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 in those early years still makes her weak in the knees. In this episode, Kelly talks us through the music that made her, from Tribe Called Quest to Sade to Pebbles to Salt-N-Pepa.

Mogul

Mixtape: Kelly Rowland Meets Her Idol

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 ever wondered how to win a beef, Mouse got you. He takes us back to the early 2000s, to tell us what he learned from one of the most iconic, pettiest, and longest running beefs in Hip Hop history. 

Mixtape: Mouse Jones

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.

Behind The Beats With Nana Kwabena

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.

Behind The Beats With So Wylie

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.

The DJ Uncle Al Experience

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. In this episode: a pimped-out tour bus, a barrel full guns, and a lunchbox full of cocaine.

S2 Part 6: They Call Me Raw

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. 

S2 Part 5: I Hated That Album

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.

S2 Part 4: What's Dirty To You?

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 off the shelves and off the air. When the Crew hits back, it lands them in jail.

S2 Part 3: Splack!

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.

S2 Part 2: Bass Bro, I Love That Shit!

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 hip hop: Miami bass.

S2 Part 1: The Walls Were Sweating

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.

Introducing Season 2: Miami

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 party gone wrong to the day his whole crew got involved in a dance battle. We also reunited the cast of the Combat Jack Show. That’s right: Dallas Penn, Premium Pete, A-King, and Just Blaze, all graced the stage together for this special episode of Mogul.This episode contains music by Reggie's eldest son, Chuma Ossé. He goes by IDKHIM. 

Mogul Live: A Night For 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 growing up a hip-hop head in Brooklyn, his time as a lawyer representing legendary artists like Jay-Z and Dame Dash, and his reinvention as Combat Jack, hip hop’s flagship podcaster.Photo courtesy of RESPECT. magazine, © Musinart LLC, Photographer: Trevor Sage-El

The Life and Times of Reggie Ossé

The first episode of Gimlet’s latest release: Conviction. This investigative series explores the dark truths about the criminal justice system in America and the developing case of Pedro Hernandez. Pedro’s case has gained national attention as an egregious example of systemic police corruption and the failings of the American justice system. As the story unfolds, we are introduced to two complex men: private investigator Manny Gomez and NYPD Detective David Terrell, who are fighting each other in the courts and on the streets, all while claiming to be protecting the innocent and pursuing justice. All episodes available now for free, wherever you get your podcasts.

Introducing Conviction — Part One: The Private Eye

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 Media and Loud Speakers Network, we tell the story of Chris Lighty, from the first breakbeat to the last heartbeat.

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