went like this.

SPEAKER_05 37:41

You win. You win. So yes, before we even have this, and and and there is conversations that need to be internal in the black community about colorism, about uh how we deal with certain immigration issues that have nothing to do with people outside of the community, that have nothing to do with hip hop. That exists too. But once you start talking about hip hop, bro, don't even come over here with that shit unless you can tell me who's in the Wu Tangle.

SPEAKER_06 38:04

Let me ask both of y'all this. Do you think the fact that they barred certain records? Like Band from TV wasn't played on the radio on the radio in Arkansas. You know what I'm saying? Like being from Missouri, I loved uh Band from TV as a record. I was like, this shit is crazy. But I had to go find that song. You know what I'm saying? It wasn't something I could just walk outside and hear. Do you think that is partially why certain people from certain regions can't name all the members who were.

SPEAKER_05 38:33

Absolutely. It's not this kid's fault.

SPEAKER_06 38:35

It's not like it's a generational thing.

SPEAKER_05 38:37

It's like, yeah, it's not his fault.

SPEAKER_06 38:39

Mob deep. Yeah, yeah. The mob deep that you got in New York, we didn't get in St. Louis when they were at their peak. We got some of it as cats who wanted to imitate the culture of the people. And you had to go look for it. Exactly. If you wanted to find it. But it wasn't like I was walking in the club and Havoc and Prodigy was in there popping bottles in my face.

SPEAKER_04 38:54

100%. 100%. But bro, I couldn't name, you could test me on anything. I'll know enough. I'll know enough about Midwest. I'll know enough about the Bay Area. I know.

SPEAKER_05 39:04

Yeah, but to qualify, you're one of these people who are very much into it and you're a DJ.

SPEAKER_00 39:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 39:10

And it's your job to go in the room and read the room. So that's a very specific skill set that you've developed that most people, even people who do hip hop, but you're saying it reverse though, Quali.

SPEAKER_04 39:20

You're saying because I'm a DJ, I know all that stuff. I know all that stuff that made me a DJ. Yes. I was a fan first. I know I never listened to a whole um Rapid Forte album. But I know who he is, where he's from, what his relevance is. Shout out to Rapid Forte.

SPEAKER_05 39:37

I'm on his next album. Really? Are you? This is what I do. I do this. What do you do? Shout out to Rapperforte.

SPEAKER_04 39:48

I know about all that. Enough to enough to get by, and I wouldn't sound disrespectful. Ah, they wasn't doing nothing back then. I'll be like, okay, how what was the significance of that? What did they mean? What did they mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know about um uh B legit is E40's cousin.

SPEAKER_06 40:04

Super rapper. You know what I'm saying? Like, I know I love be legit. He's still dropping slash.

SPEAKER_04 40:10

I signed Cuckoo Cow.

SPEAKER_06 40:11

And my project was just in Milwaukee.

SPEAKER_04 40:15

I went to Milwaukee. I found a Milwaukee rapper, and then I said, yo, take me to the local record shop. I bought a stack of CDs like this of independent um Midwest albums. You know what I mean? I study it. So Yeah, go ahead.

SPEAKER_05 40:33

So that so were Latinos there at the beginning of hip hop? Yes or no? That's all I was trying to find out. Because apparently y'all wasn't around, bro. That's what I've been hearing on these internet streets, bro, that y'all was not around.

SPEAKER_04 40:47

I'm the oh man, it hurts my heart when I hear black people talk shit about. I don't, I don't, Latinos is even a tough term. Puerto Ricans were there. He's like, fuck the rest of y'all niggas.

SPEAKER_05 41:01

We Puerto Ricans, we didn't niggas. Like, I don't know what the niggas are.

SPEAKER_04 41:06

Chilean niggas. Nicaraguan's. That's a different thing about what's Nicaraguans. Nicaraguans. Venezuelans. But I'm sure, like Puerto Rican culture in New York, if you Latino and you live in New York, you're gonna get grouped up with the Puerto Ricans, and now it's different. Now it's Dominicans. Right. But you pick up, even though you might be from Venezuela, Colombia, wherever, you pick up New York Puerto Rican slang. It's why, it's why, and I don't want to get too earth worldly with it, but it's why Torontonians and people from London use a lot of the same slang because it's Jamaican slang. Yeah. Yeah. Jamaica is the catalyst for a lot of those countries that where they get their slang from. You hear Nigerians in London say Wagwan. That's Jamaican. Right? So, so Puerto Ricans in the time where hip hop was created, we say the 70s, but we know we don't know the exact day, even though they say what the day is. They was around, but there's like there's some Latinos that are racist towards black people. Absolutely. We're not talking about them. Yeah, like Godfrey be talking about I know black. Yeah, that's shit. But that I look at those people when he goes, I know black, I'm Dominican. Right. That is white supremacy. That's right. That's that's that's right. That's somebody saying, you're not like the American, you're not African American. You're Dominican. It's different. So they all they have is divide and conquer. The only power that the white man has is divide and conquer. Look at every conflict ever. It's because they separate us and make us fight each other, right? So Latinos were there in the beginning. Not as many as like there's some of those Latinos are black. That's right. So why why do they get pushed out because they their parents speak Spanish, right?

