Reel Notes w/ CineMasai

My guest this week is New Jersey rapper Papo2oo4. We spoke about Titanic, Good Will Hunting, white classics, hood classics, Get Rich Or Die Trying, the lack of imagination in Hollywood, why he prefers realism over fantasy, listening to the youth, inspiration vs. biting, rap regionalism, hot takes about the 90s, and his creative process. Follow Papo2oo4 on Twitter ( @paposwish ) and Instagram ( @pa...

My guest this week is Baltimore-via-Tanzania producer and musician Infinity Knives. We spoke about Ancestry.com, whether hip-hop is political, Severance, Pan’s Labyrinth, our favorite anime, fantasy novels, video games, and comic books, growing up between Tanzania and Madagascar, merging classical music with hip-hop, trusting the process, and the creative process behind he and Brian Ennals’s lates...

My guest this week is Brooklyn-born rapper and one-third of the Flatbush Zombies Meechy Darko. We spoke about Idiocracy, Asian horror films, our favorite bad movies, District 9 and the movies of Neil Blomkamp, how Wu-Tang Clan’s Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) changed his perspective on film and music, the origins and legacy of the Flatbush Zombies, finding new ways to show off his trademark raspy...

My guest this week is New York rapper, producer, streamer, and video editor and director Duncecap. We spoke about Bodies Bodies Bodies, his changing relationship with horror movies, The Cabin In The Woods, opinions on a few retroactively problematic movies, the history of defunct New York rap collective the Karma Kids, the importance of humor in his music, finding his voice as a rapper, producer,...

My guest this week is North Carolina rapper Messiah!. We spoke about Untold: The Girlfriend Who Didn’t Exist, Catfish, reality TV, King Richard, The Rugrats Movie, The Truman Show, the influence of Chief Keef, how ScHoolboy Q’s Oxymoron changed his perspective on music, forming Killswitch with Mavi, ScoSzn, and Ahmir, crafting his style, a melancholic look back on his older music, and the creative...

My guest this week is Detroit producer Apollo Brown. We spoke about Euphoria, Atlanta, Mr. In-Between, Flatliners, The Land Before Time, Steven Spielberg’s debut movie Duel, his personal top 5 movies, discovering hip-hop through DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, Main Source, and The D.O.C., his production aesthetic, the importance of consistency in hip-hop, a handful of his projects, and the c...

My guest this week is Florida-bred rapper, producer, and label head Anonymuz. We spoke about the magic of A24 movies, Spider-Man, superhero fatigue, Willem Dafoe, Silence, the work of Martin Scorsese, One Piece, Hunter x Hunter, the value of art, putting himself in his music, his path to becoming a rapper-producer, the significance of the Radicxl movement, striving to be regular, and the creative...

My guest this week is rapper, producer, Pro Era member, and label head Chuck Strangers. We spoke about Harold’s fried chicken, The Wire, Breaking Bad, White People Can’t Jump, Toy Story, the Friday series, the art of bootleg CDs, how JAY-Z’s “Hard Knock Life” changed his perspective on music, his work with Pro Era, the 10th anniversary of Joey Bada$$’ 1999, and his current position within the rap...

My guest for the mid-season finale is Atlanta rapper Tony Shhnow. We spoke about The Boys, superhero sex, Barry, Soul Plane, Donald Glover’s Atlanta, Futurama, how Wiz Khalifa’s Burn After Rolling changed his life, his prolific release schedule, proving himself as a lyricist, his relationship with his plug, and the creative process behind his latest project Reflexions. Reflexions is available wher...

My guest this week is rapper Tyrxne. We gave our hot takes on The Batman, spoke about his love for The Fifth Element and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Secret of The Ooze, the art of sneaking into movie theaters, the pros and cons of AMC Stubs A-List, listening to Daft Punk and Cassidy, the origins of his original rap name Breeze Embalm, embracing TikTok and rapping in Spanish, and the creative...

My guest this week is Boston rapper, producer, actor, and standup comedian Michael Christmas. We spoke about Father’s Day, Peaky Blinders, Top Boy, Uncut Gems, Ja Rule, horror, Black comedy, Spike Lee, the art of references in rap, respecting The Culture, Van Buren, the Massachusetts rap scene, a handful of his music videos, and the creative process behind he and producer Ricky Felix’s collab proj...

My guest this week is rapper, producer, and graphic designer THERAVADA. We spoke about Bob’s Burgers, The Sopranos, Life Is Beautiful, AMC Stubs A-List, influencer culture, how And1 Basketball helped him appreciate the synergy of rap and film, streetball’s effect on pop culture, video game soundtracks, the importance of archiving, and the creative process behind his latest project My Own 2 Hands....

