A panel of appeals court judges has ordered Suffolk County Police to release the 911 call that led authorities to discover 11 bodies near Gilgo Beach a decade ago.

Richard Lutz hears the river flow

Local schoolboy aims to join world elite.

Superstar Osaka to play Nature Valley Classic.

Karolina Pliskova joins star-studded Edgbaston line-up.

Rufus Wainwright, Roddy Woomble and more to play for free.

Local professionals and businesses win at the inaugural Midlands Beauty Industry Awards 2018.

HD Brows add city centre to their list of academies.

Expansion at city centre barbers.

Laurence Inman is not in a hopeful mood, despite receiving good news

The sudden shutdown of all channels of Greece's national broadcasting company by the Greek government is 'unacceptable for an EU democracy', says West Mids and Warks Lib Dem MEP Phil Bennion.

In this week’s episode, Gaz and Liam bring you new music from The Monophonics alongside classic blues, soul, gospel and roots from: Buddy Guy, Odetta, The Lone Bellow, Earl Hooker, Hightower Brothers and Jackie Wilson.

There's also an exclusive Blues Kitchen live session with The Lone Bellow. 

Be sure to check out:

The Blues Chronicles
Bush Hall - London
Thurs 27th 2020
Fri 28th Feb 2020
https://theblueschronicles.com/events/

When you've caught up with the podcast, head over to The Blues Kitchen YouTube channel:
www.youtube.com/BluesKitchenTV

Email the show: radio@theblueskitchen.com

Listen on Apple Podcasts, TuneIn, Mixcloud, Acast & many more…

This week, we talk to Peter Rosenberg, DJ at NYC’s legendary Hot 97. Peter is a co-host of the popular morning show and also has a Sunday night underground program. He’s the host of the game show Hip Hop Squares, runs the popular Noisemakers interview series, and has his own Juan Epstein podcast. He talked to us about his history, the Summer Jam controversy, his definition of “real hip-hop,” and more.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/25/ for full show notes and comments.

To celebrate fifty episodes of Outside the Lines With Rap Genius, we’re bringing you a very special best-of show. Hear the most fascinating moments of our first fifty episodes. Guests include Nas, RZA, Saul Williams, Big Daddy Kane, Jean Grae, Ron Isley, and TONS more!

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/50/ for full show notes and comments.

We talk to author Robert Greene, who’s famous bestseller, The 48 Laws of Power, took ideas from students of legends like Machiavelli and Sun Tzu, and distilled their teachings into simple principles anyone can follow. The book became beloved by rappers like Jay Z, Kanye West, and even 50 Cent, who loved Greene’s work so much that the two ended up writing a book together.

Greene’s latest book, just out in paperback, is Mastery. It focuses on how one can discover and excel at their “life’s work” — the skill that one is uniquely good at. Greene engages with problems in modern day society, thought, and practice through a multi-disciplinary approach, taking each issue on a variety of playing fields — this multi-faceted perspective is part of what makes his opinions so hard-hitting. We talk that magical 10,000 hours moment when the master bypasses logic, the similarities between Napoleon Bonaparte and 50, the decline of empathy in today’s society, his feelings about that famous Richard Sherman interview, and much more.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/61/ for full show notes and comments.

From Broadway stars to legendary DJs to the best of the battle rappers, OTL has hosted a spectrum of voices — each with an individual story to tell. This episode takes us through the very best of OTL — its highs and lows, its most memorable soundbites, and its most resounding voices. Join us as we take you through Part 1 of OTL’s best.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/74/ for full show notes and comments.

From Broadway stars to legendary DJs to the best of the battle rappers, OTL has hosted a spectrum of voices — each with an individual story to tell. This episode takes us through the very best of OTL — its highs and lows, its most memorable soundbites, and its most resounding voices. Join us as we take you through Part 2 of OTL’s best.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/75/ for full show notes and comments.

We speak to the rapping team at the head of the powerful rap/rock group ¡Mayday! – Ben “Wrekonize” Miller and Bernardo “Bernz” Garcia. Since the early 2000s, the band has been delivering powerful music to a growing legion of fans. That fan base was dramatically increased when the Miami group teamed up with Tech N9ne’s Strange Music label a few years ago. The most recent album released by the hardworking collective is a joint project with West Coast legend Murs called, appropriately enough, Mursday.

Wrek and Bernz talk about their career and songwriting process, but also find time to discuss their famous relatives, partying with Lil Wayne, and which group member is best with a slow cooker.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/93/ 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.

Luther Campbell needs no introduction. Since starting his career as a DJ in Miami in the late 1970s, he’s been an innovator musically, culturally, business-wise, and even legally. As the mastermind behind 2 Live Crew, Campbell guided the group’s change from a California-based conscious rap group into a pioneering Southern crew who popularized Miami bass music, and whose raunchy lyrics were often imitated.