SPEAKER_05 43:13

It's all a colonizer language. None of this is African. None of it. All of it is European. English, you would what form of English are you speaking? What form of Spanish are you speaking? That's all European.

SPEAKER_04 43:22

African part of all of it is the is the is the um like when when when James Brown by in the jungle, bro. They called it, they literally called it the talking drum. So, so now, okay, so me, right? I say the n word a lot. But it's never ever in a racial way. The n word from where I come from, New York City, is a hip hop. I don't even want to say slang. It's not even slang, it's just a hip hop term. I I I didn't even know the racial connotation of it until I got older. Right? So now, um, so there's black Puerto Ricans and then there's also light-skinned Puerto Ricans.

SPEAKER_05 44:12

Which you also identify as Afro-Latino, which is uh that's a technical term for a black person. Right. Which is that's where the conversation gets convoluted because black people in America say that we have um reclaimed the word for ourselves and we're allowed to say it, and you can't. Yeah. Okay, well, that means that if you identify like Joe Rogan got caught saying it, saying the N-word, not like how we say it in New York, but he was saying it like how someone who's making a documentary would say it. Okay, okay. He wasn't calling people niggers, but he was like, if the word came up, he wasn't censoring himself. Right. Right. You know what I'm saying? A free speech, right? And so he got caught, and then somebody made a compilation tape all the times he said it. And the way that he joked about it afterwards was he said, I did a 23andme, and I found out I was like very small percent, I was like 3% uh Kenyan. It turns out that's not enough for me to be able to say to everyone.

SPEAKER_04 45:01

You know what I'm saying? Yeah. So but like who who where is the tribunal that tells us who's allowed to say it, right? Because my grandfather is your skin color, or was, he's dead now. He's black, he's a black man. He married a very light Puerto Rican woman, which is why my dad came out looking much lighter than his dad. I met my grandfather, I said, this is a black person. Right. He's a black, you know what I mean? Like, my father died when I was young, so I was. I am I'm Puerto Rican only in the sense, and this is where real Puerto Ricans get mad at me. I'm Puerto Rican only in the sense that it's a classification in New York City. If I go to Puerto Rico, I'm American. Right. I'm a New Yorker. So in New York, we all are something. Everybody got a Trinity neighbor, Jewish neighbor, Italian neighbor, this guy German? Oh, that bitch, French Montana's Moroccan. Right? In New York, we all are something. It's a New York thing. New York question goes, what's your name? My name's Cypher Sounds. My name's Talib Kwali. What are you? No, no, where are you from? Where you from means where did you grow up in New York? Where did you go to high school? Oh, I'm from, I'm from, where are you from in Brooklyn? Uh Park Slope. You from Park Slope? What school you went to? PS282. And then everybody be like, oh, okay, my cousin went there, my dad. And then what are you? Right? I'm three-quarters Puerto Rican, a quarter Irish. Does that mean I'm not black? My grandfather's a black person. My uncle's a black person. Then you're like, well, you can't say the n-word. You're Latino. Okay, and they're like, uh, N-word, it's African American. And I always say, and this doesn't go well ever. Can Obama say it?

SPEAKER_05 47:01

A better question is. Why do you get so quiet in here? A better question is, can Drake say it? That's what Kendrake brought up in that battle. Can Drake say it? That's what touched a lot of people's nerve. Like, ooh, can he say it? He's been saying it the whole time.

SPEAKER_04 47:14

He's Larry Graham's nephew. I forgot his dad's pretty fucking black. That's the blackest music. That's folk music.

SPEAKER_06 47:23

Dennis Graham's his pops.

SPEAKER_04 47:25

But he wasn't, was he raised with his? I don't know the where's the line. Who determines? Obama's mother.

SPEAKER_06 47:30

That nigga dad from white. I think he can say the N-word. Oh. That nigga Drake's daddy is from White's.

SPEAKER_04 47:37

Yeah. He's he can say it.

SPEAKER_06 47:40

Yeah, his daddy is a straight nigga.

SPEAKER_04 47:42

Obama. Obama. I'm not, I think Obama can say it. I'm just saying, I'm asking you. Obama mother's white, father's from Africa.

