PAY YOUR FRIEND$ with Cipha Sounds

PAY YOUR FRIEND$ with Cipha Sounds

PAY YOUR FRIEND$ is hosted by Cipha Sounds, aka Mr. Very Famous in New York, Mr. Name Droppa, Mr. Don’t Get Gassed. This show is about supporting the people who’ve supported you, reconnecting with old friends, and making new ones along the way. Every episode asks a simple question. How have you helped a friend today? From hip-hop to comedy to life lessons, Pay Your Friends delivers serious things the silly way. Expect real conversations, laughs, and stories you didn’t know you needed. Come for a good time. Stay for a long time. And don’t forget to pay your friends.

Episodes

October 20, 2026 • 64 mins
Comedians Jon Laster and Alex English join Cipha Sounds for a long one that covers a lot of ground. Ciph gets into the Jamaican shower posse and Dudus, how the latest prison news connects back to him, and why he refuses to let people rewrite who Diddy was to an entire generation. The three of them trade stories from the come-up, back when comedy clubs were still trying to sell bottle service at stand-up shows, and get into the hoo...
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Keith Robinson has mentored half the comics working today. He pulls up with Reggie Conquest and Matt Richards to tell Cipha Sounds what the next generation is getting wrong. The group gets into why everything now bends to the algorithm, how marketing and slang keep chasing the youngest people in the room, and why that’s the wrong instinct. Keith makes the case that the kids should be learning from the people who came before ...
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Cipha Sounds hangs out with blues musician Seasick Steve and Matt Richards for a warm, loose conversation that turns into something special. Seasick Steve talks real music, the blues, and life in Norway, then picks up one guitar and plays a song that stops the whole room and gets Ciph emotional. Matt Richards makes live art right there in the studio. Along the way they get into Dave Chappelle's cornfield jam sessions, the Biggie ...
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Cipha Sounds hangs out with producer Statik Selektah, comedian Julio Diaz, and SiriusXM host Destroy for a loose, wide-ranging conversation. They get into Statik's new album and its stacked features, why real hip-hop travels further than any other genre (from New York to a club full of Japanese fans in Fukuoka), reggaeton and bachata's roots in hip-hop, Irish and Puerto Rican heritage, Star Wars versus Star Trek, and plenty of unf...
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Cipha Sounds sits down with his brother Maino — Brooklyn rapper and co-host of the hit podcast Let's Talk About It — to talk about a friendship that goes back more than 15 years. Maino shares the best advice for surviving your first day in jail, plus how he and Ciph really met (fresh out of a 10-year bid), his come-up to hit records like "Hi Hater," why elevation and reinvention are the real flex, and the pushback agai...
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Cipha Sounds hangs out with comedians Brendan Sagalow — hip-hop head and host of Sagdaddy the Pod — and Andre D. Thompson, recorded on 9/11. Ciph takes them behind the scenes of the night before: DJing the NYC Still Rising 9/11 benefit at Madison Square Garden for John Stewart and Dave Chappelle, with Machine Gun Kelly, Pete Davidson, Bill Burr, Nikki Glaser and more. He breaks down the art of reading a comedy crowd on...
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Comedian Talia Romina shows up to the studio with a face full of facial oil after double-dosing NyQuil the night before, squeezing in a workout, and running straight from a 90-minute facial she thought was 50 minutes. Cipha gets the full story. Plus: the war on entitled cyclists in New York, whether being friendly to a waitress counts as flirting, the ultrasound tech who hits on Talia every six months during her liver checkup, and ...
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Comedian Rahul Pandya lasted three days at a healthcare tech startup before getting fired over a Luigi Mangione joke his boss dug up on his social media. Cipha gets the full story. Plus: Cipha reveals he spent 20 minutes charming a woman at a Hollywood Hills party before finding out it was Charli XCX, Tom Cruise tracked him down in a green room to compliment his DJ set, the origin story behind Drake's "Shut Up Janice," why Jay-Z's ...
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Cipha Sounds sits down with Bay Area rapper and producer P-Lo — in New York promoting his new album Out the Box — with comedian Salma Zaky in the room. They get into what it really means to rep the Bay, the region's hip-hop culture and "same squad" spirit, coming up with HBK and Kehlani, how tech changed the Bay the way gentrification changed New York, and the time Dave Chappelle brought P-Lo out at a Super Bowl show. ...
