Mogul: The Life And Death Of Chris Lighty

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.

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. 

Today, our host Brandon Jenkins sits down with Dissect’s Cole Cuchna. Dissect is a serialized podcast that dives deep into albums by artists such as Kendrick Lamar, Kanye West, and Frank Ocean, forensically dissecting one song per episode. Cole Cuchna joins us to discuss the show’s highlights and walks us through the production process of Dissect’s newest season, focused on Kendrick Lamar’s critically acclaimed album DAMN.. Stream Dissect now on Spotify.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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

Moguls, here it is: The last episode of Season 1. And it’s a classic! Back in August, we recorded a live show at the Highline Ballroom in Manhattan. That night, Reggie chopped it up on stage with Dante Ross, Dave Lighty, Mike Lighty, Déja Lighty, and Tiffany Lighty. They talked about Chris' legacy as someone who made sure everyone got fed, and dropped more than a few big names along the way. There was also a lively Q&A where the audience got a chance to ask all of the burning questions about the first season of the show. You can hear all those conversations right here.

On this episode of Behind the Beats, Reggie chats with two Gimlet audio engineers who crafted the sound of Mogul. Haley Shaw and Matthew Boll break down how they built such a vivid world in Mogul by combining sound effects and music with hours of interviews.

Welcome to 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 three artists who wrote much of the show’s original music: Prince Paul, Don Newkirk and Nana Kwabena.

This Cameo is from Russell Simmons and Sophia Chang. As one of Def Jam’s co-founders, Russell had a huge impact on Chris’ career, while Sophia was one of Chris’ closest confidants. In this Cameo, they each discuss how they processed the news of Chris’ death, and how the pain of his loss is still present today.Reggie will also tell you about our upcoming live event. On August 10th, Mogul will be at the Highline Ballroom in Manhattan. Expect great conversations, a lively Q&A, and our very own park jam. Tickets are free. To RSVP, go to: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mogul-live-presented-by-gimlet-media-loud-speakers-network-tickets-36670696039

August 30th, 2012. A day that shook hip hop. Chris Lighty was discovered dead in his Bronx home. The official cause of death: a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. In this episode, we talk to people close to Chris to and try understand what exactly happened that day.NOTE: In this episode, we talk about suicide. Please take caution when listening to the show.  If you’re feeling depressed or you just want to talk to someone, you can call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at  1-800-273-8255.