SPEAKER_05 47:55

Not African American. The ADOS FBA crowd would call him a tether. That's what they would call him. Obama? Yeah. They would call him a tether. They call me a tether. Look, these motherfuckers changed my. They were so mad that I'm pro-immigrant. I'm born in Brooklyn. My whole family born in America. I'm African American. They were so mad that I'm pro-immigrant, they changed my Wikipedia page to say he was born in Haiti. What is your family Haiti? This nigga Haitian. He was like, this nigga Haitian. I don't know what Quali likes immigrants too much. That nigga Haitian. Oh, wait, he's from Brooklyn? That nigga definitely Haitian. I kept changing it. They changed it back 10 times. They wasn't playing, bro. They wasn't playing. This is the same crew that came after Fat Joe. You know how Fat Joe always gets in trouble with the internet? Because he be saying the N-word all the time, and they be like, yo, you look like a light-skinned Puerto Rican to us. And they get mad. Like, that's them niggas. Yeah. You know, and and where he where he got mad, where he got, where Fat Joe got them upset at is I agree with Fat Joe's criticism of that movement. It's divisive. Yeah. It's not based on hip hop. It's not, is, and it's largely a movement of people who are not involved in our community. But he described it as a black racist movement. And him looking like how he looks, saying, these black racists come after me. It looked crazy. That sounded crazy.

SPEAKER_04 49:17

But it's not New York, though. It's New York. Like Fat Joe's in the projects with Diamond D, Lord Finesse, Joe Biz. Like, I don't, I don't even. He said if you grow his hair out, you don't have an afro. I don't even, I don't even know how to, I don't even know how to say, like, oh, they're black. Like, I don't look at it like that. Like, I'm black. Like, how other am I not that? So, so then they say, um, so then they're like, well, who can use it, who can't? Dah dah. I go, I'm, I'm not, I doesn't, it's not even a racial word to me. Also, I don't speak Spanish. I am not, like, I like Puerto Rican food the same way I like Italian food or Jamaican food. It's just in New York, we have all these different foods. I don't have no close connection to being Puerto Rico, where there are Puerto Ricans that do have that, and they are sometimes racist towards black people. Right.

SPEAKER_05 50:17

And that's where the people get caught up at. Right. Because they see they see the racism in the Latino community towards black people and they have an emotional response to that.

SPEAKER_04 50:24

Yeah, but then they're also light-skinned Puerto Ricans who are racist to dark-skinned Puerto Ricans and Dominicans, or like you do Dominican in Haiti, which is a thin line as a porter, but like, oh, they they black Haitians. Like, bro, you blacker than the guy you talking to. Right, right, right, right.

SPEAKER_06 50:40

I'm gonna keep it real. That's gang banging across the street, nigga. 100%. It's bloods across the street, it's cripples across the street. I ain't gonna lie, I'm gonna say this shit on camera. That's the stupidest shit ever. Whoever gets offended by that shit, be offended. How y'all niggas on the same island?

SPEAKER_04 50:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 50:55

That shit don't make no fucking sense, my nigga.

SPEAKER_04 50:57

Two European countries decided which half was theirs, and then you all of a sudden are now enemies. When you all came up, you came on the same slave ship. Crazy. They dropped you off in the middle. Okay, you go on the French side, you go on the Spanish side. Now we're enemies. I would that's my man. That's goofy.

SPEAKER_06 51:15

It's your damn cousins. It's your family. It's your cousins, literally.

SPEAKER_04 51:17

So take it even further. I I became, I'm a five percent. My name, Cipher. That was my next question. Tell him what Cipher sounds mean. Go ahead. My my my five percent of the name is God Cipher Islam Allah. Right, but he don't want to be on a political podcast.

SPEAKER_05 51:35

That's where it comes from.

SPEAKER_04 51:37

Cipher. People like what's your real name? Being a cipher now. Oh, cypher. What's your real name? That is my real name. It's not the name on my birth certificate. It doesn't make it less real. I've been cipher since I was 17, since I was knowledge God.

SPEAKER_02 51:50

Damn.

SPEAKER_04 51:50

Peace, God, all being born into building destroyed. Damn. 5% of culture. I'm 15. I'm reading Malcolm X. I'm listening to Brand Nubian. Bro, the words, a lot of the words were the same. Muslim words and 5% of words, they crossed, right? I become engulfed in the 5% culture. Everything about it is gaining knowledge, knowledge, knowledge. Black. The black man is God. Start a civilization. You wanna break down okay. The slave ships stopped in the Caribbean first. When they say Christopher Columbus discovered America, it was the Caribbean, right? He didn't come to New York or Massachusetts, it was Caribbean. In the Caribbean, it was a lot more lax to sleep with your slaves.

