Mogul
by Gimlet
Mogul is a show about hip hop’s most iconic moments, told by the people who lived them. In Season 3, we’re telling the story of DJ Screw, a reclusive genius who changed the sound of music forever. An auteur who created his own genre — Chopped and Screwed — Screw slowed music down until it sounded like syrup coming out of your speakers. It quickly became the soundtrack to the city of Houston, before influencing an entire generation of rappers. But the man behind the beats was a mystery to all but his closest collaborators, and to this day he remains one of hip-hop’s greatest enigmas.
Episodes
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S3 Part 3: June 27th
We go inside the making of DJ Screw’s greatest mixtape: The June 27th tape. It’s the story of a magical night inside the wood room when everything came together just right. The beats, the drugs, and a historic lineup of some of the Screwed Up Clicks most iconic members.
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S3 Part 2: Instant Gumbo
DJ Screw takes Houston. But before he does, he'll need to invent an entire genre, assemble a crew, and acquire a blue Chevy Impala.
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S3 Part 1: Screw Up the World
The DJ Screw origin story. His musical odyssey begins in small-town Smithville where he’s inspired by New York hip hop, boomboxes, and an extremely corny movie about breakdancers. A move to Houston expands Screw’s horizons, and he begins the metamorphosis from amateur DJ to auteur.
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Introducing Season 3: Chopped and Screwed
Mogul is slowing things down, and telling the story of DJ Screw. The reclusive auteur is best known for inventing Chopped & Screwed, a slowed-down, psychedelic strain of hip-hop that changed the sound of music forever. But that’s all most people know about him. Starting June 23, we’ll uncover the...
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Introducing 'NO SKIPS with Jinx and Shea'
Check out 'NO SKIPS with Jinx and Shea', a new Spotify and Ringer show dedicated to hip-hop's most iconic and unskippable albums, hosted by Brandon 'Jinx' Jenkins and best-selling author, Shea Serrano. Each episode focuses on a single album and discusses its cultural significance, best songs,...
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Mixtape: Kelly Rowland Meets Her Idol
Kelly Rowland was just a teenager when she and the rest of Destiny’s Child came to New York to audition for a record deal. Over 20 years later, she’s been all over the world, met her idols (including the legendary Whitney Houston), lived out so many of her musical dreams—but the stuff she heard…
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Mixtape: Mouse Jones
In our new interview series The Mogul Mixtapes, we’re talking to some of our all-time favorite people about their most treasured hip hop memories—the craziest parties, the nastiest beefs, and the most brilliant verses ever. This episode features the dynamic hip hop personality Mouse Jones. If you...
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Behind The Beats With Nana Kwabena
In this episode of Behind the Beats we go behind the scenes and find out how Nana Kwabena wrote the music for the second season of Mogul. It’s a wide ranging conversation that touches on Nana’s creative process, his thoughts on the Miami bass movement, and the history of African talking drums.
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Behind The Beats With So Wylie
This is Behind the Beats. In this series we’ll go behind the scenes to discover how Mogul got its distinct sound. In this first episode we’ll hear from the woman behind the show’s sound design, So Wylie. Her inspirations, her process, her beats.
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The DJ Uncle Al Experience
On September 10th 2001, Miami lost a local legend: DJ Uncle Al. In this episode, we hang at home with DJ Walshy Fire of Major Lazer, and he breaks down why Al was so special. It’s a tale of perseverance, positivity, pirate radio, and songs about Santa Claus.
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S2 Part 6: They Call Me Raw
Miami bass may have been thriving, but lyrical hip hop was still struggling to find a foothold in Miami. And with little chance at getting airtime on popular stations, Miami DJs have to find a way to get their music heard—and the best way to do that was to set up an illegal pirate radio station.…
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S2 Part 5: I Hated That Album
After pissing off the authorities, the 2 Live Crew start to piss off each other. In this episode, things fall apart, and we contend with the complex legacy of one of hip hop’s pioneers.
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S2 Part 4: What's Dirty To You?