It was those same raunchy lyrics that would land Campbell and the group in repeated legal hot water. Luke fought and won legal battles not only for his group’s right to be, as his most popular and controversial record would have it, “as nasty as they wanna be,” but also for record stores’ right to sell his work. He also took a battle to parody songs all the way to the Supreme Court - and won. Simultaneously, he was running the fiercely independent Luke Records, which was for a time the largest black-owned record label in the country, and discovering acts like Poison Klan, Trick Daddy, and Pitbull.

Luke has also been fiercely devoted to the children of his native Liberty City neighborhood, starting a popular youth football league, coaching teams himself, and even running for Mayor of Miami in 2011. His latest venture is a memoir (with Tanner Colby) that covers his wild life and times, as well as the history of his hometown. It’s called The Book of Luke: My Fight for Truth, Justice, and Liberty City, published by Amistad.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/116/ for full show notes and comments.

This week, we talk to Kevin Coval and Nate Marshall. Kevin and Nate, along with Quraysh Ali Lansana, are co-editors of the new poetry anthology The Breakbeat Poets. The book is billed as being “the first poetry anthology by and for the Hip-Hop generation,” and features the work of 78 different poets, representing several different generations of hip-hop fans and practicioners. The book is a first step in creating a Breakbeat Poet movement – a way of bringing the poetics and aesthetics of hip-hop into the world of poetry.

Kevin, who longtime Cipher listeners may remember from his appearance on Episode 52, is the author of many book including Schtick, L-vis Lives: Racemusic Poems, Everyday People and Slingshots: A Hip-Hop Poetica. He is the founder of Louder Than a Bomb: The Chicago Youth Poetry Festival, Artistic Director at Young Chicago Authors, and teaches at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Nate is the author of NAACP Image Award-nominated book Wild Hundreds. He is a founding member of the poetry collective Dark Noise, and is also a rapper.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/137/ for full show notes and comments.

Beans is an underground rap legend, best known for his time as a member of the group Antipop Consortium. He grew up in White Plains, New York and developed a unique abstract, wordy style that made him equally suited to both rap and the thriving New York City spoken word scene of the mid-1990s. Antipop released their debut album Tragic Epilogue in 2000, and followed it up with several other influential and critically beloved releases, including their best known, 2002’s Arrhythmia.

After leaving the group, Beans kept on releasing solo records, while also continuing a career-long habit of collaboration. Over the years, he has worked with the likes of Vernon Reid, DJ Shadow, Arto Lindsay, and many more.

To see a playlist Beans made exclusively for The Cipher of songs that influenced him heavily when he was growing up, click here.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/140/ for full show notes and comments.

Sput is a drummer, keyboardist, and producer who consistently plays with the top acts in the world. Hip-hop fans have heard his work with Snoop Dogg, Timbaland, and Kendrick Lamar. But in addition to that, the Dallas native has played with everyone from Erykah Badu to Celine Dion to his main gig, the instrumental powerhouse band Snarky Puppy.

But back before all that, Sput got his start as a part of Kirk Franklin’s Grammy-winning group God’s Property, which he played in as a teenager - and whose lineup, incidentally, was a who’s-who of future star musicians.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/155/ for full show notes and comments.

Robert is a pianist and producer who has straddled the worlds of jazz, r&b, and hip-hop his entire career. He has toured and recorded with the likes of Q-Tip, Kanye West, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar, Lupe Fiasco, and countless others. He has also been a key collaborator with his college buddy, the singer Bilal, and has won several r&b Grammys. But he first earned his musical stripes as a jazz player, releasing albums on the iconic jazz label Blue Note Records.

But no matter what genre he’s playing in, or what band he’s working with, Glasper brings his unique style, knowledge, and passion to anything he’s working on. His most recent album, with the Robert Glasper Experiment, is ArtScience.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/174/ for full show notes and comments.

Ben Westhoff is an award-winning journalist and hip-hop contributor who has worked for almost every major media outlet: the Guardian, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, Vice, NPR, L.A. Weekly, the Wall Street Journal, and more. He wrote the 2011 book Dirty South: OutKast, Lil Wayne, Soulja Boy, and the Southern Rappers Who Reinvented Hip-Hop.

But none of that is why we wanted to talk to him. Westhoff’s new book is Original Gangstas: The Untold Story of Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, Ice Cube, Tupac Shakur, and the Birth of West Coast Rap. As the title implies, it tells the whole story of rap in Los Angeles and beyond, from the birth of the scene in the 1980s through the tragic deaths of Tupac, Biggie, and Eazy-E over a decade later. The book is fascinating and exhaustive, with tons of never-before-reported information about the lives and careers of the scene’s key players.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/177/ 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.