SPEAKER_06 52:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 52:42

Yo, it's coconut, we got Pina Colada, is it sunny? I'm gonna fuck with this slave. So the mixture, whoa, the mixture was a lot more prevalent than when you when it got to the south.

SPEAKER_06 52:54

They had the breeding forums in the Caribbean, too.

SPEAKER_04 52:56

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. So like there was more mixture. So there's more light-skinned people, you might have black guy with green eyes and all this kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_06 53:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 53:05

So then because my family's slave ancestors didn't go to Georgia, I'm less black. I I love Bad Bunny. I don't understand one word he's saying. Right. I like the music. This sounds good. Not oh, I bro, I swear to God, I watched Bad Bunny Super Bowl. Nothing about me was like, oh, my people. I was like touched by the sugar cane. On a New York level. Yeah. The lady, the lady, um, I forgot her name. The lady that runs that social club in Williamsburg, that touched me the most. Yeah. I forgot her name, something with a T. That touched me the most on some New York shit.

SPEAKER_05 53:54

And the fact that his biggest record at that time is Nueva York, which is which is New Yorkan Salsa. That's a very important record.

SPEAKER_04 54:03

But growing up, all the black guys danced with Puerto Rican girls to Salsa music. Noah, Noah was like, turn that shit off. Play Grandmaster Flat. No, we all, everybody in New York knows Salsa, reggae, dance hall, fucking um uh uh classics, before I let go, outstanding. Uh all you'll see a bunch of Puerto Ricans doing the um uh uh what's I can't think? Lecture slide.

SPEAKER_05 54:31

Yeah. So the new African one they do the Jerusalem.

SPEAKER_04 54:36

Bro, now there are people from Puerto Rico or Dominican Republic oh that come here later, and they and they and black kids are uh associated with crime and the problems of the ghetto. So they tell their kids don't be around the black kids. But that's not that's that's white supremacy. Yes, that's exactly right. That's why listen, we could, we could, we could make it here because we lighter, and they're those people are in trouble, they're crime and have a lot of problems. Stay away from them so we can make it. Fuck that. And then New York, then the kids go, nah, we go to school together, we that's my man, so then I'm I'm older. I start traveling, I go out of town. First of all, they like, oh, you live in New York. Like, what? What's wrong with Jewish people? Damn. I didn't know I didn't know. Remember Jesse Jackson in '84?

SPEAKER_05 55:26

Yeah. Hamatown.

SPEAKER_06 55:27

Oh, yeah, he did.

SPEAKER_05 55:29

Bro, that's what people have to say. If you grew up in New York, Heimattown.

SPEAKER_04 55:33

Bro, if you grow up in New York, we get Rosh Hashanah off from school. We get Han uh Passover. I didn't know there was all this history with Jews when I was a kid. I'm like, oh, why are we up from school today? Jewish holiday. Great. Right, right. Salute. Thank you, Rash Hashanah. Appreciate that.

SPEAKER_01 55:52

Right.

SPEAKER_04 55:53

So I know a girl named Rash Hashanah. You know what I'm saying? So it's like, I try not to have these arguments because people are ignorant. Like, like, oh, well, you're not African American. Uh, neither is Idris Elba. You can't, African American is not a replacement for the black.

SPEAKER_05 56:14

That's stringer bell. African American is not a replacement for black. I'm glad you repeated that. Because that's a, that's that right there is an invention of the fucking internet. We didn't have these problems before the social media, before ADOS and FBA and all this fucking. And that shit is not organic. That shit is funded by right-wing organizations. P F I R progressives for immigration reform is the name of the organization. Sounds real political. We're getting political a little bit.

SPEAKER_06 56:43

Political to me.

SPEAKER_05 56:44

Because first of all, progressives ain't really fighting for immigration reform. That's not a progressive thing really to do. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? So this in the name it should tell you. You know what I'm saying? These people are trying to figure out how to bring in right-wing conservative politics into our communities, and they go into places where people are poor and people are their jobs are scarce. And they be like, you know what? It's them some immigrants, them, them African immigrants, Caribbean immigrants, them Latino immigrants taking your job. It's not the immigrants taking your job, it's the oligarchs, it's the billionaires taking your job. And they blame the people who are being victimized most of the.

SPEAKER_04 57:17

Africans, when they say Africans come over and they talk bad about African Americans. That happens. That's white supremacy. That's right. So you don't go over there.

SPEAKER_05 57:25

Who the actual culprit? It's not the person coming over talking the shit. It's the person who created the conditions for the for the shit that you talking about.

