Cipha Sounds is one of the world's most recognized commercial Hip Hop DJ's. After being taken under Funkmaster Flex' wing, Cipha acquired a worldwide fanbase and slowly but surely made a name for himself alone. Now, DJ'ing, A&R'ing and running his own company are only a few of the things he does. He's also now the main Sirius radio personality on the Shade 45 morning show interviewing heavyweights such as 50 Cent and Jay-Z. He gets paid to chat with your favourite artists, and aren't you jealous?
MVRemix: What's your first memory of Hip Hop?
Cipha Sounds: Oh man, right into it, huh? My first memory of Hip Hop...
There was a friend of my mom's that I was staying at her house and somebody was
playing "Peter Piper" outside, like in the courtyards. I was just fascinated
about where there was a hard beat with some of the nursery rhymes flipped. After
that I started buying records.
MVRemix: I first heard of you on the Radio 1 rap show when Westwood traded
with Flex once every so often in late 90's. How did you initially hook up with
Funkmaster Flex?
Cipha Sounds: With Flex? I used to be down with a guy named DJ Rizz, he's
part of the Crooklyn Clan - the guy that does all those party records. He was in
this DJ group with Flex called the Flip Squad back in the day. They used to do
The Tunnel nightclub back in the day and this guy Rizz used to open up. He
didn't want to do it anymore so he suggested for me to get the job and from
there I used to open up for like a half an hour, then Big Kap used to play and
Flex used to play. Flex saw me playing there and it grew from there. He asked me
to come to some other parties during the week and open up for him. He saw that I
was on point like I was always on time, I didn't do no extra shit - then he
asked me to come to the radio station and intern for him up at the radio
station. From there we just became friends.
MVRemix: How did your moniker originate?
Cipha Sounds: In the early 90's there was a real big 5% thing in Hip Hop,
like the Brand Nubians, Wu-Tang's, Poor Righteous Teachers - they were all part
of this 5% movement. So the name comes from there. The "cipha" means 360 degrees
and I got the name because you're always trying to educate yourself and add to
your cipha. Then I flipped it and turned it into a DJ name. At the time there
was a lot of "Cipha"s around, so I put the "Sounds" on it because that's what I
was dealing with; music and all different types of sound in stuff. It just
stuck.
MVRemix: You're described as being very shy growing up, how did you
overcome that?
Cipha Sounds: I don't know. [chuckles] I don't care, I'll play music
anywhere. I wasn't tryin' to talk on the mic and be a personality. But when you
get to know me on a one on one basis, you'll know I just crack jokes all the
time. We just have fun. I don't really be around a lot of people that I don't
know, so if I know you everybody's family. I started talking a little on the
mic, on the radio - just a little bit, like in between records and my boss head
it and said, "You're sayin' some funny stuff in between the records." She's
like, "I want you to be a jock," an air personality. I was like, "No way! I
can't do that. I can't just talk." Then the few times I did it she said, "You
sound really stiff, where's your personality?" So my friends told me, "Just
pretend we're on a road trip, drivin' out of town somewhere. Just pretend you're
talking to the mic like you're talking to your friends." That's where the
personality came from. I don't really do real radio, I don't know how to do real
radio. I just talk and people adapt to me like a friend.
MVRemix: What makes for a good on air interview?
Cipha Sounds: I think, with me, it's like Hip Hop is so big now - when
you ask people "Who's on your album? Who produced it? When does it come out?"
People almost already know. Hip Hop is so big with the internet and magazines
that people already kind of know the generic questions and answers, so I try to
hit them with a little shock value. I try to make everything funny. Even if they
have a court case or something happened in the news - I throw it in out of
nowhere just like a shock. Then everybody's like, "Oh man! I can't believe you
just said that."
MVRemix: Which is the one interview which you think of the most with
regards to being your best?
Cipha Sounds: Jay-Z. I do a morning show on Sirius Sattelite radio. For
some reason it was right when he became president and it was the first time I
ever got a real interview with him. I'd interviewed him a few times here and
there but it was always Jay-Z the artist, Jay-Z the artist, Jay-Z the artist and
it was the first interview I'd had with him where he'd became president. He
wasn't promoting an album... He was promoting Memphis Bleek and Young Gunz, but
he wasn't really promoting his own shit. He was doin' an interview. He was
answering every question, we would hit him with a joke and he would hit us right
back. We almost said some offending shit and he didn't even flinch, he hit us
right back. That one when we walked out of there, I was high as a kite that day.
It was as much him as it was us but we hit him with some questions that he
didn't think anybody would ever say to him and he just hit us right back. At the
end of the interview it wasn't like, "Yeah, buy my album." It was just Jay-Z the
president of Def Jam, head of Roc-A-Fella. That was definitely the best.
MVRemix: How did your affiliation with Star Trak arise?
Cipha Sounds: All my stories are just the same, I'm just a really down to
earth guy. I don't get star struck or Hollywood. People just know me as a music
guy. I don't wear a lot of jewellry, I don't chase women... too much [whistles].
I don't buy a lot of fancy cars, I just really love music. So when they want an
honest music answer, a lot of people ask me and Pharrell's manager Rod, he used
to be good friends with DJ Clue and he would always come up to Hot 97. While he
was there he would always ask me, "Hey do you like that?" They would just play
me stuff that The Neptunes produced - random artists. "Hey do you like this? Do
you like this? What do you think of this?" And I'd tell them whether I
liked it or not, I'd be honest. "Mmm... I don't really like that one," where
most people wouldn't wanna offend Pharrell because they're tryin' to get
somethin' out of him one day. But I was always just a really big fan. From
there, one day I was like, "Hey, you guys are growin' as a record company. I'd
like to A&R for you guys." They were like, "Well we already have a budget for
our new employee's." I was like, "Okay, I'll do it for free," and I worked there
for seven months for free. I didn't need the money, I DJ'ed and stuff. I didn't
need the money. I'm a workaholic, I'm mad tired all the time... But I did it for
free. The point came along where they were like, "We have to start paying him.
Because if he leaves our show will fall apart."