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Cipha Sounds and Rocky Powell break down what actually went down backstage at the Lauryn Hill festival — the Fugees' 30th anniversary reunion with Wyclef Jean, Erykah Badu, Dave Chappelle, Giggs, and more. Ciph tells the full story: flying to London for Dave's shows, thinking he was hosting, ending up playing dominoes in the crowd — and then getting rushed on stage with zero DJ equipment when Lauryn's setup ran long, t...
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Cipha Sounds links up in London with Seepa and Hugo — the guys behind pirate radio crew Kurupt FM from the BBC series People Just Do Nothing — for a deep dive into UK music and why it connects to New York more than Americans realize. They break down the whole family tree — jungle, garage, grime, drum & bass, funky house, drill — and trace it all back to Jamaica and the Jamaica-London-New York-Toronto ...
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Cipha Sounds hangs out with Brooklyn legends Smif-N-Wessun — Tek-N-Steele, aka the Cocoa Brovaz — for a real conversation about old New York, the culture, and staying true after 30 years in the game. They get into the Decepticons and growing up between Brownsville and Bed-Stuy, Sunday rituals and the legendary Tunnel nightclub, how gentrification changed Brooklyn, why the Knicks run brought that old New York energy roa...
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Cipha Sounds sits down with his longtime friend, comedian Derek Gaines, to talk about his new special Goodlum and being "cul-de-sac black" — a good hoodlum from the suburbs who loves hood culture but grew up on the quiet streets. They get into Derek's road from cleaning toll booths on the Garden State Parkway to the Comedy Cellar, the time Bradley Cooper pulled them into his movie outside the club, why kids are dancing and...
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Cipha Sounds sits down with Rick Ross to celebrate 20 years of Port of Miami and the new album Set in Stone. They get into how "Hustlin'" broke on Hot 97, why you've got to go broke a few times to become a real boss, old Miami, and Ciph's ongoing campaign to get Ross to franchise him a Wingstop. Set in Stone is out now.
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Comedian Rob Haze (Atlanta-raised, LA-based) pulls up to the studio and Ciph breaks out the Trump umbrella he jacked 15 years before anybody thought Trump could be president. They get into riders and the mythology of one-time Air Force Ones, why funny makes you better looking, Jamaican patois and dancehall's problematic hits, the masked white nationalists on the DC bus, doxing, Mamdani's first months, the Knicks' championship aft...
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Comedian Ian Lara joins Cipha Sounds and Rocky Powell for the first LIVE episode of PAY YOUR FRIEND$. They get into the Knicks championship run, why old-school NYC energy is back, jazz clubs, dead nightlife, and why Summer 2026 might be the best one yet — plus Ian's confession that he hates all animals.
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Cipha Sounds sits down with London-born, NYC-based DJ and producer Snips (aka Todd Worsnip — founder of Barbershop Records and Livin' Proof) for a deep dive into UK music and how it really connects to New York. Ciph has been championing UK and Caribbean sounds since 1999, and the two of them get into why it never quite breaks through in the States — plus the Jamaica-to-London-to-Brooklyn pipeline that built so much of ...
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On this episode of the "Pay Your Friends" show, host Cipha Sounds brings old and new friends together for an energetic discussion on the many faces of anger. Comedians Nathan Macintosh and Reggie join Cipha to recount their past "on-sight" beef from 2014 and debate everything from the current state of hip-hop and R&B to the frustrations of airline food. Whether they are analyzing viral plane confrontations or discussing why som...
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PAY YOUR FRIEND$ is back and comedian Salma Zaky is back for her third appearance — this time to get a full hip-hop education whether she wants it or not. Cipha quizzes Salma on everything from Jay-Z's name origins to the four pillars of hip-hop, and somehow she keeps landing answers through pure energy and Brooklyn osmosis. Along the way they break down Nas lyrics line by line, decode rapper nicknames, and get into the cur...
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What does it really mean to be FROM New York City? Cipha Sounds, Simeon Goodson, and Lenny Marcus go deep on one of the most hotly debated questions in the city — and it's more than just an address. The conversation kicks off with the Peter Rosenberg and Noreaga hot 97 morning show drama, where Noreaga said it felt good hearing New York voices on New York radio — and Rosenberg, born in Maryland, took it personally. The...
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