SPEAKER_04 57:32

Bro, the conditions. And then like um, like immigration, like they have like um, what's the name of that group you said? Uh P F I R. Yeah, they they they just dividing. Yeah, they're just dividing, right? They were yo, Che, Michael Che, I used to tour with him. I'm a name dropper. That's the name dropper. Michael Che was like, most conservative conservatism is very like a lot a lot based on uh Christianity. Yeah. Most real, like southern black people are more conservative.

SPEAKER_05 58:06

They infiltrate, and I'll push back on the other. Yeah, they push back through that, but that the conservatives have done a great job of convincing the world, or at least America, that they are the party of family values, they are the party of tradition traditions and all this. Even this is how they try to claim people like Malcolm X, because they see him as buttoned up and a family man and as someone who's willing to bust his gun for his people, or someone who's willing to always do the right thing. And they're like, that's conservative. No, that's a Muslim who was hanging out with communists and socialists. They don't get less conservative. But you try to claim him because you see a shining example of excellence and family values that's conservative.

SPEAKER_06 58:45

Same thing with Martin Luther King. When the when the when the journalist first came over to his house and started to interview him, and he was young and he had his kids running around the house and stuff, and they was like, you know, we hear rumors that you're gonna lead the movement. When she sat on the love seat, she sat on a shotgun. Yeah. And they said, Whoa, you got a gun in the house? He said, Oh yeah, I got to, because y'all trying to kill me. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, he was never, now they take that image of King and make it uh, you know, he's a part of our clan. He's a he's a he's he was with the NRA. No, he was actually with a black self-defense unit of brothers that was ready to go before he became nonviolent. True story.

SPEAKER_04 59:24

Yeah, they ready. I mean, yeah, they was ready.

SPEAKER_05 59:27

You would talk a lot about the Caribbean and and in New York City, reggae music, really all over the world, but like reggae music is not the same without certain people in the parties. And I feel like you're somebody who really helped the reggae scene and crossover with the hip-hop. And did you feel was there an intention behind that?

SPEAKER_04 59:50

Uh no not anything more than love for the music.

SPEAKER_05 59:55

Right, because the people don't know. Nina Sky, this is happens because of Cypher Sounds.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:01

Yeah. I've heard about that.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:05

Yeah, Sean Paul happens because of Cipher Sounds. Rihanna, upon the reason. That happens because of Cypher Sounds. I always say partially. Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:14

I mean, I didn't give Sean Paul his talent. No, no, no, no. You know what I mean? Like I helped breaking the city. But we're talking about in the context of DJing and the radio.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:21

100%. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:22

100%. The reason why, the reason why Rihanna's managers, they found this young 17-year-old girl from Barbados. The reason why they came to me to try to do something with her is because I was known for breaking a lot of Caribbean music. Sean Paul, I tried to um get him a deal. He was tied into the Jamaican label VIP, I mean uh VP Records, so they wouldn't let him out of it. But I was close to getting him an American label deal, right? Um, I love dance hall music because to me it's just uh it's an extension of hip hop in New York. I don't I don't say I claim to know a lot or everything about Jamaica and how it works there. I know in New York City, you can't even Max Glazer. You can't have a hip-hop party and not play some reggae music, dance for music. It does, it when you when I go out of town and I can't do a reggae set, I feel weird. Like I feel like I'm missing a part. I know exactly what you're talking about. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 1:01:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:22

If I go down south and DJ a party, I'm like, you know, they know they know a couple murder she wrote and a couple songs. Yeah, it feels weird. But it in New York is part of hip-hop. How I got on at the tunnel is I played a half an hour of reggae before Fuckmaster Flex came on and played all the hits. So that was, you know, my thing. Um, and then I just saw um uh a lane for me to my style of DJing is like how reggae DJs they talk shit and like they might talk shit about something. Oh, this girl, she thinks she got a boyfriend, but her boyfriend's cheating on her. And then you play a song about cheating and like sets up the records, which is also hip-hop style, yeah. Also how I got into comedy because I was saying funny shit. I did a party the other day, it was a reunion for Costa at Club Abyss, right? He passed away. So the crowd was like older, like 50, 55, right? And I'm on the I'm killing it, I'm killing it. I scream out, where all my single ladies? This is how I used to do a club abyss in 99. Where all my single ladies at? Single ladies, make some noise. Yeah, because you're divorced. Yo, shut it down, bro. Fuck you, fuck it up.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:33

Boom. So divorce is amazing, by the way. Shout out to Chino Chase, divorce dad's gang, gang gang, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_04 1:02:40

But yeah, so like it's just part of New York. Everything about me is New York, 100%. If you want to figure me out, break down the streets of New York.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:48

You uh have you traveled to Barbados yet? Uh, one time. Yeah, I've been there one time as well. Um I learned a lot when I went to Barbados, a whole lot.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:57