The fight rages on. Luke and the Crew fan the flames in the court of public opinion, and when they go head-to-head with their biggest critics, things get heated. In this episode we bring you 90s daytime TV and rapping prosecutors, and the nastiest album in the history of the world is put on trial.
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S2 Part 3: Splack!
The 2 Live Crew drop their classic hit “Me So Horny,” which takes the Miami bass sound out of the Pac Jam and spreads it across the nation. But not everyone wants the 2 Live Crew's music on the airwaves. A group of conservatives and a notorious Miami sheriff conspire to take the Crew's records…
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S2 Part 2: Bass Bro, I Love That Shit!
The 2 Live Crew is starting from the bottom: crashing at Luke’s girlfriend’s mom’s house. Nobody will sign them, so Luke starts Luke Skyywalker Records, the first hip hop label in the south. And Luke dreams up hip-hop’s most shocking stage show.
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S2 Part 1: The Walls Were Sweating
Our story starts with Luke Campbell of the 2 Live Crew getting thrown in jail. Luke wound up in handcuffs because, according to a Florida judge, his music was obscene. To understand how this happened, we have to go back in time to 1980s Miami, to a sweatbox teen disco that birthed a new kind of…
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Introducing Season 2: Miami
In Season 2, Mogul explores the birth of southern hip hop. It all started in Miami with The 2 Live Crew, a group that took rap music and made it faster, harder, and nastier than anything anyone had heard before. The new season returns September 18th.
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Mogul x Dissect with Cole Cuchna
Today, our host Brandon Jenkins sits down with Dissect’s Cole Cuchna. Dissect is a serialized podcast that dives deep into albums by artists such as Kendrick Lamar, Kanye West, and Frank Ocean, forensically dissecting one song per episode. Cole Cuchna joins us to discuss the show’s highlights and...
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Mogul Live: A Night For Reggie Ossé
Back in July we released a tribute to Reggie Ossé, the late host of Mogul. After that episode dropped, we invited Reggie’s friends, family, and colleagues to record a live show at the BRIC Ballroom in Brooklyn. They shared their most personal stories about Reggie—from the time he escaped a block...
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The Life and Times of Reggie Ossé
This episode of Mogul is a tribute to the life and career of Reggie Ossé, who hosted the first season of Mogul. A couple of months after completing the show Reggie was diagnosed with colon cancer and he passed away in December of 2017. We’re going to tell you Reggie’s story — His early days…
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Mogul Live!
Moguls, here it is: The last episode of Season 1. And it’s a classic! Back in August, we recorded a live show at the Highline Ballroom in Manhattan. That night, Reggie chopped it up on stage with Dante Ross, Dave Lighty, Mike Lighty, Déja Lighty, and Tiffany Lighty. They talked about Chris'…
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Behind the Beats: Part 2
On this episode of Behind the Beats, Reggie chats with two Gimlet audio engineers who crafted the sound of Mogul. Haley Shaw and Matthew Boll break down how they built such a vivid world in Mogul by combining sound effects and music with hours of interviews.
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Behind the Beats: Part 1
Welcome to Behind the Beats. In this series, we’ll go behind the scenes to discover how Mogul got its distinct sound. In this first episode, we’ll hear from the three artists who wrote much of the show’s original music: Prince Paul, Don Newkirk and Nana Kwabena.
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Cameo: Russell Simmons and Sophia Chang
This Cameo is from Russell Simmons and Sophia Chang. As one of Def Jam’s co-founders, Russell had a huge impact on Chris’ career, while Sophia was one of Chris’ closest confidants. In this Cameo, they each discuss how they processed the news of Chris’ death, and how the pain of his loss is still...
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S1 Part 6: August 30th, 2012
August 30th, 2012. A day that shook hip hop. Chris Lighty was discovered dead in his Bronx home. The official cause of death: a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. In this episode, we talk to people close to Chris to and try understand what exactly happened that day.NOTE: In this episode…
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Cameo: Uncle Murda
This Cameo is from Uncle Murda. The gritty Brooklyn rapper rose to prominence after dropping a series of mixtapes with titles like Murder Capitol, Respect The Shooter, and Summer Time Shootouts. Just like Fat Joe, 50 Cent, and other artists Chris Lighty worked with, Murda wasn’t putting on an…
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S1 Part 5: How Heavy It Was
In this episode: cold hard cash. Chris Lighty makes a pile of it, and changes the game forever, when he does the biggest deal of his career—getting 50 Cent a piece of Vitamin Water. But soon, instead of swimming in dough...Chris is drowning. CREDITS: Mogul is hosted by Reggie Ossé. This episode…
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Cameo: N.O.R.E.
