Reel Notes w/ CineMasai

My guest this week is California rapper, producer, DJ, and one-half of the group KWAMZAY, ZAYALLCAPS. We spoke about size 8 and up fitted hats, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Space Jam, romantic comedies, Like Mike, Curb Your Enthusiasm, the legacy of Friday, how rap cured his loneliness, going from producing to embracing rapping, Soundcloud remix and mash-up culture, forming KWAMZAY with Kwame Adu, and the c...

My guest this week is New Jersey-based singer, songwriter, and producer Fielded. We spoke about No One Will Save You, Silence of The Lambs, The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, the work of Ari Aster and Todd Solondz, why we’re attracted to dark and disturbing movies, their journey from a musical family to creating the Fielded project, linking with Backwoodz Studioz, and the creative process behind their...

My guest this week is Boston rapper, producer, and saxophonist DiZ. We spoke about The Other Black Woman, Natural Born Killers, Balto, Carmen: A Hip-Hopera, his early beginnings as a musician, figuring out his sound, linking with Ovrkast, juggling a burgeoning music career while studying at Berklee, constantly navigating the line between honesty and oversharing in his writing, and the creative pro...

My guest this week is New York-via-Maine photographer, director, and designer Alexander Richter. We spoke about Top Boy, the James Bond series, how both his parents inspired his early love for film and photography, his career as a music photographer, including stories shooting Sean Price’s Jesus Price album cover and a 50 Cent cover story, his extensive history with billy woods and Backwoodz Studi...

My guest this week is New York rapper, poet, performance artist, and member of the band Poetic Thrust, Nakama. We spoke about They Cloned Tyrone, our favorite recent anime, The Matrix, Pan’s Labyrinth, our feelings on the series finale of Atlanta, his rap origin story, forming Poetic Thrust, his work on the multimedia piece Places, and the creative process behind a handful of projects, including h...

My guest this week is California-based journalist, artist manager, A&R, curator, chef, and musician Walasia Shabazz. We spoke about Kelis’ Cooking with Cannabis, growing up around Hollywood royalty, her family’s roots in film and music, her love for Star Wars and Almost Famous, cheffing for your favorite rappers, her journey through the worlds of music journalism and music management, her rela...

My guest this week is New York rapper Yoh. We spoke about the Portugese show Sintonia, City of God, Bottoms, our mutual love for anime and Hayao Miyazaki, the pros and cons of listing your favorite music or movies, his comeup as a solo act and his role in the band Poetic Thrust, linking with producer and musician CARRTOONS, and the creative process behind his 2016 solo project Tales Over Tea and M...

My guest this week is Chicago rapper SKECH185. We spoke about Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s Bardo, They Cloned Tyrone, his love for A League of Their Own, Juice, and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, how his passion for drawing eventually mingled with his passion for rapping, a brief history of Chicago hip-hop and of the Tomorrow Kings collective, the benefits of regionalism in rap music, his hist...

My guest this week is Los Angeles-based rapper, producer, poet, teacher, and multi-instrumentalist Rhys Langston. We spoke about kung-fu films, Warrior, Jet Li, The Matrix, Monty Python & The Holy Grail, the nature of meta-narratives, balancing entertainment with knowledge, pulling inspiration from Migos and others, and the creative process behind his latest project To Operate This System, pro...

My guests for the first edition of Reel Notes Live!, recorded at Loudmouth Records in Brooklyn, NY, are New Jersey rapper Fatboi Sharif and New York producer/engineer/label head Steel Tipped Dove. We spoke about Oppenheimer, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, the Amazon Prime show Patriot, how film scores and directors inspired Sharif’s writing style, creating images with their words and...

My guest this week is New Jersey rapper and multi-instrumentalist Reg Mason. We spoke about The Bear, Shameless, Oppenheimer, the 2006 comedy Accepted, the art of bootleg DVDs, how School of Rock inspired him to start making music, finding his love for hardcore punk and blog-era hip-hop, the importance of representing New Jersey in his music, keeping an open musical mind as you grow older, and the...

My guest this week is Baltimore-born singer, songwriter, and creative director Joy Postell. We spoke about Netflix’s Ginny & Georgia, The Dark Knight, Stomp The Yard, Love & Basketball, Remember The Titans, her time doing theater in school, finding herself as a solo artist in Los Angeles, how Baltimore, Los Angeles, and New York have influenced her music, the pointlessness of the modern R&...

My guest this week is Atlanta rapper, producer, director, and founder of Awful Records, Father. We spoke about From, Swordfish, The Incredible Mr. Limpet, Dogma, Comedy Central movies,bad dreadlock wigs, the origins of Awful Records, how he creates like a film director, using AI to augment the “Oxenfree” video, and the creative process behind his last two projects Young Hot Ebony 2 and Hu$band 2....