Yeah, you were telling me about that trip.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:58

Yeah, man. Like some of the stuff you were talking about as you were describing your uh playing style, and then on top of that, the political view kind of or your geopolitical view, it makes sense now that I'm hearing how you put it all together.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:13

Yeah. You've mentioned Flex a couple of times. He's a big part of your life. Yeah. Funk Master Flex is a big part of my life. Um, my first one of my first jobs was working for Funk Master Flex and the people who work with him. The first time a lot of people hear the name Cipher Sounds in New York is when you're on the radio with Flex and Flex like, Cipher, don't get gassed. Don't get gassed. Because you was killing the parties and everything. Um, is Flex ever going to stop working at Hot 97?

SPEAKER_02 1:03:36

No.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:38

Flex has been on Hot 97 since Hot 97 was Hot 97.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:43

Okay, this is a hip-hop thing though. Frankie Crocker was on radio ever. That's right. So was Wolfman Jack. So was Lenny Green. You could name all these people. But for hip hop, it's different. Oh, you too old. There's a young man's culture. You you know, you don't know the new music.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:05

Casey Kasem did it. Casey Case the entire time. Dick Clark's rocking New Year's Eve. Nigga, you 80. How are you rocking outside? How is it still? It's not rocking. It's rocking chair. Dick Clark's rocking chair, New Year's, New Year's Eve.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:19

Rocking Chair. Yo, I came in the game as a funk master flex intern. My job was to set up the records in the DJ booth at the radio station, bring the guests in if they was outside, go get coffee, food, whatever for everybody. Years and years and years interned. I got my own little show on Hot 97, eventually got my own show. In my mind, I'm just waiting for Flex to retire or move over to the older adult contemporary station so I could take over his slot. Shout out to Bugsy. I wanted to take over his slot. I trained for nights at Hot 97. I remember the day I was like, this nigga ain't going nowhere. I gotta switch it up. I gotta try to get a personality and do mornings or because Angie's there. She's not, you know, she eventually left, but Angie wasn't leaving at the time. Let me try to do mornings and be like the third guy on the morning show. Because I was like, he's not going nowhere. The thing is, you could talk all the shit you want about Funkmaster Flex. He is uh a unique individual. He gets the ratings. Ratings equal more sales department money into the radio station. A radio station's job, the corporation of radio, is to make money through advertising. Radio is not about music. Like we were talking earlier about if you love hip hop, so radio is not about music. Music is the fun, entertaining stuff they put between commercials. How they make money is from commercials.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:58

And same with same with television. TV started when they first invented TV, they were selling soap as cigarettes. And then they would have the Merit Cigarette Variety. Yeah, Colgate, the Colgate Comedy Hour. Right, to get you to pay attention to them selling a soap.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:14

They still do it. That's why it's called soap operas. Yeah, that's why it's called that. Because they were selling soap in those shows. So Flex, he you could bro take him out. Any of you young DJs, take him out. With your ratings. He's ready, he's waiting for you. Come on there and outwork him and get better ratings than him. It hasn't happened yet. So the company, yeah, they might look at him as a old, well, he's kind of older, but they look at all the young guys, then they look at Flex's ratings. All the young guys combined don't equal Flex. So they're like, I guess we should leave this guy here because the ratings are, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 1:06:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:54

There's an actual uh quantizable figure.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:57

But what's wrong with him being on the radio all that long? Like, what is the people?

SPEAKER_05 1:07:02

People complain in New York about feeling like he's a gatekeeper, feeling like he's not giving other people opportunities, and feeling like his ear has uh changed the culture in a way to make it more like what Flex wants to hear, instead of like people blame him for like a lack of a New York sound. And I feel like in the recent years, he has heard those comp those those conversations and he has tried to develop this thing where he's like, I'm bringing the New York sound back. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_06 1:07:29

Like he but that's wild because I look at him like a pinnacle for the whole New York movement. You know what I'm saying? On the DJ level.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:35

The New York, the whole people complaining about New York is not Flex, is uh wasn't his fault.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:41

Right. But he's he represents the station that they complain about, right? One of the stations they complain about.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:47

Flex is make hot records. I seen Flex have beef and a beef with somebody, rapper. This guy is my enemy. But if he got a hot record, make hot records. If your club, he used to tell me, Saife, if you hear a song three times in the streets on your way to work, tell me what that fucking song was. Because we gotta get on it now.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:21

And he said, don't let these record companies get in your ear and tell you. He goes, the streets will tell you what's hot. And our job is to keep, yo, DMX was a freestyle on a clue tape. Get at me, dog. Was a freestyle on a clue tape. And we were like, why is everybody playing this? And they said it. The Rough Riders were like, why is everybody playing this particular? Make it a full song, make it a single, make DMX do three verses instead of the locks and DMX freestyle, boom, DMX career. Pshew. You know what I mean? Flex used to have this thing called the, we used to call it the shoulder, right? You in the club before him opening up. You play, I'm playing my mob deep quiet storm before it blew up. And he'll see it one week, he'll see it the next week, third week. Don't play that next week. The shoulder. Shoulder. Or he'll take yours. Give it to the headliner now. Yeah, he'll take your copies. I'm gonna take these, just go go get some more. But he's he's he so when the South blew up, when the South blew up, you can't blame the people. They were in the clubs dancing the South music. Yeah, you don't give them what they want.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:36

They're gonna go to another club or go to another radio station. Yeah. Now Flex is absolutely one of the goats on the Mount Rushmore of DJing. Um, but you we started this conversation talking about comedy. You've toured with some of the greatest comedians in the world, and all different types of comedians, from Dave Chappelle to Mo Amor to Bert Chrysler, you know what I'm saying? Like the Bert shows is wild because that's like a whole different type of audience for you. You know what I'm saying? Um thank you for your time, Cypher. I don't want to take too much of your time. I just got a couple more questions, but I wanted to ask you, in particular with the comedy, taking Dave Chappelle out of the equation, because he put you in the game and everybody puts Dave as the goat.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:19

But let's say Dave is a ringer and he can't compete. Can you give us like five of your favorite, if not in order, who you think are like the goats of comedy right now? Let's stick to living.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:32

Or no, let's not. Let's not. Fuck it. No, no, no. Stick to living, but if we're doing dead, Patrice O'Neal. Yeah, rest, yeah, rest Patrice. Patrice O'Neill. Patrice. Um, but right now, like they're popping right now, or who I love. Like, it's different.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:46

No, it's your your preference. They don't gotta be popping right now. You just gotta think that they they are goaded in your eyes.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:52

Okay. Um, so uh so Dave's out. Because I it doesn't matter that I work with him. Yeah, he's my favorite. Yes. I can never work with him again.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:01

That guy is a genius. Yeah, Dave takes up a spot right there. So I might as well just say who are the best four comedians if Dave Chappelle exists. Okay, you know, there's Dave Attell.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:11

Oh, okay, yeah. Dave Attell is this old guy. He's always at the company.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:17

Dave, that's he did it, not us.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:20

Dave Attell is this old guy. The old guy. Um Dave Attell looks like this little hermit guy. He has a, it could be 80, 90 degrees. He got a car heart, black car heart jacket. He goes on stage, he goes, I know I look like a uh a plumber or something. I used to like his Comedy Central show back in the day. Uh Insomniac. Insomniac, yeah. David Tell goes on stage at the I mostly see him at the comedy cellar where he's doing like 20 minutes, but he does, you know, headlines all over. He goes on stage, the whole show could have been maybe not as great as it should have been. David Tell goes on and says the wildest shit and murders it every time. I don't think David Tell is a social media whiz where he's gonna be popping on the Instagram. Nah, but if you love Rick, I know the seller too, so I know exactly what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:07

And David Tell has been doing that for decades. It's not for decades.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:11

No, for decades. Yeah. He's a GOAT. Um, I love John Mullaney. I think John Mulaney's one of the illest writers in the world. Brilliant. Um looking, nerdy looking dude that says wild shit. Great story. Um, great story. Great guy. Um there's a guy named Rory Scovell. Rory Scovell, I've seen, he does his thing. He has specials, he does stand-up, it's incredible. He also does this thing where he does improvised stand up. He goes on stage with nothing, with nothing, and creates a whole hour on the spot. It is one of the most fascinating things to watch. A lot of comedians that I love, like Chappelle, do that within their sets. Yeah. He'll do it for a whole hour. Um, who else? Bill Burr's up there. Bill last night. Yeah. Bill Burr is talks the wildest shit with this ah fuck it attitude. You know what I mean? Ah, fuck it. Um Bernie Mack, oh, he's he's dead. Uh who else is that? Who else I got? Who else I got?