Sage Francis and B. Dolan are both from Providence, are both rappers who have roots in spoken word, have toured and sporadically recorded together for years, and even share a label—the Sage-founded Strange Famous Records. But it has taken them until 2018 to release a full project as a duo: the Epic Beard Men.

Sage is a beloved underground rap veteran who has been releasing albums of his smart, introspective, and emotional music consistently since 2002, and touring the universe maniacally to support them—all while running Strange Famous. B. Dolan is an equally talented wordsmith whose solo work is as likely to give new life to old union hymn as it is to pay tribute to the Ol’ Dirty Bastard. The group has a new EP, Season 1, and an album on the way.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/234/ for full show notes and comments.

Birmingham conference aims to improve arts access for disabled youngsters.

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

This podcast is brought to you by:

Onnit.com. Use Promo code CHURCH for a discount at checkout.

Hulu Plus. Visit Huluplus.com/joey for an extended free trial.

Dollar Shave Club. Use promo code CHURCH and get high quality razors sent to your door.

Escapepodtank.com Mention Joey or the Church and get $250 off.

Recorded live on 03/24/2014.

Betty Page of the Famous Bunny Ranch calls in to Joey Diaz and Lee Syatt.

This podcast is brought to you by:

Onnit.com. Use Promo code CHURCH for a discount at checkout.

Nature Box. Visit Naturebox.com and use promo code Joey for a free trial box

Naileditlife.com - Get 20% off a vapor pen by mentioning the Church.

Meundies.com Go to meundies.com/joey for 20% off.

Recorded live on 10/01/2014.

Music:

AC/DC - Soul Stripper

Hector Lavoe - Todo Tiene Su Final

Billy Corben, Director of "The U: Part 2 and many more amazing documentaries, calls in to Joey Diaz and Lee Syatt.

This podcast is brought to you by:

Onnit.com. Use Promo code CHURCH for a 10% discount at checkout.

Iron Dragon TV. A New Roku channel with all the best martial arts films. Use Code word joey for two free rentals.

HITecigs.com For a better tasting, longer lasting e cig go to HITecigs.com. Use Promo code joeyschurch for a 20% discount

Naileditlife.com - Get 20% off a vapor pen by using code word joeydiaz.

Tom Segura, Comedian and Co-Host of the "Your Mom's House" podcast, and Bert Kreischer, Comedian and Host of Trip Flip on Travel Channel whos season premier is June 2nd at 8pm. joins Joey Diaz and Lee Syatt live in studio.

This podcast is brought to you by:

Onnit.com. Use Promo code CHURCH for a 10% discount at checkout.

Iron Dragon TV. A New Roku channel with all the best martial arts films. Use Code word joey for two free rentals.

HITecigs.com For a better tasting, longer lasting e cig go to HITecigs.com. Use Promo code joeyschurch for five Hit E Cig's for $50

Naileditlife.com - Get 20% off a vapor pen by using code word joeydiaz.

Bert Kreischer, Comedian and Host of the "Bertcast" podcast, joins Joey Diaz and Lee Syatt live in studio.

This podcast is brought to you by:

Meundies.com Go to meundies.com/joey for 20% off of your first order plus free shipping in the US and Canada.

Onnit.com. Use Promo code CHURCH for a 10%discount at checkout.

Recorded live on 12/02/2015.

Music:

The B-52's - Dr. Private Idaho

The B-52's - Rock Lobster

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - A Woman in Love

Belisa Vranich, PsyD, is a renowned clinical psychologist, author, and public speaker and the creator of The Breathing Class joins Joey Diaz and Lee Syatt live in studio!

Visit http://thebreathingclass.com/ to learn more!

This podcast is brought to you by:

Owen Benjamin, Comedian, actor, and host of the "Why Didn't They Laugh" podcast joins joins Joey Diaz and Lee Syatt live in studio. 

Alberto Crane, the first American to recieve a black belt from the Gracie Barra Academy and Owner of Legacy Jiu Jitsu in Burbank joins joins Joey Diaz and Lee Syatt live in studio. 

This podcast is brought to you by:

Jimmy Shubert, comedian and actor seen on "Last Comic Standing" and "The King Of Queens", joins Joey Diaz and Lee Syatt live in studio.

This podcast is brought to you by:

Dr. Belisa Vranich, author of "Breathe", and the creator of The Breathing Class joins Joey Diaz and Lee Syatt live in studio!

Visit http://thebreathingclass.com/ to learn more!

This podcast is brought to you by: