DJ EFN is a key player in Miami’s hip-hop scene. He was arguably the city’s first mixtape DJ, and certainly its most influential. His mixtapes, featuring exclusives and freestyles from hip-hop’s biggest names, made him a power broker in the region and enabled him to move into marketing, clothing, and even movies, with his recent Coming Home series of documentaries. His new album Another Time features appearances from Scarface, Talib Kweli, Juvenile, Kurupt, Killer Mike, and Ras Kass, among many others.

We talked with EFN about breaking Rick Ross and giving advice to a young Pitbull; why mixtape culture is dead; the never-released album that could have changed the face of Miami rap; and much more.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/102/ for full show notes and comments.

RJD2 began his career as a DJ in the mid-1990s, but it wasn’t until his 2002 solo album Deadringer that he really started making noise. That record got a ton of attention for its creative sample-based approach to instrumental hip-hop, and RJ became an important part of the El-P led Def Jux label, which was a huge force in the underground rap scene of the era.

Since then, he has released a ton of wildly varying, but always worthwhile and interesting, projects, from hip-hop records to synthesizer-based soundscapes to pop songs with his own vocals. One of RJ’s tracks, “A Beautiful Mine,” is best-known to most people as the theme for AMC’s hit show Mad Men. His brand-new album with rapper Sugar Tongue Slim is called STS X RJD2.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/105/ for full show notes and comments.

John Lydon, a.k.a. Johnny Rotten, is a true punk legend. He was the singer of the Sex Pistols, the ground-breaking British punk band. The Pistols formed in 1975, and their raw sound combined with Lydon’s powerful, unfiltered lyrics taking shots at the Queen, the music industry, and the system as a whole created something entirely new – a sound, look, and attitude that would quickly be picked up and copied by legions of bands to follow, and would spark the punk rock revolution.

The Sex Pistols broke up in early 1978, and Lydon went on to form the influential group Public Image Limited, or PiL. The group went in an entirely different direction, making often-danceable, experimental music. Their second album, 1979’s Metal Box, is generally regarded as a landmark release, and was chosen as one of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time by Rolling Stone.

Lydon’s new memoir, which covers the entirety of his life and career, is called Anger Is An Energy: My Life Uncensored (Dey Street).

We were joined by legendary photographer Janette Beckman (soon to be a Cipher guest herself), who took some pictures – the first time she had photographed Lydon since she took now-famous shots of him with the Sex Pistols and in the early days of PiL, like the image you see above.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/106/ for full show notes and comments.

J-Zone is a rapper, producer, musician, and author whose ability to find and chop the perfect sample is paired with a rap persona that combines raunchiness, self-depreciating humor, social commentary, and a deep love for all of rap history, including some of its more bizarre corners. And, naturally, an alter ego who just happens to be a four foot three, baseball bat wielding rodent named Chief Chinchilla.

His first album, 1999’s Music For Tu Madre, began life as a college senior project, but quickly caught on with the underground scene. He then released a ton of albums - with his Old Maid Billionaires crew, solo, with collaborators like Celph Titled, and even a record of malt liquor jingles.

But by 2009, he was noticing diminishing returns financially and creatively, and decided to get out of the rap game, a decision he explored in his 2011 memoir Root for the Villain: Rap, Bull$hit, and a Celebration of Failure. In a surprising turn of events, the book’s success inspired him to return to music to create his first new solo album in nine years, 2013’s Peter Pan Syndrome.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/108/ for full show notes and comments.

Janette Beckman has taken some of the most iconic photos out there not only of hip-hop, but of music and youth culture as a whole. She got her start in Britain in the late 1970s, using her art-school education to take photos of the then-burgeoning punk movement. But in 1983, she saw the very first international hip-hop tour, and was so taken by the music and culture that she hopped on a plane to New York City and never left.