SPEAKER_05 1:13:26

Um I like that we're giving these flowers to these people who are living though while they're here. Like, I like that.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:34

Jessica Kurson, she was at my birthday show. Um I'm trying to think. Oh, Michael Che. Yeah. I always feel like Che. I man, I I mean Michael Che, I just I want to strangle him. I want to strangle Michael Che. He is I mean, his writing, his his the way he thinks on stage, I've seen it. I learned so much from him. He's the illest, but he hates touring. I don't feel like traveling.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:08

Like, bro, please get out there. If you ever get to New York and get to see him just fucking around in the comedy club, please, oh please do.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:18

Bro, I I I I toured with him. He took me on the road before I was ready. Before I was ready, he took me on the road with him. And I remember a couple nights in, he goes, Saife, um, he goes, you do comedy like you DJ. He's like, it's two, you're doing everything at the same rhythm, same rhythm, same time. He goes, next show, do your show, do your set backwards. What do you mean? Start with your closer and make your opener your closer. I go, I I can't, I don't. Oh, okay, then you're not going up. Like, you're not going, you reverse it or you're not going up. Uh okay, eight shit. Try to, what? What? And he goes, do it again tomorrow. Do it again. So now I was like trying to think of how to do it. Bro, and he goes, first of all, he goes, every joke should be a closer. Every he goes, if something happens in the middle of your show and you gotta throw your closer in right now because something's relevant uh rele relating to what's what your joke is about, and then you gotta do 30 more minutes, yeah, whatever you end with is your closer. And bro, this guy, man, Che is, he doesn't get the credit. He got a joke on his last special that didn't get the credit about mental illness. It's one of the best, best descriptors of of black people and how they deal with mental illness, where he goes, he goes in the black community, he goes, you're either um uh crazy or uh what's the what's the term he said? You crazy or uh ain't that wrong with him? Something like that. Like he said, he goes, his he his uncle came back from Vietnam and he was like out of it.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:03

And uh he's like, yo, talking to his uncle. He says something to his uncle, he's like, his uncle's not responding, and his grandmother's like, he hear you. Then he goes, he goes, there's a girl, I'm doing that, I'm not doing it justice. Go watch my go che special. There's a girl, and he goes, She's you know, she's crazy. And she's like, whatever. I I ain't crazy, I'm just a Gemini. And he's like, No, Keisha, you need medicine. Yeah, yeah, man. Although I'm by I'm not bipolar, I'm just a Gemini. No, Keisha, you need medicine. Michael, yeah. He takes mental illness with which black people don't like dealing with it, talking about it, going to therapy, and he just wraps it up in this way, and but he don't get his fucking credit.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:51

Well, he's getting his credit now, man. Shout out to Michael Che. No, but weekend update is he's famous. He's famous, but they don't know why. The stand up. The stand-up, and people don't know that when you see Colin and Michael on weekend update, they're not just them sitting in them chairs, those are the head writers.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:08

Yeah, well, they were not no more, but they were, yeah. They were the head writers of the show. Yeah. But yeah, Che is my favorite. Yeah, man. Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:14

Well, Cypherman, if it wasn't for Juan Epstein, we would not be doing what we're doing now.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:22

Juan App was one of the first podcasts in the hip-hop space. Shout out to Rosenberg.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:27

That's not true.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:27

It wasn't one of the first, the first. It was the first. I I stand corrected. Juan App was the first because it can only be one.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:34

Can only be one.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:35

Hip hop podcasts.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:37

People sometimes uh say it's Combat Jack. Rest in peace. Combat Jack was amazing. Combat Jack got his idea from Juan Epstein.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:47

That's right. Um, thank you, Sife. And thank you. You this show is like real fluid. So, this episode, we really wanted to talk with you.

SPEAKER_06 1:17:58

He hit us with a crazy.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:59

Pause free zone, bro. It is pause free zone. I'm a straight male, Paul. Straight male. Right. Thank you for coming on. And um, you're welcome back anytime.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:12

Man, thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it. Yeah, man. Oh, I forgot to say all my things. Say some more things, man. It's over, it's over. Follow me on Instagram. I got a special coming out called Likable. Uh, because I say wild shit on stage, but no one ever really gets mad at me. Okay. I'm likable. Likeable. So that's coming out real soon. And I got a new podcast called Pay Your Friends, which is similar to this. Like, show support to your friends, man. Yeah. When your friend opens a clothing store, go buy shit. Don't ask for a discount. Pay your friends. You know, Tony Pay Your Friends? Know where that comes from?

SPEAKER_05 1:18:43

Yassine Bey.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:44

Yassine Bei. Yeah, sounds like some Yassine. Most deaf, bro.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:48

If you really want to show someone that you appreciate them, you pay them.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:53

My whole essence, my podcast that I'm trying to create now. It's it's new. It's only like 10 episodes in. It's new where I'm trying to bring old friends, old, old friends, new friends, and new, new friends all together. We all support each other. Comes from something most devs said to me in 1999. Pay your friends.

SPEAKER_06 1:19:15

Yo, black for reality, reps the city of Phil. Falk the will. Fuck the deal. Start the drill, the audience keeps still. Doc is really paints the portrait ill, so everything flame.

unknown 1:19:26

Black the