My guest this week is writer, rapper, producer, and sound designer Pat Junior. We spoke about Logic, Top Boy, Everything Everywhere All At Once, Doctor Strange, the Rush Hour movies, The Fifth Element, Gladiator, our favorite film scores and composers, his relationship to hip-hop and classical music, how he approaches music as a sound designer, the pros and cons of overthinking while writing, and...

My guest this week is producer, rapper, DJ, founder of the blog/label PTP, teacher, and archivist GENG PTP. We spoke about ethics in journalism, The Bob’s Burgers Movie, Ozark, the pros and cons of binging television, the history of Kim’s Video and Music, our relationship with music videos, the skateboarding documentary All The Streets Are Silent, the current underground renaissance, and more anec...

My guest this week is DJ, producer, and co-host of the Yo! MTV Raps revival, Diamond Kuts. We spoke about horror movies, the Child’s Play series, how Disney’s reboot of Maleficent helped her appreciate the relationship between sound and image, her relationship with Nicki Minaj, memories of Nicki’s early career, putting on for female rappers, navigating the world of DJing as a Black woman, being a...

My guest this week is New Jersey rapper, producer, composer, and deadverse label head Will Brooks, lead MC of the group dälek. We spoke about the work of John Singleton and Christopher Nolan, how we unknowingly attended the same screening of The Dark Knight Rises, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind, longevity as an independent musician, what it means to be hip-hop...

My guest this week is Bronx rapper and songwriter Kemba. We spoke about the NBA Street and Def Jam video game franchises, Top Boy, Mr. Robot, rappers-turned-actors, Adam Sandler, Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind, spoiler culture, Eminem, legacy artists, if honesty is a guarantee to making good music, a handful of videos, his upcoming album and screenplay, and his general creative process. Kem...

My guest this week is Seattle rapper Sadistik. We spoke about Everything Everywhere All At Once, The Batman, the films of Gaspar Noe and Lars von Trier, how The Blob and Quentin Tarantino kickstarted his fascination with film, Stephen King adaptations, the benefits of pushing the boundaries of art, his love for New York and Southern rap, the pros and cons of being honest in your music, his creativ...

My guest this week is Tennessee musician, producer, singer, writer, and author V.C.R. aka V The Martian. We spoke about the films of Yorgos Lanthimos, Raised By Wolves, Adult Swim, Smiling Friends, the magic of the Willy Wonka soundtrack, science fiction, Tennessee hip-hop, Lord of The Rings, the importance of the hero’s journey, and the creative process behind her debut album The Chronicles of a...

My guest this week is New York rapper Marcel Allen. We spoke about Shutter Island, Halloween Kills, Scary Movie, his love of horror movies, watching the movie Cornbread, Earl and Me for the first time, our favorite hood movies of all time, his appreciation for every subgenre of rap, getting Havoc and Boldy James on his debut album, his relationship with producers Thelonious Martin and Jacob Roches...

My guest this week is Chicago rapper Vic Spencer. We spoke about Power, The Waterboy, his love for standup comedy, the power of world-building in music and movies, making music during his time in a group home, the legacy of his breakthrough project The Cost of Victory, the idea behind he and rapper-producer Sonnyjim’s Spencer For Higher series, the artist-to-fan relationship, and the creative proc...

My guest this week is Baton Rouge-based rapper Wakai. We spoke about Snowfall, Atlanta, The Wire, Menace II Society, the beauty of local businesses, why binging TV is a privilege, how the video for Kanye West’s “All Falls Down” changed his life, his journey through the hip-hop rabbit hole, how his experience as a film editor has informed his experience as a musician, how COVID affected his approac...

My guest this week is Georgia-born singer, artist, and label head BOSCO. We spoke about Snowfall, Insecure, having her songs featured on Insecure, what sync licensing means, Love & Basketball, Forrest Gump, Raven-Symone, Lauryn Hill, our respective relationships with music and movies as children, founding the creative community Slug, and how it’s influenced her creative process.  BOSCO's lates...

My guest this week is Buffalo rapper/singer/producer Chango4. We spoke about the documentary You Can’t Kill Meme, the prevalence of meme culture on and offline, The Ring, Being John Malkovitch, Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Holy Mountain and Santa Sangre, her fascination with carpentry, the Buffalo music scene, genre-blending, her relationship with rapper-producer way2wavybaby, and her general creative p...

My guest this week is Brooklyn rapper Chelsea Reject. We spoke about the Hulu original movie Fresh, Black Mirror, veganism, the Final Destination series, Dragonball Z, growing up in the church, watching non-secular media in secret, realizing that we both attended New York college SUNY Purchase at the same time, New York hip-hop during the rise of Pro Era, the pros and cons of recording music in 20...