She has taken classic photos of LL Cool J, Salt N’ Pepa, NWA, Slick Rick, Big Daddy Kane, Afrika Bambaataa, and tons more. She’s also shot famous album covers for the likes of EPMD, Ultramagnetic MCs, Run-DMC, the Police, Gang Starr, and others. And if that wasn’t enough, she’s also done popular photo series on Mexican street gangs, Harlem bikers, and underground fight clubs.

We talked to Janette about the entirety of her life and career, and got the inside stories behind tons of her iconic photographs and album covers. You can see her hip-hop work for yourself through September 13th at the Museum of the City of New York in Manhattan, as part of the exhibition Hip-Hop Revolution: Photographs by Janette Beckman, Joe Conzo, and Martha Cooper. On June 3rd at 6:30 PM, Janette, past Cipher guest Bill Adler, and upcoming Cipher guest Cey Adams will be part of a panel called “Hip Hop’s Visual Style: A Look Behind the Scenes” at the Museum.

NOTE: To see Janette’s photos that we talk about on this episode, you can scroll through the pictures on Imgur or watch the episode on YouTube.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/109/ for full show notes and comments.

This week, our guest is Benjy Melendez, founder, President, and singer of the Ghetto Brothers. He is joined by his co-author and friend, Amir Said.

The Ghetto Brothers were one of the largest and most powerful street gangs in the Bronx in the late 1960s and early 70s - a time when the borough, and New York City as a whole, had plenty to choose from. At its height, the organization had around 2,000 members city-wide.

But after one of their key figures got killed by rival gangs, Benjy devoted his efforts to peace, and held a now-famous peace treaty meeting at the Hoe Avenue center in the Bronx in 1971 - a gathering that set the stage for the ending of the gang era and the beginnings of hip-hop.

In addition to being a powerful organization, the Ghetto Brothers were also a rock and roll band. They only released one album, 1971’s Power Fuerza, but it became a prized collectors item, notable for its surprisingly sweet lyrics and Beatle-esque melodies, Latin percussion, and unique backstory.

While parts of Benjy’s story have been shared in the new documentary Rubble Kings and even in a graphic novel, the new book by Benjy and Amir Said, Ghetto Brother: How I Found Peace in the South Bronx Street Gang Wars, is the first place Benjy shares his entire life story.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/114/ for full show notes and comments.

Joe Conzo Jr. has been called “the man who took hip-hop’s baby pictures” by the New York Times – a title that’s right on the money. Conzo, a third-generation Bronx native, first got into photography as a young boy and took to shooting pictures of his neighborhood.

But it was when he followed some high school friends who had formed a rap group to an early concert that he really found his calling. That group, the Cold Crush Brothers, was perhaps the most influential of hip-hop’s first generation. Joe was there to document their every step, from high school gymnasiums to giant clubs and movie sets. His pictures provide the single best visual record of hip-hop’s early years.

Personal troubles caused Joe to put away his camera for many years. But over the past decade, his work has been re-discovered and used for documentaries, exhibited in museums all over the world - including the Museum of the City of New York, where an exhibit of his photos is running until September 27th - and even published in a book, Born In The Bronx: A Visual Record of the Early Days of Hip Hop. A fictional version of Joe appears in Baz Luhrmann’s upcoming Netflix series The Get Down, about the early days of hip-hop, where the real Joe was on set as a behind the scenes photographer.

NOTE: To see the photographs that we talk about during this interview, visit this episode’s photo gallery at Imgur

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/118/ for full show notes and comments.

This week, we have a two guests for you. In the first half of the show, we talk to Baje One, the rapping half of the long-running underground duo Junk Science. And in part two, we sit down with NIKO IS, a Florida-by-way-of-Brazil rapper whose world-class freestyling skills put him on the radar of none other than Talib Kweli, who signed Niko to his Javotti Media label.