This Cameo is from N.O.R.E. The Queens native climbed the charts in the 1990s as a rapper, best known for his work in the duo Capone-N-Noreaga. Now, N.O.R.E. is a podcast host, so we went to his studio to talk (and, as it turned out, to drink a lot of alcohol). In this Cameo, N.O.R.E. tells us…
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Cameo: Joan Morgan
This Cameo is from the author and journalist, Joan Morgan. In this exclusive conversation, she shares a few glimpses into what his friendship meant to her — from their shared roots in the Bronx, to the lengths Chris would go to just to chat and catch up. Mixing by Emma Munger.
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S1 Part 4: Gucci Boots
Lighty is at the top of his game. He’s got the fancy Manhattan office, the high-end designer clothes, and a roster of famous clients calling him 24/7. It all looks perfect. But in this episode, we discover something awful going on behind the scenes. WARNING: This episode includes a description of...
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Exclusive: Fat Joe
Fat Joe is one hell of a storyteller. And in this special episode, he drops two great ones. First, the story of how Fat Joe the drug dealer became Fat Joe the rapper. Then, a story he almost never tells— because, as he says, “That's the realest story. I don't tell those stories, because then…
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Cameo: Warren G
This Cameo is from Warren G, who was one of Chris’ first big clients. Warren G shares a story about how Chris went above and beyond the role of manager, to find Warren G’s missing sister in the drug-ridden streets of 1990s Times Square.
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Cameo: Maseo
Welcome to Mogul Cameo. This is a place where we’ll share some of the best stories, jokes, and observations we recorded during the making of Mogul, but were unable to fit into the show. First up is Maseo, who is best known for being one third of the iconic hip hop group, De La Soul. In this…
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S1 Part 3: Rice Pilaf
Chris Lighty meets Warren G. It’s a story of East Coast beats, West Coast grooves, steak dinners and wild parties. Plus, a stand-off with one of hip-hop’s most infamous figures. CREDITS: Mogul is hosted by Reggie Ossé. This episode was produced by Eric Eddings and Meg Driscoll, with help from...
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S1 Part 2: Not Just Me and Snakes
Chris is headed for the big time. Meeting Russell Simmons, landing a job at Def Jam, getting into Queen Latifah’s birthday party—the future looks bright. But before he can get there, he’ll have to prove himself by squeezing eight dudes into a Chevy Corsica that smells like White Castle and farts....
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S1 Part 1: That Beat, That Beat Right There
Let’s start at the end—at a funeral. All the brightest stars in the hip-hop universe are gathered to mourn the death of Chris Lighty. He was their friend, their brother, their late-night confidant, the man who discovered them, or saved their careers, or made them millionaires. He was a hip-hop...
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Trailer
Chris Lighty was a giant in hip-hop. He managed Foxy Brown, Fat Joe, Missy Elliott, Busta Rhymes, LL Cool J, 50 Cent—anyone who was anyone worked with Lighty. But in 2012 he was found dead at his home in the Bronx, a death that left the music world reeling. In this podcast miniseries from Gimlet...
About this show
Mogul is a show about hip hop’s most iconic moments, told by the people who lived them. In Season 3, we’re telling the story of DJ Screw, a reclusive genius who changed the sound of music forever. An auteur who created his own genre — Chopped and Screwed — Screw slowed music down until it sounded like syrup coming out of your speakers. It quickly became the soundtrack to the city of Houston, before influencing an entire generation of rappers. But the man behind the beats was a mystery to all but his closest collaborators, and to this day he remains one of hip-hop’s greatest enigmas.
Hosted by
Gimlet
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