My guest this week is LA-via-New York rapper Radamiz. We spoke about The Idol, Atlanta, Dave, the Dominican horror film Andrea: The Revenge of The Spirit, his journey through hip-hop, his feelings on religion, mortality, and community, and the creative process behind his latest project 2409 West Slauson. Visit Dreadsock.com and use promo code "CINEMASAI" for 10% off your first order! 2409 West Sla...

My guest this week is Atlanta-via-St. Louis rapper-producer Chester Watson. We spoke about Playstation 2 emulators, Snowfall, Everything Everywhere All At Once, Beau is Afraid, The Wiz, films of the New French Extremity movement, longevity in music, being inspired by the modern underground, how his approach to writing has changed over the last decade, the art of the concept album, and the creative...

My guest this week is North Carolina rapper Lord Jah-Monte Ogbon of Melanated People. We spoke about John Wick, marathoning every movie in the Ip Man series in one sitting, a long, winding trip through the movies that defined his childhood and adolescence, how meeting Slim Thug, Paul Wall, and Mike Jones inspired him to take music seriously, finding his voice as a rapper, the benefits of one-produ...

My guest this week is Queens singer, rapper, and producer Kelly Moonstone. We spoke about anime like Mashle, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, and The Disastrous Life of Saiki K., the Goosebumps books, relating to Dory’s neurodivergence in Finding Dory, creating music as The Afr0dite, transitioning to Kelly Moonstone, working with Navy Blue and Jah-Monte Ogbon, and the creative process behind her...

My guest this week is Nashville-based rapper, producer, record store owner, and founder of Ruby Yacht…R.A.P. Ferreira. We spoke about the Netflix series From, the horror genre, getting desensitized to violence, Batman, Beetlejuice, Embrace of The Serpent, The Taste of Tea, the power of music while traveling, how an experience on shrooms changed his outlook on his own music, the difference between...

My guest this week is Brooklyn rapper, producer, singer, and multi-instrumentalist Cisco Swank. We spoke about meeting at Pitchfork Festival, Snowfall, RuPaul’s Drag Race, Akira, The Incredibles, Inception, the magic of movie scores and soundtracks, what the piano means to him, the relationship between jazz, rap, and gospel, and the creative process behind his debut solo album More Better. Visit D...

My guest this week is Arkansas rapper, singer, producer, and designer Kari Faux. We spoke about How To Blow Up A Pipeline, both film versions of The Lion King, Molly Shannon’s Superstar, Kill Bill, why she prefers watching TV shows to movies, how living in Arkansas influenced her music taste, reflecting on “No Small Talk” nearly a decade later, the value of independence, and the creative process b...

My guest this week is Boston-based journalist, archivist, author, A&R, and lecturer Dart Adams. We spoke about the Amazon Prime series The Power, the WGA writer’s strike, Y: The Last Man, Infinity Train, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, the phenomenon of cult films, the impermanence of streaming, how the internet has reshaped ideas of nostalgia and memory, and the importance of physical archiving...

My guest this week is Seattle-via-New York rapper-producer AJ Suede. We spoke about Beef, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, the Nintendo Cinematic Universe, Star Wars, Spike Lee’s Bamboozled, growing up in New York, establishing himself in Seattle, his journey through independent music, linking with R.A.P. Ferrira to form the duo G’s Us, similarities between rappers and journalists, and the creative pr...

My guest for our 100th episode is California-via-Rhode Island rapper and singer JELEEL! We spoke about The Matrix, The Truman Show, Honey, I Shurnk The Kids, wrestling, similarities between wrestling and music, catching that can of Sprite at Rolling Loud,   growing up on Rhode Island, what his own planet would look like, wanting to showcase his range as an artist, and the creative process behind h...

*TW: suicide, self-harm* My guest this week is New York producer Samurai Banana. We spoke about Cocaine Bear, Godzilla and King Kong, The Nightmare Before Christmas, In The Mood For Love, Boards of Canada, how he solidified his love for music while attending film school, the history of the Karma Kids, music as a vehicle for discussion depression, and the creative process and release behind Just Ti...

My guest this week is Detroit rapper, producer, photographer, and manager NOLAN (fka Nolan The Ninja). We spoke about Snowfall, Cocaine Bear, Batman & Robin, Belly, the magic of drive-in theaters, his transition from boom-bap to more vibey music, how the pandemic stalled his momentum, developing SPORTCAST by getting into photography and artist management, and the creative process behind his la...