Baje One and his group’s producer, DJ Snafu, first met in in their native NYC in the mid-1990s and have been making smart, funny, and ambitious music together since 2003. The success of their 2005 debut album Feeding Einstein led to a deal with El-P’s seminal Def Jux label, which put out their 2007 follow-up, Gran’dad’s Nerve Tonic. The album, in the first of a long run of packaging innovations from the group, came with its own beer, brewed by Sixpoint Craft Ales. Since then, Baje has released three more albums with the group, and several solo and collaborative projects.

NIKO IS was born in Rio De Janeiro, but has spent his rapping life in sunny Orlando, Florida. He made a name for himself in his adopted city as a teenager with his almost supernatural freestyling skills, and started releasing mixtapes in 2012 with Chill Cosby. The following year, he would cross paths with Kweli, and eventually sign to the rapper’s label. NIKO’s first album on Javotti, Brutus, was released earlier this year.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/121/ for full show notes and comments.

Sacha Jenkins is a journalist, filmmaker, TV producer, author, musician, and all-around hip-hop polymath. He got his start chronicling graffiti and rap music in homemade zines before joining with a diverse crew of hip-hop obsessives to form the collective that came to be known as Ego Trip. That crew was responsible for a successful and influential magazine, two books, and multiple television projects – all of which explored music and race through a smart, funny, occasionally inflammatory lens.

In addition to his work with Ego Trip and writing about hip-hop for basically every other outlet that covered it, Sacha has co-written many books about graffiti, co-wrote Eminem’s autobiography The Way I Am, played in rock and hardcore bands, and has done much more than we can fit in this space. His latest project is a documentary film about hip-hop fashion called Fresh Dressed.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/124/ for full show notes and comments.

The Seattle-based producer Jake One got his start as an in-house beat-maker for the influential local label Conception Records. His work there quickly caught the ear of 50 Cent’s camp, and Jake’s beats for 50 and G-Unit led to other high-profile tracks with De La Soul, Rakim, T.I., MF DOOM, and more, as well as whole album collaborations with the likes of Freeway and Brother Ali.

Most recently, Jake has produced hits for Wale (“The Matrimony”), Drake (“Furthest Thing”), Chance the Rapper (“Acid Rain”), and Rick Ross (“3 Kings”). He’s also joined forces with singer Mayer Hawthorne to form the group Tuxedo, who just released their self-titled debut.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/129/ for full show notes and comments.

DJ Dahi has produced some of your favorite songs of the past several years. He did “Money Trees” for Kendrick Lamar, Drake’s “Worst Behavior,” Dom Kennedy’s “My Type of Party,” Schoolboy Q’s “Hell of a Night,” and many others.

That run of hits brought him to the attention of none other than Dr. Dre, and Dahi ended up playing a key role on several tracks of Dre’s new album, Compton: A Soundtrack By Dr. Dre.

But there’s far more to Dahi than any of that. At a relatively young age, he has developed a style that mixes elements of trap, indie rock, and some unclassifiable elements into a unique blend. With all his accomplishments, his recent solo work shows that he’s still restless, still experimenting, and still just getting started.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/132/ for full show notes and comments.

Ruste Juxx is a long-time affiliate of the Boot Camp Clik, the long-running underground rap powerhouse collective. His work solo and with producers like Marco Polo, VS the Best, and Kyo Itachi has helped to keep BCC’s rough, powerful, and smart aesthetic alive and vital.

Ruste also served for years as onstage foil to one of BCC’s key members, the late Sean Price. Ruste toured with Sean all over the world, and had a bird’s eye view of his memorable - and often unpredictable - performances.

Ruste has two new projects - Meteorite, with the producer Kyo Itachi, and Def By Stereo, with the Beat Bruisers and Pawz One.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/145/ for full show notes and comments.

Fat Joe and Remy Ma are longtime friends and collaborators who have been making music together since the heyday of their crew The Terror Squad in the early 2000s. Their 2004 Grammy-nominated smash “Lean Back” was number 1 for three weeks and became one of the most popular songs of the decade.

But as any hip-hop fan knows, both of their stories go much deeper than that. Joe first came on the scene in the early 1990s as part of the powerhouse Diggin’ in the Crates crew. Joe’s first verses were on DITC member Diamond D’s classic 1992 debut Stunts, Blunts and Hip Hop, and Diamond would produce most of Joe’s own debut record, Represent, the following year.

As Joe’s career developed, he started his own crew called the Terror Squad, which came to include Remy and her mentor, the late Christopher “Big Pun” Rios.

Pun’s death in 2000 took a toll on crew morale, and the group gradually split apart. By the time of Remy’s 2006 debut There’s Something About Remy: Based On A True Story, Joe and Remy had fallen out completely.

In July 2007, Remy was arrested for shooting an acquaintance outside a Manhattan nightclub. She served six and a half years behind bars, and was released in August 2014. A reconnection with Joe soon followed, and the two began working together again. Joe and Remy’s latest hit single is “All The Way Up,” and they have a duo album coming out very soon.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/150/ for full show notes and comments.

Ms. Jade is a Philadelphia-based rapper who first came to most peoples’ attention as a protege of Timbaland. She, along with other artists including Tweet and Bubba Sparxx, were part of the producer’s Beat Camp collective. Ms. Jade also worked closely with another one of Timbaland’s frequent collaborators, Missy Elliott, appearing on several of Missy’s hits like “Funky Fresh Dressed” and “Slap Slap Slap.”

Shortly after the release of her debut album Girl Interrupted, Jade parted ways with Timbaland and released several mixtapes that showed her rapping with an aggression and power that wasn’t always there during her time in the spotlight. Ms. Jade has released a bunch of recent freestyles, and is finishing up a new album entitled Beautiful Mess.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/159/ for full show notes and comments.

Adisa Banjoko is the founder of the Hip-Hop Chess Federation, a non-profit organization that fuses music, chess, and martial arts to promote unity, strategy and non-violence. He has a new book about the history and philosophy behind the organization called Bobby, Bruce & the Bronx: The Secrets of Hip Hop Chess. The book was originally titled Bobby, Bruce & Bam, but Adisa changed it – and very publicly resigned his years-long membership in the Zulu Nation – in light of the accusations of sexual abuse against Afrika Bambaataa.

With the Hip-Hop Chess Federation, Adisa has put on tons of workshops, seminars, and lectures to help children learn not only chess, but entrepreneurship, performing arts, and more. He has even worked with the World Chess Hall of Fame to put on one of their most successful exhibits ever.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/160/ for full show notes and comments.

Robert Aguilar, a.k.a. Rob Swift, grew up in Queens, New York and was already DJing by the age of 12 thanks to the influence of his father and older brother. In 1991, he was recruited to join a prestigious Harlem-based DJ crew called The X-Men. In 1992, Swift won the prestigious DMC East Coast title, and gained recognition within the DJ community. He soon started recorded with artists like Fat Joe, Akinyele, and Chi-Ali.

The X-Men eventually changed both their personnel and their name. They became The X-Ecutioners and narrowed down to Rob, his longtime friend Roc Raida, and Mista Sinista. That lineup released successful albums like Built From Scratch and Revolutions, toured the world, and worked with artists like Linkin Park, Big Pun, Everlast, Rob Zombie, and even the Blue Man Group.

Since leaving the X-Ecutioners, Rob has continued his experimentation. He’s worked with jazz artists like Herbie Hancock and Bob James, released an album inspired by classical music, and even started teaching DJing at the New School in New York City.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/161/ for full show notes and comments.

Jarobi White is the mysterious fourth member of A Tribe Called Quest. He was a founding member of the group with his childhood best friend Phife Dog. Jarobi appeared on the group’s debut album People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm, introducing the world at large to the group’s revolutionary vision. After that, his role in the group was intermittent - contributing ideas in the studio, showing up for some performances, and generally keeping people guessing about what he was up to.

During that whole period, and continuing until today, Jarobi was also pursuing his other passion, food. He is an experienced cook who has worked as a private chef and in Michelin-starred restaurants. He currently runs an events company called Eats, Rhymes & Life that brings together his passions for food and music in live events.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/165/ for full show notes and comments.

Jermaine Dupri got his start in hip-hop very young. As a pre-teen, he was a dancer on the Fresh Fest tours of the mid-1980s. He went from there to rapping himself, but quickly found that his real talent lay in writing and producing hits for others.

J.D. had his first real success with the group Kriss Kross, who he discovered in 1991. He formed So So Def Records, where he guided the careers of Xscape, Da Brat, Jagged Edge, and Bow Wow. He also had many hits as a producer with the likes of Mariah Carey, Destiny’s Child, and Usher. Dupri is now a key part of two unscripted TV shows, The Rap Game and Music Moguls.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/167/ for full show notes and comments.

Joe Budden first came to prominence in the mixtape scene of the early 2000s, due to an affiliation with DJ Clue’s Desert Storm crew, which also included Fabolous, the A-Team, and more. His 2003 debut self-titled album yielded a smash hit with “Pump It Up,” but the record’s sales didn’t match expectations, and led to problems between Joe and his label Def Jam - problems that would play out across the rapper’s increasingly popular and well-regarded Mood Muzik mixtape series.

Joe’s introspective, heavily personal style won him a devoted fanbase – one that he reached out to directly via the Internet, well before that became the standard thing to do. He nurtured those fans by continuing to release superb projects like Padded Room, A Loose Quarter, and No Love Lost. But he also expanded into new realms by appearing on the TV shows Love & Hip Hop and Couples Therapy. He has also moved into podcasting with his popular show I’ll Name This Podcast Later.

Joe’s new album, out this coming Friday, October 21st, is a collaboration with the producer AraabMuzik called Rage & the Machine.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/172/ for full show notes and comments.

Jerome “J-Roc” Harmon is a Grammy-winning musician and producer best-known for his work with Timbaland. He got his start in Texas, playing gospel and jazz with people like Fred Hammond, Kirk Franklin, and Wayman Tisdale, while producing the occasional hip-hop record. But once he met Timbaland about ten years ago, his career took off.

Harmon has produced, co-produced, or performed on projects by Timbaland, Nas, Chris Brown, Robin Thicke, Jennifer Hudson, Justin Timberlake, Beyoncé, Jay Z, Michael Jackson, and many more. He has won Grammys for his work with gospel icon Fred Hammond, Chris Brown, Justin Timberlake, and Beyoncé, and was a key player in albums like Timberlake’s The 20/20 Experience, Jay Z’s The Blueprint 3 and Magna Carta…Holy Grail, and Beyoncé’s self-titled LP.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/175/ for full show notes and comments.

J.Period is one of the best mixtape DJs in the world and worked closely with Lin-Manuel Miranda and Questlove on the just released Hamilton Mixtape, a companion to the smash hit musical that mixes new versions of songs in the show, reinterpretations, and demos.

He’s also been the music supervisor for the Brooklyn Nets, helped launch the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, composed for TV and film, and was even the DJ Spike Lee called at 10 am the day Prince passed to come play the filmmaker’s block party that night.

J.Period’s work is very far from a standard mixtape. Instead, he makes musical documentaries, mixing songs, interview and news footage, sample sources, and guest artists to create a unique, multilayered picture of the work of icons like Nas, Lauryn Hill, Q-Tip, James Brown, Michael Jackson, and more. He has even taken this approach to the stage with his “live mixtape” series, which he has performed at the Smithsonian Museum, The Roots Picnic, the Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival, and more.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/179/ for full show notes and comments.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year—if you love soulful Christmas music! We sit down with Bill to talk about the 2016 edition of his world-famous ‘Xmas Jollies’ mix, which you can stream EXCLUSIVELY from us here.

We also discuss Paul Simon, vaudeville, Atlanta, record shopping in Bayou country, the raunchiest Christmas song of all time, and much more.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/181/ for full show notes and comments.

Boldy James is a Detroit rapper who first came to many peoples’ attention in 2009 after appearances on songs by his cousin Chuck Inglish’s group, The Cool Kids. But Boldy took that initial burst of interest and ran with it, releasing a slew of mixtapes and guest appearances leading up to his 2013 debut album My 1st Chemistry Set, produced entirely by The Alchemist.

Just over a year later, Boldy was signed to Nas’ then-new label Mass Appeal Records. Boldy’s latest project, out this past February, is House of Blues.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/194/ for full show notes and comments.

DJ EFN has done it all in hip-hop: hosted mixtapes, put out albums, managed acts, owned a clothing store, run a marketing company, been on the radio, and more.

But now, there are two major projects that have vaulted EFN into the spotlight. First, there’s his Coming Home documentary series, where he travels around the world and discovers different countries through the lens of their hip-hop scene. The newest edition in the series is Coming Home: Vietnam.

Second, EFN created and co-hosts with Nore the wildly popular Drink Champs podcast. The show has wild, booze-fueled conversations with hip-hop’s elite, including Diddy, 50 Cent, Ice T, and dozens of others.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/196/ for full show notes and comments.

Jay is the host of the longest-running hip-hop radio show ever, The Underground Railroad on New York City station WBAI. He’s had the show since 1991, and helped create the template of what an underground mix show is supposed to be. He also had arguably first hip-hop blog way back in 1997 with hiphopmusic.com.

But Jay is perhaps best known as a pioneering video blogger. His video series Ill Doctrine, which deals with hip-hop, politics, cats, and lots more, has garnered millions of views, and many of the entries have gone viral, including now-classic video essays like “How To Tell Someone They Sound Racist.”

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/201/ for full show notes and comments.

Aldrin “DJ Toomp” Davis began his career as a DJ and producer for early Atlanta rap acts like Raheem the Dream and MC Shy-D. But it was when he met a friend’s cousin named Clifford Harris that things really got started. Harris rapped under the name Tip—which he would later change to T.I. to avoid confusion, after signing to the same record label as Q-Tip.

T.I. and Toomp would together sell millions of records, create classics, and even help start a whole new genre. A whole new generation in Atlanta and beyond would take inspiration from the sound and title of Toomp and T.I.’s 2003 album Trap Muzik, and a style bearing that name would come into being.

But that’s far from the end of Toomp’s accomplishments. He also played a key role in the creation of Kanye West’s 2007 album Graduation, and a whole lot more besides.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/209/ for full show notes and comments.

Jack Thriller is a comedian who most people know from his time doing funny—and often outrageous—interviews on 50 Cent’s website ThisIs50. He’s talked to everyone from porn actors to fellow comedians to rap stars to athletes and beyond.

But in addition to that, Jack is also a talented sketch comedian and writer, stand-up, and even a singer. He got his start working as a writer, warm-up act, and all around right hand man to comedian Lil Duval, before breaking out on his own and moving from Atlanta to New York City. 50 quickly noticed his popular skits, and soon Jack had become the website’s breakout star.

He quickly moved from the computer screen to the television screen, starring in several seasons of Nick Cannon’s show Wild ‘N Out. And his latest venture is a singing career. He’s released a song with Nore, and has shared the stage with Musiq Soulchild.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/221/ for full show notes and comments.

Kevin “DJ Head” Bell is a producer and DJ from Detroit who played a big role in that city’s scene during the mid-to-late 1990s. At that time, an insanely talented group of people were getting together for open mics, beat battles, ciphers, and shows. Among that crew were people who would go on to be some of the most popular and well-regarded rappers and producers of all time, including J. Dilla and Eminem.

DJ Head worked closely with them both. He was also tight with the late rapper Proof, a member of D12 and pillar of the scene, in addition to being best known as Eminem’s best friend and longtime onstage foil. DJ Head played a big part in Em’s meteoric rise—producing, programming drums, and DJ’ing for the rapper as he went from underground battle rapper to international superstar. He also produced songs for Xzibit, D12, Obie Trice, and more.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/222/ for full show notes and comments.

Bill Adler is…well, you probably already know who Bill is. Publicist, journalist, author, gallery owner, archivist - Bill has done it all. From helping to popularize acts like Run-DMC and the Beastie Boys to defending free speech alongside Luther Campbell to boycotting the Grammys with Public Enemy and the Fresh Prince, there’s very little Bill hasn’t done.

But most importantly, Bill Adler is a Christmas music obsessive. Every year since 1982, he’s created a mix of seasonal music that he actually likes, called the Christmas Jollies. And the past five years, we’ve been lucky enough to sit down with him to discuss the music on it.

You can find this year’s collection here, and several other past volumes can be found elsewhere on our SoundCloud page.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/228/ for full show notes and comments.

Reggie “Combat Jack” Ossé was a lawyer, a blogger, a music executive, a father, and much more. But most people will remember him as a podcasting legend. The host of the eponymous Combat Jack Show raised the bar throughout his time as a media figure, becoming the most influential hip-hop podcaster and even the co-creator of an entire podcast network.

Ossé died on December 20, 2017. To celebrate his life, this is a revamped version of an interview we first did with him that aired in early 2013. It also includes tributes to Combat from some of the people who worked closely with him over the years.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/229/ for full show notes and comments.

Jean Grae was our show’s first-ever guest back in 2012. She is one of the finest rappers out there, and a great producer as well. But in recent years, she’s expanded her horizons even further, pushing into comedy, sitcoms, instructional albums, audiobooks, talk shows, variety shows, and even her own church.

Quelle Chris joined us in 2016. Since then, he’s released the acclaimed album Being You Is Great, I Wish I Could Be You More Often and the instrumental project Lullabies for the Broken Brain.

Now Jean and Quelle have joined forces for the incredible new album Everything’s Fine. The project has been met with critical raves from pretty much everywhere, and rightly so. It shows Jean and Quelle in absolute top form: rapping, singing, producing, and playing on a group of songs that respond to today’s often-frightening world with humor, sadness, and a reminder that when we tell people that everything’s fine, we almost never mean it.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/236/ for full show notes and comments.

Soundset is a festival in the Minneapolis area put on by the Rhymesayers label. It’s been running since 2008, and has grown from a show in a warehouse to a day-long outdoor event featuring some of music’s biggest acts.

This past May, we went to the festival to hang out and talk to the performers, and and this is the second of two episodes where you can hear the results. This time, you’ll find conversations with Murs, Nikki Jean, OG Grip, and Evidence. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the conclusion of The Cipher’s Soundset special.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/242/ for full show notes and comments.

Joan is a writer who got her start in the 1990s, helping to create what came to be known as “hip-hop journalism” with her articles at places like Vibe and the Village Voice. Whether she was writing about the Mike Tyson trial, profiling TLC, or investigating the sex trade in Jamaica, Joan brought her keen, Bronx-raised sensibility to everything she touched.

Joan pioneered hip-hop feminism—and came up with the phrase “black girl magic,” to boot—in her classic 1999 book When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: A Hip-Hop Feminist Breaks It Down. And now she has a brand new book, a reflection on Ms. Lauryn Hill’s classic debut album. It’s called She Begat This: 20 Years of the Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/243/ for full show notes and comments.

Jericho Jackson is a group made up of producer Khrysis and rapper Elzhi. Khrysis is best known for his work with the rap collective the Justus League, which counts among its members 9th Wonder. He is currently a member of 9th’s production team the Soul Council. In addition to his North Carolina crew, Khrysis has produced for Sean Price and Heltah Skeltah, Jean Grae, Evidence, Talib Kweli, Black Thought, and many others.

Dedicated Cipher listeners will remember Elzhi from our talk with him on episode 152. The Detroit rapper came to a lot of fans’ attention during his time as a member of Slum Village. He followed that up with a staggering series of solo albums, including the Nas reinvention Elmatic and the deeply personal Lead Poison.

Khrysis and Elzhi’s recent joint album is called Khrysis and Elzhi Are Jericho Jackson.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/247/ for full show notes and comments.

Mid90s, which opened this past Friday, October 19th, is a film Hill wrote and directed about a group of skateboarding friends in—you guessed it—the mid-1990s. The incredibly authentic period piece features plenty of nods to the skateboarding scene and the music of the time period, including songs from the Pharcyde and the Gravediggaz, and a memorable cameo appearance by Del the Funkee Homosapien.

This is Jonah’s first film as a writer/director. He has, of course, starred in tons of films, from Superbad to Moneyball to The Wolf of Wall Street. For this interview, Hill was joined by Sunny Suljic, who plays Stevie; Na-kel Smith, who plays Ray; Olan Prenatt, who plays Fuckshit; Gio Galicia, who plays Ruben; Ryder McLaughlin, who plays Fourth Grade; and Alexa Demie, who plays Estee. To rap fans, Na-Kel Smith’s name and voice may sound familiar—he has a music career of his own, and has appeared on songs with Tyler, the Creator and Earl Sweatshirt.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/248/ for full show notes and comments.

Every Christmas since 2013, we’ve sat down with Bill—who is the former head of PR at Def Jam, among numerous other accomplishments—to talk about his world-famous Xmas Jollies mix. Bill spends the whole year scouring record stores, flea markets, the internet, and everywhere in between to find the perfect batch of great holiday music, and then shares it with his select mailing list, and with us. Now, we talk to him about some of this year’s selections.

You can hear Bill’s mix in its entirety at our Soundcloud page.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/251/ for full show notes and comments.

As many of you know, The Cipher is going on an indefinite hiatus following this episode. For more information about why, visit us on Twitter or Facebook, or just listen to this episode. But in short, we have no plans to make any more new episodes after this one. Our archives, however, will still be available and free on our website, on iTunes and other podcast apps, and on SoundCloud.

For this goodbye episode, we called up our friend and episode 201 guest Jay Smooth to interview The Cipher’s host Shawn Setaro and its producer Josh Kross. Jay, as you’ll hear, did an amazing job, and got us to touch on so many aspects of the show’s history, and of ways we thought about it over the years.

So here’s the end of the road, for now. Thanks for listening.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/252/ for full show notes and comments.

Madin walking tour led by Alan Clawley Starting at Five Ways Station, 10.30 am, 22nd June 2013

Jiu Jitsu Master Eddie Bravo joins Joey and Lee in studio for a special edition of The Church Of What's Happening Now. Eddie is preparing for his rematch against Royler Gracie.

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MMA writer Ben Fowlkes calls in to talk about TRT and the future of MMA.

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Recorded live on 03/24/2014.

Joe Kenyon from World of Rock Records calls in to promote putting You Cant Eat Pussy With Asthma on Vinyl.

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Jiu Jitsu Coach John Evan calls in to break down Eddie Bravo's Match in Metamoris 3.

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Recorded live on 03/24/2014.

Emilio Rivera joins Joey Diaz and Lee Syatt in studio to talk about his new film Water and Power.

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Recorded live on 04/02/2014.

Comedian Felipe Esparza joins Joey Diaz and Lee Syatt live in studio.

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Recorded live on 04/07/2014.

Director Peter Segal calls in to talk to Joey Diaz and Lee Syatt

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Recorded live on 04/08/2014.

Joey Diaz and Lee Syatt solo!

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Recorded live on 04/14/2014.

Joey Diaz and Lee Syatt talk with Ed Soares, manager to UFC fighters Anderson Silva, Lyoto Machida, and Glover Teixeira.

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Recorded live on 04/23/2014.

Joey Diaz and Lee Syatt talk to Joey's friend Timmy Holloway about where they thought they would be 30 years ago as drug addicts and where they are now.

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Recorded live on 04/28/2014.